TROY, Ala. — Nancy Adams has made a habit of being in the woods well before dawn these past few weeks, taking part in Alabama's spring hunting season for turkey.
Adams, a 43-year-old law student, is part of the changing face of hunting across the USA.
According to a recent National Survey of Hunting, Fishing and Wildlife Associated Recreation done by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, there has been an 11% decline in the number of hunters nationwide from 1991 to 2006.
As a partial response to that decline, many states are trying to attract more women to the sport, and the effort is showing signs of success.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife survey published in 2007 shows that the number of female hunters, about 10% of the nation's 12.5 million hunters, has grown slightly since 1991, but it showed significant growth among the youngest female hunters.
According to the survey, 304,000 girls ages 6 to 15 hunted from 2001 through 2006 - a 50% increase in the number of young girls hunting from 1991 through 1996.
Caitlin Thompson, 14, of Albany, Ga., is one of those new, young hunters. In the past year she hunted small game and deer with her dad, Allen, and older brother J.D.
"Daddy and J.D. are always going out in the woods," she says. "If it's not hunting season, they are at the hunting club building stands and blinds or working on the camp house. I wanted to see what it was all about."
For Adams, whose husband co-manages a commercial hunting lodge in Pike County, which includes Troy, the kill also isn't the driving factor in her hunts.
"Hunting has given me a confidence I haven't had before," she says. "I wish I had grown up hunting. You don't have to harvest an animal to have a successful hunt. I love being in the woods before the sun comes up. You hear the birds start chirping, and just before the sun comes over the horizon, you can almost feel the earth waking up. I love being outside; I love seeing nature."
Wildlife should be "respected and protected," not hunted and killed, says Heidi Prescott, senior vice president of campaigns for the Humane Society of the United States.
"It is pathetic to portray what in reality is a mass exodus from hunting as a victory when the statistics only show that the number of woman hunters is declining at a slower rate than men," she says. "There are many conservation organizations including groups like the Wildlife Land Trust, Sierra Club, and the Nature Conservancy that engage in habitat protection. Activities such as camping, hiking, wildlife watching and photography are ways to enjoy the outdoors that don't involve killing wildlife."
States across the USA have adopted a program called Becoming an Outdoors Woman (BOW) to attract more women to the outdoors.
The program introduces women to shooting, hunting, fishing, hiking, bird watching and outdoor photography. Adams attended a BOW class in October 2006.
The program, which began in Wisconsin in 1991, had grown to 41 states, five Canadian provinces and New Zealand by the end of 2007, according to Peggy Farrell, director of the International and Wisconsin BOW Programs. About 15,000 women take part in BOW programs each year, Farrell says.
The impact of female hunters is "far greater" than their numbers, says Sylvia Payne, director of the Alabama BOW program.
"If you teach a man to hunt, he goes hunting," she says. "If you teach a woman to hunt, the entire family goes hunting. Bringing women into the sport helps us reach so many more people. Children who are brought up hunting will likely pursue the activity for their entire lives."
Licensed hunters also are key to conservation efforts, says Gary Moody, wildlife division chief for the Alabama game department. Most state game departments receive most of their funding from federal excise taxes on the sale of firearms and ammunition.
"You don't have to hunt to enjoy the benefits of what hunters do," Moody says. "Our conservation efforts are funded in large part by licensed hunters. If you like watching wildlife, if you enjoy seeing a bald eagle flying, thank a hunter. It's their efforts that allow conservation and preservation efforts to take place all over the country."
Conservation efforts shouldn't include "killing the animals you are trying to protect," says Nicole Matthews, a spokeswoman for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).
"You don't have to shoot animals or cause them pain to help them," Matthews says. "There are more peaceful ways to learn to appreciate the outdoors. We need to teach our children especially that they can enjoy nature through activities like bird watching and hiking. While the number of hunters is decreasing in the country each year, the number of people taking part in outdoor activities is increasing. There are numerous ways people of all ages can take part in enjoying the outdoors that don't include injuring or killing animals."
