Keith Beam has an interesting new idea to help recruit more new hunters in the United States: children's books that show kids the wonder of the outdoors.
The foundation upon which our system of wildlife conservation is built on in the United States has a troubling future due to declining hunter numbers. Unfortunately, things could very well got a whole lot worse soon because not only is hunter participation declining, but the hunting population is rapidly growing older.
For this reason, we could see an even sharper drop-off in the future as more and more hunters simply become too old to continue to hunt.
The roots of the problem are pretty well documented: not enough new men, women, boys, and girls are becoming hunters. There are two things that need to happen to reverse this trend.
First, we must recruit more new hunters right now. Fortunately, there are a growing number of programs out there (some more successful than others) that are geared towards getting children and adults out into the woods.
Second, we must recruit more new hunters from the next generation. Specifically, this means children who are too young to hunt right now, but who might want to start hunting in a few years if exposed to the traditions of hunting at a young age.
Keith Beam has an interesting idea for how to build that next generation of hunters: children's books. Specifically, Keith created Drake's Adventures, which are books designed to teach young children about the outdoors and the traditions of hunting.
There is a tremendous amount of beauty and wonder in the outdoors for people to enjoy. Unfortunately, kids these days have a lot of things that compete for their attention: school, extra-curricular activities, video games, etc.
Hearing a turkey gobble, an elk bugle, or a deer snort wheezing is truly an amazing experience. The same goes for seeing a strutting turkey or getting to watch two rutting bucks fight.
Well, the Drake's Adventures series of books is designed specifically to give kids a taste of what a hunt can be like. These books tell the stories of turkey and deer hunting adventures in a beautifully illustrated manner, complete with all the sounds of the hunt to show them how much fun and excitement can come with a hunting trip.
Not only are these books entertaining, but they're also educational and contain beautiful illustrations and sounds that will take children into the honors, the traditions, and the magical world of the outdoors.
Bottom line: these books can help nurture a deep appreciation of wildlife as well as that desire to experience nature up close within a child.
So, if you've ever wondered how you can get your young child interested in the outdoors, then you should consider buying the books from the Drake's Adventures series and reading them to your kid.
Keith is currently running a GoFundMe campaign to help secure the necessary funding for him to continue to distribute those books. If you make a $25 donation, he'll send copies of both books wherever you'd like: to you, a friend, a family member. Heck, you could even send them to your doctor's or dentist's office to give kids there something to read while they're waiting.
It's a pretty awesome objective, one that we believe is worth getting behind.
Like what you see? You can read more great articles by John McAdams on the Big Game Hunting Blog. Follow him on Facebook & YouTube and subscribe to his show: the Big Game Hunting Podcast.
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