If you ask the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, they will tell you the numbers don't lie. They have witnessed first hand the declining number of deer hunters in Michigan. It's a trend that hasn't gone unnoticed by State Representative Peter Pettalia (R-106th) either. While some point to the economy as the main factor fewer licenses are being sold, Rep. Pettalia sees it a little differently. As he puts it, "Out of every 100 hunters introduced to the sport we are retaining 23, and a lot of it is because they don't start hunting until an older age."
Rep. Pettalia says getting Michigan's future hunters hooked on the sport has to start at a younger age. He says "lets face the facts there a lot of other activities out there that grab our young people early and they keep them, the video games, the computers, the television programs." So to reverse that trend, Rep. Pettalia has introduced House Bill 4371 . He says its pretty straight forward, "the nuts and bolts of the bill is to allow young hunters, 10 years and under to be mentored by someone that has the desire to introduce them to the sport, to get these young people introduced at a young age." So who would qualify as a mentor hunter able to take that 10 and under hunter out? According to Rep. Pettalia, "you have to be a legal license holder, you have to be above 21 years old, you can't have an apprentice license, you have to have gone through hunters safety of have hunting experience and have been grand fathered in."
So what would change if House Bill 4371 became law? Currently if you are 9 years old or younger, you can't hunt here in Michigan. This would change that. You could hunt at any age as long as you had an approved mentor nearby in the woods. Rep. Petallia says the opportunities are diverse, "grandma and grandpa can take their grandchildren, mom and dad can take their youth under 10, but also a neighborhood mentor from a family that may not have both parents at home and have a younger person that may be introduced to the sport."
The bill has raised some questions about removing a minimal age for a hunter. Under this bill, the hunter doesn't have to be sitting with, or right next to the older mentor in the field. That was intentional. Rep. Petallia says it's just not practical in many hunting situations to have hunters shoulder to shoulder all the time. So if the state doesn't set an age when a child is mentally and physically prepared to hunt, who will? Rep. Pettalia definitively says no one is better prepared to make that decision than the child's parent.
So getting young hunters out in the field is a long term benefit according to Representative Petallia, but he believes there is another pay off to passing this into law. The way he sees it, "the bonus of this bill is the economics of it, we introduce a young person to hunting and fishing they are buying hunting clothes, a new rod or rifle, but the economics is the bonus of it." According to Rep. Petallia that is money that is leaving the state now with those younger hunters. He recalls, "We took testimony from people who said they were taking their young people on their first hunting adventure in Ohio because they allow it."
So what do you think? Would support doing away with the minimal hunting age in Michigan? Do you support a parent's right to decide when their child is ready to hunt? Do you think this will lay the ground work for more hunters in the future in our state?
Please leave a comment with your thoughts and suggestions below.
