Oklahoma Wildlife Expo is all about learning
Oklahoma Wildlife Expo: Wildlife officials want to convert ‘city slickers’
BY ED GODFREY, Outdoors Editor, egodfrey@opubco.com
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Published: September 25, 2009
Jonathon Hill of Yukon admits to being a "city slicker.”
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The Oklahoma Wildlife Expo
→
When: Today, Saturday and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. each day
→Where: Lazy E Arena near Guthrie
→What: Visitors can fish, shoot a shotgun or bow, paddle a kayak, ride a mountain bike, sample wild game, rock climb, build a bird house and much more.
Stop by and visit The Oklahoman’s Ed Godfrey, who will be manning the OPUBCO Communications booth from 1 to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
→Cost: The event is free and open to the public
Hill, 37, didn’t hunt or fish. Fishing gear given to him years ago was never used and just collected spider webs in his home.
"I just didn’t have the knowledge,” said Hill, who remembers his grandfather taking him fishing only once.
"It just wasn’t in the culture of our family experience.”
Then Hill attended last year’s
Oklahoma Wildlife Expo and got a taste of the outdoors.
With the help from the Oklahoma Youth Hunting and Shooting Program, Hill and his 12-year-old son, Justus, since have become deer and turkey hunters. His younger sons now want to go fishing every day.
The
Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation hopes to convert more "city slickers” such as Hill to outdoorsmen during the fifth annual Oklahoma Wildlife Expo, which opens today at the
Lazy E Arena near Guthrie.
The free event gives visitors a chance to try such outdoor activities as shooting a shotgun and bow, fishing, kayaking, mountain biking and many more.
Nationally, the number of people who hunt and fish in the
United States is declining.
In Oklahoma, the numbers have remained about the same for the last 20 years but are not keeping pace with population growth.
"We are an urban state for the first time in our history,” said
Richard Hatcher, director of the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation. "Fewer people are tied closely to the land like they used to be.”
It is a disturbing trend for national and state wildlife officials because hunters and anglers pay for wildlife conservation.
The Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation is funded almost entirely by the sale of hunting and fishing licenses. A federal excise tax on firearms, ammunition and sporting equipment goes to wildlife conservation.
Fewer people hunting and fishing means fewer dollars for all wildlife conservation programs, not just those species targeted by hunters and anglers. In Oklahoma, bats, prairie chickens and swift foxes are good examples.
State wildlife officials don’t know how effective the Wildlife Expo is at recruiting new sportsmen.
"We don’t know how many people go to the Expo, then buy a license because of their Expo experience,” Hatcher said. "What we do know is that we are exposing lots and lots of people for the first time. That’s worth a lot.
"Yeah, we hope they go buy a license, but even if they don’t, they have more of an appreciation of hunting and fishing in Oklahoma.
"We need people who might never hunt or fish to support the concept that hunting and fishing is well-regulated and an important part of an Oklahoman’s experience.”
At least one person has been convinced.
"Hunting, to me, was just going out and killing stuff,” Hill said. "I didn’t understand the conservation aspect of it.”
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We really do need a new fair ground operation away from the one in OKC. We need a new facility to hold the State Fair of Oklahoma that is not connected to organized crime. I just don't like funding criminal activity and as long as we hold our state fair at the OKC location at 10th and Penn we are directly connected to an international crime ring. I don't like that with all the children's organizations attached to the state fair. If in my lifetime we can get the State Fair away from the OKC location and out of the hands of the mob operators we can do a great justice and service to the citizens of the state of Oklahoma. Then, the international horse crime syndicate cad do anything they desire with the fair location at 10th street, I really don't care, but at least we get our children out of the control of those slimy crime operators!