Recruitment, Retention, and Reactivation (R3)

The importance of hunters, anglers, sport shooters, and archers goes beyond the simple imperative of keeping alive these venerated American traditions; each year, participants in the four activities, through their purchases of licenses and sporting equipment, contribute hundreds of millions of dollars in essential funding for fish and wildlife conservation, including species recovery, habitat improvements, and other critical work carried out by agencies and organizations across the country. Any decline in hunting, fishing, sport shooting, and archery would directly translate into diminished funding and material support for fish and wildlife management activities that benefit all Americans.

As a result, the need for organized and data-driven recruitment, retention, and reactivation efforts (collectively known as “R3”)—including programs, outreach initiatives, and other strategies to recruit, retain, and reactivate sportsmen and women—has never been more important.

Current trends in hunting, fishing, sport shooting, and archery reinforce the need for concerted and ongoing R3 initiatives. Perhaps the greatest challenge for R3 specialists will be to stem the decline in hunting participation, which has been continuing fairly consistently since the early 1980s. The trend regarding fishing is similar, with most data sources indicating a long-term and gradual decline in participation. (It should be noted that a few sources paint a marginally more optimistic picture for fishing, showing instead a generally flat trend line in participation.)

Sport shooting and archery, on the other hand, appear to be on the rise. With many data sources suggesting recent gains in sport shooting and archery participation, the challenge regarding these activities is different but equally important: keep up the momentum by ensuring that the upward trend continues.

While efforts to ensure healthy participation in hunting, fishing, sport shooting, and archery have long been a priority for fish and wildlife agencies and others in the conservation community, the past decade has seen a marked increase not only in R3 implementation but also in the science of how to plan and develop R3 initiatives in the most effective ways. Evidence of the growing consideration given to R3 efforts can be seen in the shift from the original widely used phrase “recruitment and retention” (or “R&R”) to “R3,” with the latter term now encompassing “reactivation” efforts targeting individuals who have lapsed out of the activities. This explicit broadening of focus suggests that agencies, organizations, and industry groups are increasingly segmenting and targeting their efforts in more deliberate ways.

The growing prominence of R3 objectives within agency priorities, including recognition of the need to coordinate initiatives in a methodical and scientific manner, has culminated in the recent development of a national R3 plan by the Council to Advance Hunting and the Shooting Sports and the Wildlife Management Institute. To complement this plan, Responsive Management recently produced Hunting, Fishing, Sport Shooting, and Archery Recruitment, Retention, and Reactivation: A Practitioner’s Guide, a resource of the most essential and up-to-date R3 research findings.

Responsive Management’s recent R3 projects include the following: