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It started with billboards and mail ads, then eventually included radio promotions. Last month, the campaign kicked into high gear, as the DNR mailed 40,000 postcards to anglers who bought licenses in previous years but not in 2007. Another 5,000 postcards went to anglers who bought licenses last year.
This week, the DNR counted down the days to Saturday’s opener on electronic billboards. The campaign is part of the DNR’s effort to address a national trend of declining participation in outdoor activities.
“Nationally, there’s a growing concern that everyone, especially kids, are increasingly disconnected with nature,” said Jenifer Matthees, coordinator for the DNR’s angler retention project. “Anecdotally, we feel everybody is overscheduled. People maybe realize they want more time with their kids, and maybe this is one of the ways of doing that.”
DNR Fish and Wildlife Division Outreach Chief C.B. Bylander said that compared with the rest of the country, Minnesota does a decent job of retaining anglers.
Nationwide, the number of people who fish dropped from 35 million to 30 million between 1996 and 2006, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Minnesota’s numbers have held steady at about 1.2 million over the past two decades. But when looking at the state’s growing population, the percentage of anglers in Minnesota dropped from 39 percent in 1988 to 29 percent in 2006.
The biggest decline has been seen among people between ages 16 and 44.
Over the years, the baby-boom generation “fueled so much of the license-buying and fishing,” Bylander said. But that will change in coming years.
“We’re just not recruiting youth in the numbers that we did in the past,” Bylander said. “As the boomers head out, potentially down the road, there could be far fewer fishermen.”
Fees generated by licenses and taxes on equipment help fund fish and wildlife conservation efforts — so fewer anglers means less income for natural resources. The DNR said fishing licenses and federal taxes on fishing gear generated $32 million in revenue in 2007.
Tim Kelly, a DNR research analyst, said researchers don’t know exactly why fewer young people are fishing, adding that televisions, homing game systems, computers and other electronics could all play a part.
Billy Dougherty, whose family runs a houseboat business on Rainy Lake near International Falls, notices a decline.
“We get the national park visitor, the family reunion visitor and people coming up on a fishing trip,” he said. “And what we’re not seeing are those 18- to 35-year-old people. They just don’t seem to be out there like they used to.
“Up in the northland here, a lot of kids fish. But your urban person coming here, that’s dropping.”
Dougherty said he thinks that most kids will still get hooked on fishing.
“Once you get ’em there, it’s a whole different world,” he said. “On Rainy (Lake), with the national park, it’s undeveloped. I get kids up here who say ‘I didn’t know something like this even existed.’”
