The fact that we have to have a youth season, says a lot about our current state of deer hunting across the Country. While I do not disagree with designated youth hunts, why do we even need them? If deer hunting parents are actively including their kids within the hunt, then we wouldn't even need a youth season to begin with. And when a youth does hunt, are the excited about the entire process of the hunt, or do they just want to shoot a big buck. I believe that we as a whole are missing the point about youth deer seasons because those seasons shouldn't be just an opportunity to get a kid into the woods instead, those kids should already be there! We need to make sure that our kids understand their entire role in the big picture of future conservationists. When kids are actively included in the entire hunt we not only get them into the field for the entire hunting season -youth season or not- but we engage them enough within the process, to retain them as lifelong hunters. Youth seasons can be a lot of fun and an extremely rewarding time for all, but only if the youth season represents just a sliver of a young hunters entire hunting season.
