Dodging the Bullet

BY BURKE SPEAKER

Jim Walker tried to make his son a squirrel hunter. It shouldn't have been too difficult, considering Walker's own love of the sport. The 59-year-old Golconda native has hunted squirrels since he was 11, when his father introduced him to what later would become a lifelong passion.

So when his son turned eight, he took the boy into the Shawnee National Forest in the hope of instilling him with an appreciation for squirrel hunting. Chris participated for a few years in squirrel hunts with his dad, but soon moved on to other things.

"He's now into fishing more than I am, and he hunts other game," Walker said. "But he doesn't really get into squirrel hunting."

Walker's situation parallels a puzzling statewide trend. Squirrel hunting numbers have declined steadily in the past 11 years, showing that chasing bushy-tails is a sport many are bypassing.

Craig Miller of the Illinois Natural History Survey documented a rundown of squirrel hunting numbers for Illinois' two hunted squirrels—the fox and gray squirrel. Based on statistics from an 11-year hunter harvest survey, there is a continuing drop in the number of statewide hunters.

In 1988, fox squirrel hunters totaled 121,182, but by 1998 hunter numbers had fallen by more than 38,000. Similarly, in 1988 gray squirrel hunters were 75,407, later decreasing to 60,682 recorded hunters in 1998. "There's just fewer and fewer people out hunting squirrels," Miller said. "That's just what we're seeing."

So where are all the squirrel hunters going?

They're off hunting larger game, says Paul Shelton, forest wildlife program manager. "I think there's now more of an emphasis on larger species," he said. "The market has shifted to white-tailed deer hunting opportunities. It's certainly not the lack of a squirrel population."

Oddly enough, it's not just squirrel hunting that is dwindling. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reports that small game hunting has lost steam nationally since the mid-70s.

The ages of the squirrel hunters were excluded from the survey, therefore, there was no confirmation to what many older squirrel hunters suspect-that the younger generation is not squirrel hunting like the previous generations did.

"We don't have the squirrel hunters we used to," Walker said. "A lot are older, many have died, and I don't think the younger people get into it as they did in my day. They're not instilled with the love of hunting that I had from my dad and grandfather."

Shelton agrees. "Nowadays you tend not to see that as much. It's a disappointment to us. It's a great resource out there that's vastly "underutilized. And it's also a bonding opportunity between father and son, and that's quality time for a parent and child that's not being used."

While there's usually a cause and effect relationship in shifting trends, there is no sign of squirrel populations increasing. "As far as having a runaway population, we're not seeing one nor do we expect one," Shelton said.

Still, hunters like Walker say the real damage is overlooking a quality pastime. "I still love to squirrel hunt," he said. "When I retire in a few years, I may squirrel hunt every morning."

But as diversions like video games and the Internet take time away from a youngster's hunt time, people like Shelton expect the trend to continue. "Right now I can't see anything that will change it," Shelton said.