Hunting, Fishing, Sport Shooting, and Archery Recruitment, Retention, and Reactivation: A Practitioner’s Guide (2017)

The last century has seen a multitude of wildlife conservation success stories thanks to the efforts of the professional fish and wildlife management community. The restoration of once depleted species such as the white-tailed deer, wild turkey, bald eagle, wood duck, and Rocky Mountain elk, to name only a few, was no accident, nor was it the result of guesswork or management through blind optimism. Rather, these once-struggling populations successfully rebounded because biologists and resource managers applied scientific principles dictated by the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation.

The same governing principle—the use of sound science to dictate policy—also applies to the work now being done to increase participation in and support for hunting, fishing, sport shooting, and archery: R3 (recruitment, retention, and reactivation) efforts must be based on high-quality research and a solid foundation of fact.

Over the past three years, Responsive Management and the National Shooting Sports Foundation reviewed hundreds of research papers and reports related to hunting, fishing, sport shooting, and archery participation in order to distill the most salient findings and lessons learned.

The resulting handbook, Hunting, Fishing, Sport Shooting, and Archery Recruitment, Retention, and Reactivation: A Practitioner’s Guide, is the first-ever document to summarize in a single volume the most essential and up-to-date research for R3 efforts.

Today, the need for organized and data-driven R3 efforts—including programs, outreach initiatives, and other strategies to recruit, retain, and reactivate sportsmen and women—has never been more important. The handbook, through this extensive research review and a corresponding list of action items based on the findings, is presented as a roadmap for members of the fish and wildlife management community to use as they navigate a terrain whose obstacles range from the social and demographic to the structural and technological.

Rather than exist as a stand-alone effort, the handbook builds on the work being done by other professionals in the fish and wildlife management community. Specifically, the handbook was envisioned and developed as a resource in support of the National Hunting and Shooting Sports Action Plan, a collaborative effort of the Council to Advance Hunting and the Shooting Sports and the Wildlife Management Institute. The National Hunting and Shooting Sports Action Plan details a series of actionable topics addressing various R3 aspects, from program design and skills training to planning among partners and the need to improve cultural acceptance of hunting and the shooting sports. Each actionable topic forms the basis of a chapter in the handbook (along with a chapter on participation in the four activities), which in turn provides research and recommendations in direct response to the topic as identified in the National Action Plan.

Also included throughout the handbook are vignettes that have been provided by various professionals throughout the R3 community. These vignettes address topics and concepts covered throughout the handbook by way of specific case studies—they are real-life, on-the-ground examples of how R3 challenges have been met on the practical level. In short, the vignettes bring the research to life.

Contact Responsive Management to obtain a copy of the handbook.