A week from now — next Sunday — Julia Schrenkler will pilot her VW bus southwest of the Twin Cities with Wren, her German shorthaired pointer, riding shotgun.
Schrenkler's 2016 Minnesota pheasant opener will be delayed 24 hours because her work as a Minnesota Public Radio senior digital producer will keep her in the Twin Cities on the season's first day.
"We'll be streaming 'Prairie Home Companion' live Saturday night, and I'll be helping with that," she said.
That hunters have reached out in recent years to non-hunters in hopes of stemming the thinning of hunting's ranks caused by urbanization and other societal changes is widely known.
Kids from non-hunting families have been particularly sought-after, as have youngsters from single-parent families. Both groups, it's believed, harbor potential hunters, male and female, if they can be exposed firsthand to the experience of sitting in a blind on a cool morning awaiting a flight of ducks, or climbing into a deer stand hoping to see a whitetail.
Some of these efforts have indeed helped develop new hunters. Others have not, in part because conversions from non-hunter to hunter frequently require more than a single exposure to an activity that can at times seem complex.
Schrenkler, 47, of St. Paul, knows the feeling. She grew up in Maplewood, and while she fished recreationally throughout her life, and hiked and otherwise spent considerable time outdoors, she never hunted.
Until a few years ago.