Doug Leier: R3 – Recruiting, Retaining and Reactivating – hunters and anglers is crucial to conservation

WEST FARGO – I wouldn’t be surprised to find out kids who grew up on the beaches of California are more likely to surf than a kid from North Dakota. Fair is fair. If you were raised in the Midwest, I’d suggest your odds of growing into hunting and fishing are more likely than those from Laguna Beach.

Around these parts, even if you don’t buy a hunting and fishing license, it’s likely someone in your family or your neighbor does. The numbers prove it.

In North Dakota, 23% of all residents over the age of 16 bought a fishing license. That’s 141,712 North Dakotans who went fishing, plus an estimated 50,000 kids who don’t need a fishing license yet. That’s well ahead of the national average of about 15% of Americans who fished. Of that percentage, 73% of those anglers were male, and 27% were female, lagging behind the national average of 31% female, but nevertheless, fishing continues to rise in popularity among women.

Before we leave the statistical data, consider 152,414 hunters – 16.5% of North Dakota’s 16-plus age bracket – bought a hunting license, compared with just 6% as a national average.

As a department, Game and Fish wants to ensure this strong outdoor heritage continues. Thus, the department tracks the stats, and develops strategies to recruit, retain and reactivate hunters and anglers where appropriate – R3, for short.

Recruit new hunters and anglers. Retain the current and reactivate those who have, but have not taken part recently.

Hunting in the United States was built upon the principle that wildlife is a public resource owned by all, regulated by law, managed by science and funded by those – hunters and anglers – with skin in the game.

The Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act of 1937 – known as the Pittman-Robertson Act – placed an 11% excise tax on firearms and ammunition and allocated those funds to wildlife habitat restoration, improvements and research.

The act was shortly followed by a mirrored effort for fisheries management – the Dingell-Johnson Act.

Around the same time, state wildlife agencies were formed to carry out these tasks, primarily funded through the sale of hunting and fishing licenses, including our very own North Dakota Game and Fish Department, founded in 1930.

As of 2020, North Dakota has received over $182 million from the Pittman-Robertson Act alone. These dollars are directed toward state-owned or -managed wildlife management areas, habitat restoration projects, public shooting ranges, our beloved and strong Private Land Open To Sportsmen (PLOTS) program and to fish stocking and boat ramps from Dingell-Johnson dollars.

From 2011 to 16, the U.S. lost 2.2 million hunters nationwide amidst population increases.

Here in North Dakota, we were one of four states that did not experience per capita hunting license decreases during that time. However, almost all our hunting and fishing license sales reflect declines in people ages 17 to 44.

Thus, we may not be seeing declines yet, but they’re coming if we don’t change the tides.

Furthermore, if we want secured advocacy for the things we care about – wildlife conservation, public land access, soil health, the list goes on – we need people on our side from all walks of life.

We need natural resource issues to transcend political parties, genders, races and ages.

That’s why the North Dakota Game and Fish Department is joining the growing effort across the country devoted to R3 – recruiting, retaining and reactivating the next generation of hunters, anglers and conservationists to carry on our legacy.

Learn more about R3 efforts on the Game and Fish website at

gf.nd.gov/r3.

Doug Leier is an outreach biologist for the North Dakota Game and Fish Department. Reach him at dleier@nd.gov.