New target: Women hunters

MORA, MINN. -- b>After a half-century of frigid November mornings passed in deer stands with a vintage .308 Remington cradled in her arms, Ruth Magnuson, 72, was putting her hunting experience to use last week, nurturing eager students.

This was not a collection of 12-year-olds hoping to pass a firearms safety class, but more than three dozen girls and women attending the first Minnesota Department of Natural Resources adult hunting clinic.

With its focus on women, the outing was a fresh take on an effort by the agency to get Minnesotans outdoors and bolster the declining number of hunters. Though they are roughly half the population, women represent only a small fraction of its game seekers.

Throughout the day, the women - and one man - sauntered among rolling pastures and woodlots, beneath cobalt skies, and punched holes in targets using arrows, bullets and shotgun slugs.

And enjoyed it.

"I want to join in on the food chain," said Anita Squire, 39, of Brooklyn Center.

The topic at Mora last week was hunting, but another clinic concluding today near Hackensack is called "Becoming an Outdoors Family," and its focus is on camping, canoeing and fishing.

Nationwide, visits to national parks are down. In Minnesota, fishing-license sales have fallen off and boat use has declined.

The numbers have the DNR contemplating not only how to appeal to women, but also why they don't hunt as frequently as men.

Social conditioning is one reason, research has found, and lack of opportunity another.

Also, adult women seem to learn differently than men.

Said Magnuson, "Women can learn from other women, and even men who aren't related to them, but shouldn't be taught about hunting and fishing by their husbands or boyfriends.

"It just doesn't work."

Peggy Farrell of the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, director of the program Becoming an Outdoors Woman (BOW), founded in 1991, agrees.

"In general, women as adult learners prefer a supportive atmosphere, as opposed to a competitive atmosphere," Farrell said. "This is different from the way men often learn."

This realization -- call it a mantra -- has fueled the growth of BOW. The program today is promoted by natural resource agencies in more than 40 states, none more enthusiastically, perhaps, than Minnesota, where BOW workshops offer lessons not only in hunting and fishing, including fly fishing, but also dog mushing, skiing, horseback riding, canoeing, snowmobiling and ATV riding, among other activities.

"Some people think the shooting sports aren't womanly. But they must be -- so many of us are involved with them, and we do well," said Betty Wilkens.

As she spoke, Wilkens surveyed the 270-acre farm near Mora that she and her husband, Dan, made available to the DNR for the clinic.

Considered by some to be the grande dame of hunter education in Minnesota, Wilkens was born in New York City. A chemist who married an electrical engineer, she and her husband owned their farm, which lies not far from where Dan Wilkens grew up, since 1972.

Some years, Betty Wilkens kills four deer. Other years, just one. "It depends on the population," she said.

This fall, as in the previous six autumns, she and her husband will open their farm to select groups of youth and women hunters. For women, finding a place to hunt can be a barrier to participation, she said.

"The women come here and stay the weekend," she said. "We keep costs down -- to about $90 for everything -- and provide guides for each hunter. We have a lot of fun."

Wilkens spoke not far from one of the clinic's half-dozen or so teaching stations, where Barb Becker of Forest Lake drew down on a target with a crossbow.

A shoulder injury prevents her from using a conventional bow, she said. She has a special DNR permit allowing her to hunt with her crossbow.

Becker learned about the adult hunting clinic while reading the DNR web site.

"My husband hunts, but I was looking for other women to socialize with, and to enjoy the camaraderie," she said. "I hunt with my husband and kids. But being with women is different. You can ask questions without feeling stupid."

According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, about 1 percent of hunters nationwide are women. In Minnesota, that figure is closer to 9 percent, according to the DNR.

Of these, about 90 percent hunt deer, with the others generally split among turkey, grouse, duck, pheasant and other bird hunting.

Nationwide, BOW is often endorsed and staffed (at varying levels, and often with minimal budgets) by natural-resource agencies looking to shore up ranks of hunters and anglers, or otherwise boost support for the outdoors.

DNR employee Linda Bylander coordinates Minnesota's BOW program. She works three-quarters time, with a budget of $10,000 per year -- up from zero a few years back.

"It's true that most state agencies use BOW to help build support for its programs," she said. "But women who attend our programs are less interested in that big picture than they are in learning how to hunt or fish or paddle a canoe or trailer a boat."

The opportunity to develop those skills among women is BOW's linchpin, Bylander said.

But the program's reach is limited. Most of its teachers are volunteers (though some are DNR employees), and holding down the mentor-to-student ratio restricts participation.

Some states, such as California, have begun lotteries to assign entry preference to BOW workshops.

Last year, about 1,400 Minnesota women participated in BOW events, including "Beyond BOW" classes that allow participants to focus in-depth on single topics, such as fly-tying.

Whether the effort will add significantly to the number of Minnesota hunters, anglers or other outdoors enthusiasts is unknown. In fact, women purchasing hunting licenses between 2000 and 2006 actually declined, as did the number of men purchasing those licenses.

In that period, licenses held by women age 25-50 -- a prime target audience for BOW -- fell by more than 8,000.

But DNR big-game manager Lou Cornicelli said the decline wasn't "real" and should be discounted.

"It's our belief many of the 'women' who bought licenses in 2000 and before never really existed," Cornicelli said. "It was men buying deer licenses for their wives, who were in fact not hunters. The licenses were then used [illegally] by the men to tag deer."

After the state allowed hunters to tag two or more deer, the phantom licenses disappeared, Cornicelli said.

Indeed, according to the National Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association, 72 percent more women hunted in the U.S. in 2005 than in 2001. Women bow hunters, the group said, increased 176 percent in that period.

Bow hunting is 'better'

Chantel Buetow, 15, of Moose Lake, knows the benefits of mentoring. She was driven to the hunting clinic in Mora by a relative, Pam Danielson, 47, of Barnum, and was given a bow two years ago by her dad and a friend of his.

"I like bow hunting better than rifle hunting because I feel more connected to what I'm doing," she said.

Buetow and others might represent hunting's future, Betty Wilkens believes, and possibly its survival.

"Women are the untapped potential," she said. "Once you teach women about hunting and fishing, when they go afield, they'll bring their kids with them.

"Not just their daughters. But their sons, too."

Dennis Anderson • 612-673-4424

Dennis Anderson • danderson@startribune.com