Attempts to recruit kids into hunting have been a priority for the Department of Natural Resources and private conservation groups for more than a decade. Time is not an ally in the effort: The average age of Minnesota hunters and those nationwide is creeping ever upward, and before long the whole bunch will be drawing Social Security checks.
Worthwhile as bureaucratic and corporate efforts can be to bring youngsters into the hunting fold, they're no substitute for parents or other relatives (or trusted friends) taking a kid into the field.
Yet even in those cases no guarantee exists that a young boy or girl will want to pursue the field sports for a lifetime. Some will; some won't. As with other activities, interest in hunting, fishing and similar participatory activities will vary from individual to individual.
Kyle Larson of Maple Grove knew as much the first time he took his daughter, Lydia, 11, into the field.
"I think she was 3 years old,'' Larson said. "I was goose hunting, and she had her [protective] head phones on. We really had fun.''
Larson himself never had an opportunity to hunt with his dad.
"I always wanted to try it when I was a kid,'' he said. "But my dad had quit hunting by the time I got old enough. So some buddies and I took firearms safety together. My brother hunted, and I went with him and an uncle. I loved it.''
As part of its effort to lower or remove barriers that prevent kids from trying hunting, the Legislature in recent years allowed 10- and 11-year-olds to hunt deer without first passing a firearms safety course (previously, deer hunters in Minnesota had to be at least at 12 years old).
