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Maryland NRP Cracks Down: Fall 2024 Brings Arrests For Illegal Hunting, Oyster Poaching, And More
The growing ranks of women who hunt
January 2, 2025
Explore More:big story, conservation, diversity, hunting
Underrepresented groups could bring new life, and a sustainable future, to New York state’s hunting community
By David Escobar
On an icy November morning, Amanda Oldacre trekked through frozen wetland grasses behind her home in Canton under the dim glow of moonlight.
Dressed in an orange vest and full camouflage, she settled beneath a treeline overlooking a wide field, and the minutes ticked away as she awaited a chance to line up a buck in the scope of her rifle.
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Oldacre, 32, has been hunting in these woods for five years. Her passion for big game hunting took root eight years ago during her first-ever hunting trip when she harvested a whitetail deer in Steuben County.
“All of a sudden, this doe comes up out of nowhere and I’m by myself,” she recalled. “The adrenaline of it is a combination of fear and excitement.”
Since moving to the North Country in 2019 to teach at St. Lawrence University, Oldacre has made hunting a cornerstone of her sustainable lifestyle. The game meat she harvests and the produce she grows account for roughly three-quarters of her food supply.
Yet throughout her time in the woods, a trend has stood out.
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“I’m one of two women that I know that hunt,” Oldacre said. “And generally, I’m around a lot of men.”
Claiming a place in the woods
Oldacre’s experience mirrors national trends. In 1955, a survey by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service found that only around 4% of hunters were women. By 2022, women accounted for 22% of hunters nationwide, but they remain underrepresented overall.
Megan Plete Postol, northeast regional director for the National Deer Association and an ambassador for Artemis Sportswomen, attributes part of this gap to lingering attitudes within the hunting community.
The 35-year-old grew up in Remsen, hunting with her father in the southern Adirondacks. She remembers suiting up for a rabbit hunt with a group of her dad’s friends when one of the men upset her when he asked if it was safe for a girl to have a gun.
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“It’s such a tiny moment, but it felt terrible,” she said. “I would love to help other people not feel like that, or never to doubt themselves because somebody else doubted them.”
After taking a break from hunting during her teenage years, Plete Postol returned to the sport in her mid-20s. The experience showed her how many skills she had to relearn — and how challenging that process can be for beginners without guidance.
“Mentorship is crucial,” Plete Postol said. “There’s a lot of interest, and there’s just not a lot of stepping stones.”
Plete Postol has helped organize mentorship programs that pair seasoned hunters with women who are new to the sport. These programs, she said, have established safe spaces where women can learn the basics of hunting — skills like identifying a hunting spot and handling firearms safely.
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RELATED READING: Read an article by Megan Plete Postol about women and hunting
In the Adirondacks, embracing and educating novice hunters is only part of the equation for inclusive hunting advocates. Land access remains a significant barrier for hunters looking to enter the sport.
To use private land, hunters either must own property or secure permission from landowners. Public land is abundant in the park, but Oldacre said understanding how to safely hunt and track game on it can be daunting, especially for beginners.
Building a more diverse hunting community
Despite these challenges, the Adirondack Park’s public land offers an open opportunity for another underrepresented community: people of color.
Nationwide, only 3% of hunters are non-white. Brandon Dale, New York ambassador for the organization Hunters of Color, has been working to create more inclusive fish and game opportunities across the state.
“I think a lot of people … have a desire to belong to a community,” Dale said. “If you look around and you don’t see yourself, or you don’t recognize anyone or don’t feel welcome in a community, then you’re going to eventually realize, ‘Oh, it’s maybe not my community.’”
Dale, 29, grew up in an African-American and Indigenous family of outdoorsmen in Louisiana. Now based in New York City, he facilitates mentored hunting and fishing trips for people of color living in urban areas. He said the trips give mentees hands-on knowledge of the logistics and tactics of hunting, helping participants feel a sense of belonging in the predominantly white outdoor community.
Beyond fostering inclusion, Dale has also addressed practical challenges like transportation by organizing carpools for city residents to access rural outdoor spaces.
Ensuring the sport’s future
Efforts to grow the ranks of “non-traditional” hunters are about more than representation.
The Pittman-Robertson Wildlife Restoration Act — which resulted in taxation on sporting goods like firearms, ammunition and archery equipment — generated over $23 million for New York’s wildlife restoration and conservation funds in 2023.
The amount of funding the state receives from the federal pool of money is determined by the number of hunting and fishing licenses sold. Revenue generated through hunting license sales also contributes to the state’s conservation efforts.
As the number of state-issued hunting licenses decreases, the state’s population is continuing to grow more racially diverse. Dale said both trends should serve as a wake-up call for all outdoor enthusiasts, regardless of their feelings toward hunting.
“This is literally how we fund conservation in America,” he said. “We can’t just keep reaching out to the same people.”
Locally, some fish and game clubs are adapting to these shifting demographics. Francisco “Rocky” Nogales, membership secretary for the Saranac Lake Fish and Game Club, said his organization has kept its membership dues affordable to make the club more accessible for families and young adults looking to get into hunting.
“A lot of people in this community hope that their children are brought up understanding the importance of what fish and game contribute to our environment,” he said.
The club has held fundraisers to cover fees for young people to attend Department of Environmental Conservation hunting and fishing camps, and it is revamping its website to attract younger online audiences.
Dale and Plete Postol agree that expanding the state’s hunting community will require targeting a younger, more diverse demographic.
The process will take time, but as Oldacre attests, patience is a virtue every hunter develops.
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Sweden begins wolf hunt as it aims to halve endangered animal’s population
Five entire families can be killed, totalling 30 wolves, in move campaigners say is illegal under EU law
Helena Horton Environment reporterWed 1 Jan 2025 01.00 ESTShare
Sweden’s wolf hunt starts on Thursday, with the country aiming to halve the population of the endangered predator.
The Swedish government has given the green light for five entire wolf families, a total of 30 wolves, to be killed in a hunt campaigners say is illegal under EU law. Under the Berne convention, protected species cannot be caused to have their populations fall under a sustainable level.
Sweden’s wolf population dropped by almost 20% in 2022-23, and there are now 375 recorded individuals. The decline is due to increased hunting pressure, and the government announced earlier this year that it intended to halve the population, with 170 wolves becoming the new minimum level for “favourable conservation status”, instead of the current minimum of 300.
Critics say this will endanger the wolf population, which has historically had a fragile stronghold in Sweden, partly due to overhunting. Sweden had no breeding wolf population from 1966 until 1983, and the species is listed in the country as endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature red list.
The plans are part of a wider trend, with the EU intending to loosen rules around wolf persecution, allowing countries to increase the number they can kill.
The European Commission is considering revising its habitats directive to reflect the fact that wolf numbers have increased, particularly in alpine and forested regions of Scandinavia and central Europe. Farmers say the increased population poses a threat to livestock such as sheep.
Earlier this month, members of the Berne convention on the conservation of European wildlife and natural habitats voted to change the status of wolves from a “strictly protected” to a “protected” species. This change will enter into force on 7 March 2025 and will make it easier for the EU to change the habitats directive to allow more wolves to be shot.
But environmentalists have said that instead of changing the laws to allow wolves to be culled, farmers can take preventive measures with electric fencing.
“We are very critical to the path that the EU is now taking, downgrading the protection status of the wolf,” said Magnus Orrebrant, the chair of the Swedish Carnivore Association. “If the EU follows up the latest Berne convention decision by changing the wolf’s protection status in the habitat directive, the result will be very negative not only for the wolves, but for all wildlife in Europe.skip past newsletter promotion
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“In Sweden, it will have no immediate impact on the wolf population, since the Swedish government since 2010 has been blatantly disregarding the wolf’s special protection status, allowing a yearly licensed quota hunt and thereby breaking EU law. We filed a formal complaint to the EU commission, leading to an infringement procedure against Sweden, as yet to no avail.”
Léa Badoz, the wildlife programme officer at Eurogroup for Animals, a lobby group, said: “The wolf is unfortunately the latest political pawn, a victim of misinformation. Downgrading protection will not solve the challenges of coexistence, nor help farmers.”
The Swedish environmental protection agency has been contacted for comment.
Exposing the Big Game 