How to get hunters into volunteering for conservation efforts
- Thread starter Hircine
- Start date
FairWeather
Well-known member
For the habitat restoration projects that I do hear about, the issues I have are that they are typically
1: Hours away, where I do not (and may never) hunt.
2: On holiday weekends.
Sorry, I like healthy populations just as well as anyone else, but the motivation of “we need to improve habitat to make better hunting opportunities” doesn’t do much for me when it’s an area I have little/zero interest in hunting (i.e. the OR high desert). Compound that with they seem to schedule it on Father’s Day weekend every year, when I will already have other obligations, and you have a perfect recipe for me to not show up.
There’s been one that was local (less than 45 mins away), and I was more than happy to go put in 5 hours or so cleaning up trash. This is an area I hunt, habitat I want to preserve. It was still scheduled on Easter weekend though. Luckily I was free that day.
So, for me, I think more frequent, smaller scale, hyper-localized events would do a better job attracting folks. Something like the second Saturday of every month there will be a clean up, restoration, etc.
1: Hours away, where I do not (and may never) hunt.
2: On holiday weekends.
Sorry, I like healthy populations just as well as anyone else, but the motivation of “we need to improve habitat to make better hunting opportunities” doesn’t do much for me when it’s an area I have little/zero interest in hunting (i.e. the OR high desert). Compound that with they seem to schedule it on Father’s Day weekend every year, when I will already have other obligations, and you have a perfect recipe for me to not show up.
There’s been one that was local (less than 45 mins away), and I was more than happy to go put in 5 hours or so cleaning up trash. This is an area I hunt, habitat I want to preserve. It was still scheduled on Easter weekend though. Luckily I was free that day.
So, for me, I think more frequent, smaller scale, hyper-localized events would do a better job attracting folks. Something like the second Saturday of every month there will be a clean up, restoration, etc.
Irrelevant
Well-known member
Cleanup event in my area, advertised on multiple forms of media. 3 of us showed up.
People don't actually care.
They may think they care, they may want to care, but they just don't care.
People don't actually care.
They may think they care, they may want to care, but they just don't care.
Hold on. Let me fire up my broken record player.
The root of the problem is tax. If people didn't have to spend months per year working to pay taxes, then they'd have time available to do such projects. Instead you've got husbands AND wives both working themselves to death to pay for government programs.
The root of the problem is tax. If people didn't have to spend months per year working to pay taxes, then they'd have time available to do such projects. Instead you've got husbands AND wives both working themselves to death to pay for government programs.
It is a tough pill to swallow but I too think most people don't care. I tried to get a program going where we had a wildlife professional come and talk to hunters/anglers at a brewery and no more than like 10 people ever showed up. Sometimes it was more like 2. If you can't get people to sit around and drink beer there's no way they'll go repair fence.
FI460
Well-known member
We've done a couple of pint nights at a brewery with raffle prizes. The same 5-8 people that show up to projects and help with the banquet attend. None of the other 700.
Bambistew
Well-known member
You expect the most selfish personalities on the planet (hunters), to give away their time? They only show up if they are going to lose something. In reality it's just human nature.
My kids school requires a lot of volunteering time (40hrs a year per family) they went lax over COVID and now it's impossible to get people to show up to do anything. There is probably 150 families and at most 25 show for any sort of organized event and it takes pulling teeth and pleading. Humans want the most reward with the least effort.
Is there anything with a higher rate of return than public land hunting? There is a lot of capital to burn.
Also I think a lot of "conservation" projects are pretty useless with very little to no impact on actual conservation. Every group has their mission and few actually make any sort of impact. The impacts are made with legislation not picking up trash. YMMV.
My kids school requires a lot of volunteering time (40hrs a year per family) they went lax over COVID and now it's impossible to get people to show up to do anything. There is probably 150 families and at most 25 show for any sort of organized event and it takes pulling teeth and pleading. Humans want the most reward with the least effort.
Is there anything with a higher rate of return than public land hunting? There is a lot of capital to burn.
Also I think a lot of "conservation" projects are pretty useless with very little to no impact on actual conservation. Every group has their mission and few actually make any sort of impact. The impacts are made with legislation not picking up trash. YMMV.
it's 100% about priorities. everything in life boils down to priorities.
my mentor always said "if you didn't do it, your only excuse is that it wasn't important enough. you can never, never say you didn't have time."
honestly, i haven't shown up because i don't know about them 99% of the time. the one i did hear about recently i learned about like 4 weeks out and my summer calendar is literally fully scheduled out between weekend work, family time, and vacations by around mid may.
now, i'm not being self righteous, would i have gone if i learned about it in february or march and could've had it on the calendar 2-3 months in advance? probably not. and that's not good.
but #*^@#*, how many of you avid volunteers were out there at every opportunity when you had infants and two full time working parents and the majority of the volunteer events are like 4-5 hours away? yeesh, i only have time for a good shit when i go to the office these days.
it's not an excuse, it's me saying this is tough time in life to exchange what is now always family time. all free time is default help the spouse time or give the spouse free time, that's the default, and for one parent to be disappearing for couple more days is hard. the hunting time starts disappearing too at this stage. priorities are around the house.
doesn't mean i'm not gonna work on trying to shuffle priorities to volunteer more. absolutely i should do that. there are sacrifices i can make to be there. but, i think a lot of you get it. it's hard at this stage. it's no wonder most volunteers are 65 years old or don't have kids.
my mentor always said "if you didn't do it, your only excuse is that it wasn't important enough. you can never, never say you didn't have time."
honestly, i haven't shown up because i don't know about them 99% of the time. the one i did hear about recently i learned about like 4 weeks out and my summer calendar is literally fully scheduled out between weekend work, family time, and vacations by around mid may.
now, i'm not being self righteous, would i have gone if i learned about it in february or march and could've had it on the calendar 2-3 months in advance? probably not. and that's not good.
but #*^@#*, how many of you avid volunteers were out there at every opportunity when you had infants and two full time working parents and the majority of the volunteer events are like 4-5 hours away? yeesh, i only have time for a good shit when i go to the office these days.
it's not an excuse, it's me saying this is tough time in life to exchange what is now always family time. all free time is default help the spouse time or give the spouse free time, that's the default, and for one parent to be disappearing for couple more days is hard. the hunting time starts disappearing too at this stage. priorities are around the house.
doesn't mean i'm not gonna work on trying to shuffle priorities to volunteer more. absolutely i should do that. there are sacrifices i can make to be there. but, i think a lot of you get it. it's hard at this stage. it's no wonder most volunteers are 65 years old or don't have kids.
MtnElk
Well-known member
For anyone with families, this is a legit obstacle to last minute (<4 week notice) projects
Irrelevant
Well-known member
Immediate impact yes, legislation does more.
But if you want to continue to be able to shoot on public land or if you want to play the long game on "hunter" impressions with the general public (because they can't see the difference between hunters and shooters) then you best also pay attention to the most visible aspects of our form of recreation. No one sees legislation, everyone sees trash.
jwatts
Well-known member
I've had the same experience down south. I've been with the board of the Southeast Chapter of BHA since day 1, serving in capacities from mebership coordinator, vice chair, chair, and state captain. You can bank on the same group of folks to turn up at the work days, and even the pint nights and other, bigger events in a handful of our states. The only ones that you can plan on showing are the guys that plan the event. When we were a 7 state chapter, you could count on big crowds at some of the Florida and Tennessee events, but the rest were hit and miss at best. I'd love to know how to turn this around, but we've yet to be able to in the 7 years I've been volunteering.
Phone calls. If people get legitimate, actual phone calls, then you know:
1. They were actually contacted. Not the ambiguity of email or relying on social media algorithms to inform them a week after it’s over.
2. They had to interact with someone passionate enough to make the call- involvement is contagious, where though excitement or guilt.
If you do this, people start thinking about these sorts if events. Is it perfect? No. But it can’t be worse than what you’re currently doing.
Bring back phone trees.
FI460
Well-known member
As an organizer how do I know who to call? Do I just start picking random names from my roster and cold calling them?
When I started my predecessor pushed signup sheets at our meetings. Pre 2020 I would pass a sheet along to 50-70 folks and get 5-10 sign-ups.
I'd call folks twice. Once after the meeting to confirm details, and once a week or so before the event as a reminder. Generally got the same 3-5 people who I was already texting to organize the projects to attend.
For the last 3 years I pass around a sheet and am lucky to get 3 signups. My same 5 guys still show up.
I joined this organization in March of 2018. Wasn't much going on then so I got in tight with the organizers. I wanted to volunteer so I sent emails and I attended board meetings.
We have to be present if we want to help.
jwatts
Well-known member
Phone calls may be the way to go. We have the option via our membership database to drill down to a certain distance from the location of an event and filter our contact list based on that area. Maybe phone calls based off of that would help things out.
3855WIN
Well-known member
Look to high schools and colleges for volunteers. Many students and fraternal groups require volunteer hours. They will need a good bit of supervision.
elkduds
Well-known member
RMEF defencing in Park County. Volunteer and join me!
Saturday July 8, camping available. I'll bring beer for HT amigos. Let me know that you are coming so I get enough to share.
www.hunttalk.com
My experience was limited to groups under 100 members. The phone tree worked well enough- there is a set list of people to call, and every person called has 2 or 3 people they themselves need to call. It spreads the time commitment around, and tends to weed out the uncommitted, while giving a small sense of ownership to each member. Rugby and fraternities were great- failure in your duties had “consequences” (all in good taste and fun, of course)- like a box of corn flakes publicly awarded to the biggest “flake”.
I used google sheets for the list, since it’s a living document with live update that’s free and accessible for everyone with a smartphone. Plus you can print copies.
Have a column for who contacts them, “contacted/voicemail/etc”, contact info, and the three they need to contact. Pull it up before you make the call if you need it, filter down by your name in “contacted by”. Email out the instructions so people can reference as needed, but each event needed a phone call or face-to-face interaction to be successful.
That’s about all I’ve got. Simple, engaging in multiple ways, and not a huge ask to make a couple phone calls.
Similar threads
