LISTEN TO THE PODCAST HERE:
Bruce: All right, I’m going to count it down, five, four, three, two, one. Welcome to another episode of Whitetail Rendezvous. This is your host, Bruce Hutcheon. On the show today, we have Al Thompson,
Al: Thanks for having me, Bruce. I’m really excited.
Bruce: Excellent, excellent. Let’s just get back to whitetail hunting. You came out of, I believe, Monroe, Louisiana, so let’s talk about the tradition of whitetail hunting in Louisiana.
Al: It’s an interesting tradition. My family were waterfowl hunters by trade, but it’s definitely a big part is whitetail deer hunting. And the way it’s done down there is there’s not a lot of public land, Bruce. I actually didn’t hunt publicly growing up. It was all private. So it’s either asking local farmers and landowners to go hunt or if you’re fortunate like my family was, you get an opportunity to be a part of a group that owns some land to where you can hunt that. And that’s kind of the big tradition growing up is just teaching the youth to respect the land and to learn it and to do right by it, I guess, is a good way to put it.
Bruce: Who helped you get your first deer?
Al: My first deer was one of my dad’s best friends, a man named Dr. Ron Sherman, out of Monroe. And I was hunting outside of Vicksburg, Louisiana . . . oh, Vicksburg, Mississippi, sorry. And I can actually remember it pretty well. I was 11 years old, and I think the coolest part was I was sitting on his lap when I took the shot and just watching that buck run off into the woods and just seeing it at the edge fall over. And then it was just like, “Wow, I am hooked.”
Bruce: How old were you? I didn’t hear how old you were when that happened.
Al: I was 11 years old when that happened, so it was kind of mind blow that I could watch this massive animal come out and wait till the shot and take it and actually be able to take something that amazing and create a moment like that.
Bruce: Let’s talk about one of your passions, I know, kids in the outer door, people your age, younger or a little bit older. How do we get them in the out of doors first, and how do we get them to experience the hunt?
Al: I think you almost answered your own question, where it is we need to get a lot of youth in my generation up and moving, so to speak, and showing them how great the outdoors is. Because growing up in bigger towns, like Little Rock, Arkansas, I’d see a lot of people that said, “Yeah, I’d love to hunt, but my dad just doesn’t and no one will ever take me.” And so it’s a matter of being able to get them up, get them moving, and get the ones that are not fortunate enough to have a family that hunts out in the woods. And whether that’s through after-school programs or just outreach-type things. I don’t know the actual business answer behind it, but I think that that’s the solution to the problem because almost everyone I met growing up that did not hunt would say something along the lines of “I would love to hunt one day. It’s just my dad has never taken me.” Or “My mom has never taken me.” And it’s just a matter of we’ve got to make sure that we pass that knowledge down and we pass that tradition down because you look at some of the more traditional forms and just in sporting, and you can see them starting to reach their end if something isn’t done. Hello?
Bruce: Yes, have you reached out to Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation out of Missoula or other conservation programs in Montana that have specifically targeted youth?
Al: Could you repeat the question? I’m sorry, I think phone cut out. The reception is very bad in where I’m at.
Bruce: Okay, can you hear me good?
Al: Yeah, now I can hear you [inaudible 00:11:45] doing.
Bruce: Okay, great. Okay, so let’s just slip it back. So you’re sharing we need to get the youth out. Have you checked or had conversations with the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation out of Missoula or other conservation groups in Montana?