By Cecilia Chan

Independent Newsmedia

Gary Hirsch is a longtime hunter, bagging everything from javelina to turkey to deer and hopefully this fall, elk.

“I’ve been hunting since I was 12 to 13 years old,” said the Glendale resident, who tries to hunt every year. “It’s not about killing an animal but a total experience of being out in the wilderness and stalking prey.”

That passion may be keeping Mr. Hirsch in the sport but across the nation the number of hunters is on the decline and that means bad news for conservation programs that are funded primarily by hunting licenses, tags, and stamps.

Hunting participation declined nationally to 11.5 million participants in 2016 from 13.7 million participants in 2011, according to the most recent five-year survey by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Total expenditures by hunters declined 29 percent from 2011 to 2016, down $25.6 billion from $36.3 billion.

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