In The absence of Organized sports people are redicovering the outdoors

[Happy]

Have the hikers, birdy watchers, and tree huggers pay a yearly fee to get an access pass onto public lands. Hunters shouldn't be the only ones paying

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Georgia did that a few years and now horse riders and bikers are welcome and disrupt a lot of the hunting.

Be careful on what you wish for, they contribute very little overall but have equal rights for usage.

Yep!  And once you open the side door to them paying their way, they'll expect more and more. They'll want zones and times set aside for their exclusive uses. Opportunities to hike, bike and ride horses and never have to encounter us hunters. Our hunting lands will become more like national parks.

That's a distinct possibility gentlemen. However around here people can be in the woods anytime they want so I dont see making them pay a fee to really have much of a draw back. I could be wrong but I would suspect it might thin them out a bit. Another thing is that most of the yuppies would have a panic attack if they ventured off of the main trail so their hunt interference woukd mess with most of the serious fellows

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[AppalachianHollers]

Time will tell, but with COVID potentially becoming a seasonal disease in the future, there may never be a "normal" again. There may not be a surge like what we saw in the spring and this summer, but there will likely be a net gain in revenues and participating, reversing the downward trend.

It's good if agencies decide they can stick with relying on monetizing sportsmen's use of public lands as the primary source of funding. Otherwise, as others have speculated above, hunting rights could be limited over time if granola-eaters gradually supplant sportsmen's share of contributions.


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[deerhunt1988]

On a related note to non-consumptive users paying their way, some new changes for Colorado state wildlife areas:

Hunting, fishing licenses required (even if you don't hunt or fish) for hundreds of Colorado wildlife areas
Rule approved last month applies to State Wildlife Areas and State Trust Lands, which can contain popular stretches for boating and other recreation

https://coloradosun.com/2020/06/25/hunting-fishing-licenses-colorado-state-wildlife-areas/



The above is good, but also has some 'bad'. The 'bad' being those users will eventually have some say in how the areas are managed and there is a good chance their 'say' won't always align with hunter beliefs and even sound wildlife science.

[Ctrize]

So true, I tried to help my nephew out by pointing him to a spot that holds turkeys on public.
He calls me and says Uncle Ted I don't hear anything.I tell him to try another spot but he would not drive his new lease truck through the mud hole to get there.So be it the kid missed out in some good hunting.

[LaLongbeard]

National forest land is already paid for by all of us rather you hug the trees when your there or sit next to them, or even if your scared to get out of your Honda civic and prefer to just wave at the trees as you go buy. No turkey hunter recruitment will help or hurt this fact. Hikers, campers nature weirdos are already using the NF. You haven't hunted the NE very much if you haven't seen an obese woman squealing with delight   at finding a mushroom while your trying to work a Gobbler lol and I doubt they contribute much to the upkeep of the land.
     Tell me how adding Turkey hunters to the already crowded land would help the turkey. Unless your hunting and living in one of the Super liberal weirdo populated states like California or Washington when's the last time a group of tree hugging vegans tried to stop turkey hunting? The last attempt at stoping some form of hunting was baiting bears or hound hunting bears and mountain lion hunting. There is no organized boogeyman group trying to stop turkey hunting. If you sell hunting related products then yes you need more hunters if you need more likes or subscribes to your utube channel so you aren't forced to get a real job then yes you need more hunters. If you hunt 4 weekends out of the season sitting in a blind on private land you need something but it ain't more Turkey hunters lol.