Yeah, I read this yesterday, but I just shrugged it off a bit. I mean, I grew up as a hunter/outdoorsman, and this is something that I've noticed in my area. The findings didn't shock me, but they were still disturbing. When I was growing up (and I'm not really all that old), all my friends were hunters, fisherman, campers, canoers, etc. As they got older, though, they all lost interest in those things. And the older generation (our parents) are either getting up there in years and are in bad health, or are dying off, so they aren't doing that stuff.

It's almost a double edged sword...it's bad that there's less people doing the outdoors things, because that could eventually lead to some loss of natural areas. However, it's also nice because there's less people out in nature to interact with which makes it a little more peaceful for those who do still go. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

On a related note, I do have to say that I'm somewhat shocked about the comment, "contrasted with exploding deer populations." I know, at least in my area, an exploding deer population is nowhere near accurate. Deer are on the decline where I'm from...and we've always been a historically deer heavy area. Maybe that's just my area, though, and it's not the norm.