The United States has been experiencing a noticeable decrease in youth licensed hunting and fishing. According to Wildlifeforall.us, hunting licenses have lessened by 13.5% and fishing licenses by 62.3%. The major reductions are projected to grow steadily.
Although youth game and fish are decreasing nationally, North Dakota’s numbers are slightly growing. Since 2016, North Dakotan hunters, ages 16 through 24, have increased.
“North Dakota is a rural community, and most people, years back, were probably involved in hunting and fishing in some way,” Bismarck Public Schools special education teacher and owner/producer of Ultimate Outdoor Adventures John Arman said.“We don’t have a lot of the outside influences some of these other, bigger states have with the amount of city people that are against it (hunting and fishing).”
North Dakota Game and Fish (NDGF) organizes multiple youth programs like the high school clay target leagues and the National Archery in the School Programs (NASP). They administer the hunter education program, provide grants for youth hunting clubs and offer special youth licenses and seasons.
“The Department is always looking for ways to recruit, retain and reactivate hunters and anglers,” North Dakota Game and Fish Department R3 Coordinator Cayla Bendal said.
Although game and fishing sports are becoming less popular, wildlife shows are grabbing more attention than ever before. Arman has been producing Ultimate Outdoor Adventures for the past 17 seasons. His TV episodes showcase both hunting and fishing with all ages enjoying everything nature has to offer in a safe, and respectful way.
“There’s no closer way to be to nature than honestly, when you take an animal’s life,” Arman said. “You’ll know what the circle of life is all about.”
Ultimate Outdoor Adventures is available on Kfyr, Ko TV channel located in Minneapolis, West Dakota Fox on weekends, and, for younger audiences, YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook.
“The majority of our viewers are men, 35 to 65, but it’s surprising how many women watch the show,” Arman said. “I don’t think we have as many kids nowadays as we did when we first started, but that’s why I put shows on YouTube.”
On the show, Arman films the whole process. He shares little things like packing the gear, going on road trips, where they are staying, etc. The hunts Arman goes on are not expensive. He tries to demonstrate the little to no difficulty it takes to spend the weekend hunting.
“Most of our hunts are done on weekends because we all work. So we try to show everybody else what they could be doing on the weekends,” Arman said. “It doesn’t take a lot of money, because the hunts we go on are not high-dollar hunts. We do mostly everything by ourselves.”
Not only does Arman film a show, but he also conducts a summertime bow camp called Raised at Full Draw. The camp certifies bow hunters ages 11 through 18.
“We started it about 13 years ago in Iowa with a good friend of mine, David Holder,” Arman said.
Five years ago, Arman expanded the camp to Bismarck.
“We teach them how to bow hunt, and they get certified to bow hunters education like you can through the Game and Fish, but we do it,” Arman said.
Today, Arman feels that youth populations are less encouraged to hunt because of the false stigma that projects hunting negatively. He thinks corporations like People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) prevent people from giving it a fair shot.
“I think a lot of people have a misconception about hunters being bloodthirsty killers,” Arman said. “There’s more organizations that attack hunters, and they attack them not knowing what they’re doing.”
Oftentimes, the kids Arman is teaching are more focused on their phones or what else is going on in the world instead of focusing on the field in front of them. Arman values the kids he gets to teach, but he believes today’s norms are a serious setback for wildlife education.
“Hunting is not just about killing an animal, there’s so much more that goes into it,” Arman said. “I don’t force them to want to hunt, I just explain to them why we hunt.”
Arman would like to see hunter and gun safety education taught in schools. He believes it is a necessary life skill, even if a student does not want to hunt or fish.
“I would love to see the hunter’s education program mandatory in every school so that the kids would learn about guns, and learn about safety,” Aramn said. “They don’t have to ever hunt, but if they ever ran across a gun or anything like that, they would know what to do with it, and I think it would just be a great program to get kids more exposed to the outdoors.”