For years, officials figured up to 25,000 youngsters participated in Minnesota's Youth Waterfowl Day -- a one-day kids-only hunt.
Now it appears less than half that number participate each fall.
"It looks like there are dramatically fewer kids out there," said Tom Landwehr, Department of Natural Resources commissioner.
The special one-day hunt, held two weeks before the regular duck opener, allows youths age 15 and under to hunt waterfowl while accompanied by non-hunting adults. The idea is to encourage youngsters to take up waterfowl hunting. But since it began 15 years ago, some hunters have argued it isn't needed and the early shooting disturbs and disperses ducks before the regular duck opener, resulting in poorer opener.
But the DNR has new numbers showing far fewer young waterfowl hunters participate in the event. Last year, the DNR began requiring youths age 15 and under to get a free small-game license, allowing the agency, for the first time, to track the number of young hunters. The DNR handed out 18,336 free licenses. Officials then checked to see how many licenses were distributed before the Sept. 18 Youth Waterfowl Day, and how many of those were HIP-certified, as required to hunt waterfowl.
The answer: About 5,500.
But that number likely is low, officials said, because the license requirement was new and some youths likely either didn't get one or weren't aware they had to.
"Even if we double the number to 10,000, it's much lower than people had anticipated," Landwehr said. "And if it's that few, it's really hard to make an argument that there's an impact to waterfowl."
