MONTPELIER (AP) – This year’s rifle season will likely be the smallest in more than a decade as the number of hunters continues to decline.

State wildlife officials don’t expect the number of licenses sold for the season that ends in a week to exceed the 88,000 sold in 2003.

The decline reflects a national trend that started in the 1970s.

“All across the country, there’s been a 30- or 40-year downward trend in the number of hunters,” said Ron Regan, director of operations for the Vermont Department of Fish and Wildlife.

The trend is visible in Vermont in the steady decline in the number of hunting licenses. Nearly 112,000 hunting licenses were purchased by Vermonters and non-residents in 1987 and 1991. By 2001, that number had shrunk to about 96,000; in 2002, it was down to 92,000.

“If you look at it nationally, about 6 or 7 percent of the population hunts,” said Regan, a 24-year veteran of the fish and wildlife department. “We’re at a much higher level here, perhaps in the top 10 of all the states in terms of the percentage of people who hunt.”

Vermont has the second highest number of hunters per capita in the country and the most in New England. About 15 percent of the state’s population hunts, according to the Fish and Wildlife Department’s John Hall. Alaska ranks first.

While hunting hangs on here to a greater degree than elsewhere in the country it is fading, nonetheless.

“Things are conspiring in a negative way to keep people from going outdoors and enjoying hunting,” Regan said.

Some of the factors are an aging population, changing demographics and a slow erosion of Vermont’s rural way of life, Hall said.

“Younger people are not taking up hunting as much as they did 20 years ago. We have an aging population who are giving up hunting for more sedentary activities,” Hall said.

The decline in hunting also has an effect on the state’s fish and wildlife budget.

Every year since 2001 has seen a decline in revenue from the sale of hunting licenses.

The decreasing revenue has Vermont officials scrambling for money. Just last week, Wayne LaRoche, commissioner of fish and wildlife, said he might ask the Legislature to expand fees to people who use the state’s land but don’t pay for it as hunters and anglers do.

—

Information from: The Times Argus, http://www.timesargus.com/

AP-ES-11-21-04 1448EST