We hope this post finds you well as 2024 rolls to an end. Check out our prior post for a rollup of 2024. 2025 will be here in a matter of days, and we expect it to be a year full of challenges and opportunity. Not only for CCW, but for sportsmen of the state as a whole. Involvement and engagement is going to be essential. Here are some New Year’s goals for our community that can help with our efforts, and keep momentum going in our community:
*Strive to show up to at least one to two commission meetings a year. We understand not everyone can show up to every meeting, and we dont expect everyone to, but they are great way to understand firsthand what is happening and a vital way to get involved. We need hunters at these meetings for both their presence and their voices, outlining the truths about hunting and what is actually occurring on the ground. Considering we have 200k hunting license holders in this state, if a good chunk of us showed up to just one meeting a year, we would have a huge presence and the commission would be hard pressed to paint us as the minority.
* Participate in action items. Your Howls, and your emails to the commission and state representatives make a major difference. It is a simple and easy way to get involved and make your voice heard. We need as many people as possible engaged in these legislative and commission actions to make sure we are adequately represented.
* Talk about hunting with the people in your lives… family, friends or coworkers. Most people are disconnected from the hunting lifestyle and nature, but finding ways to make hunting relatable creates important allies in the non-hunting community. Educate them on hunting’s role in conservation, how it provides healthy food for your family, connection to the natural world, and how it’s part of who you are. When we help people who care for us understand, we create more supporters to back us when anti-hunters attempt to bring lies and the removal of opportunities to the ballot box.
* Work to get more of our community involved. There are many people who are unaware of the issues, or don’t know how to participate. Share the facts, provide the resources, and point them in the direction of engagement.
* Continue to be a positive reflection of our community. Much of our fight is to gain public acceptance for what we do in a time where less people are connected to it. Our greater image to the non-hunting majority matters, whether we like it or not. Know your audience when sharing about hunting on social media, certain things lift our community up and others become front page headlines, used and twisted by anti-hunters to further their narratives. Make sure the public knows we are respectful stewards of the land. Be participant in conservation science; submit your hunting reports, send your bear teeth, etc. Volunteer on a department survey project or on a cleanup event put on by one the many local orgs who regularly do so. We hope 2025 will bring more wins to our corner and that it is a year of record involvement and engagement within our community. Forces continue to wage war on this passion and now more than ever our community needs to be united, because it’s going to take all of us doing our part to ensure the greatest future for hunting. Continue to follow our page for all the latest news and action items.
