DILLON, Mont. - Taped on the sides of Jim Gleason's gun cabinet are pictures from his best memories spending time with his son and grandsons.

There are pictures of a young Shawn, his oldest son, showing off the deer and elk he'd bagged. Others show his grandsons, including Shawn's sons Zach and Zane, and Jim's daughter Christine Zemljak's sons, Austin and Alex, who also hunt.

"I'm running out of space for my pictures," he said recently. "When I go down there I pass them all the time - it brings back some fond memories."

Today, at 67, Jim Gleason doesn't hike quite as far or get up quite as early to pursue deer and elk. But he still gets out hunting and said it's especially rewarding to go with his grandchildren.

Four of his eight grandchildren are adamant hunters and Gleason said he always looks forward to a day in the field with them.

"I just have more fun going out with those kids," he said with a laugh.

Gleason, a retired Butte elementary school teacher, was among the first in his family to hunt, having picked it up while in college. And he wanted to pass that along to his children when they were old enough.

His other two children, Christine, and son, Jason, weren't interested in hunting and that was OK, Jim Gleason said. He never pushed it on them.

But Shawn loved at 9 years old to tag along even before he could hunt, and like many Montana kids was eager to pick up a rifle when he turned 12 and passed a hunter education course. He received a Remington rifle for achieving his Eagle Scout badge, a gun that he still has today.

The Gleason family is a classic example of how hunting has been handed down through the generations.

And while that's still often the case in some parts of the country, nationwide fewer people are hunting. The trend, if it continues, poses a major challenge for wildlife officials who depend on the dollars generated by hunting license revenues to fund state and federal agencies that manage game animals, fisheries and other wildlife.

In short, the loss of hunters is one of the greatest threats to wildlife in this country, said Thomas Baumeister, education bureau chief for the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks.

"We need the money, we need the political support and we need the support out in the field to manage these populations of animals," he said.

National decline

Last year 12.5 million Americans ages 16 and older, or about 5 percent of the country, went hunting, according to the 2006 National Survey of Fishing, Hunting and Wildlife-Associated Recreation. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has conducted the survey every five years to gauge public participation and money spent while pursuing outdoors activities.

The figure from last year was down from 14 million hunters in 1996, then about 7 percent of the population. In 2001, 13 million Americans went hunting, which was roughly 6 percent of the population.

The loss of hunters nationwide is due to several factors, said Mark Damian Duda, president of Total Management, a survey company specializing in natural resource issues based in Harrisonburg, Va. His company conducts surveys for state and federal wildlife agencies, conservation groups and other organizations with an interest in wildlife issues.

The factors that are pushing people away from hunting are no mystery, Duda said in a recent telephone interview. The biggest among them is more people moving into the cities and suburbs.

"Urbanization is really hurting hunting participation and it's hurting it in a number of ways, from just a loss of opportunity to losing access to that rural hunting culture," Duda said. "There are all those sort of ugly tentacles of urbanization."

For one, sprawl around cities consumes former wildlife habitat and places where people used to hunt, he said. That forces someone living in an urban environment to drive farther to hunt, or leaves them without a place to go.

"A place that used to be good small game hunting is now a housing development," Duda said.

Access to a place to go hunting, whether private or public land, is another key factor that sportsmen and women are the first to bring up when asked in surveys. Duda said states with access to federal lands are not showing as sharp a decline in hunter numbers, which is attributed partially to hunting opportunity.

That's why Montana and other Western states haven't had as sharp of a loss. And hunting opportunity, as measured by numbers of game, hasn't been as good in decades, with many species over the targeted populations set by wildlife officials.

A related factor eroding hunting is the loss of the culture associated with the sport, Duda said. Hunting for most people in cities and suburbs, and especially for young people, simply isn't among the things they think about spending free time doing.

Montana No. 1

Montana, too, has lost hunters over the past decade. But the Treasure State has slowed the loss is recent years, and remains the No. 1 state in the country in terms of percent of its residents who take to the field every year.

In 1995, more than 216,000 Montana residents purchased a hunting license, according to FWP. That had fallen to 205,000 in 2000, and dropped further to 189,000 by 2002.

Yet that number has held steady since, with 190,000 residents going hunting last year. Overall, 19 percent of Montanans hunt, higher than second place North Dakota, at 17 percent of residents who hunt, and South Dakota and Wisconsin, which tied for third at 15 percent.

FWP's education bureau chief Baumeister said while the good news is that Montana is holding its own to keep hunters, there's also a problem on the horizon.

"A lot of these hunters out there are the baby boomers, people in their 40s or 50s, and they're very avid; they hunt year after year," he said. "As they age, some of them will no longer be able to hunt, or maybe their hunting partner will not be hunting anymore; they're going to drop out."

That means Montana's challenge, not unlike the rest of the country, is recruiting the next generation of hunters.

Helping youth

State officials and lawmakers have taken some steps in recent years to help kids get into hunting a little easier.

Kids ages 12-17 who have completed the hunter education course now receive a youth combination license for free for their first year of hunting. And young hunters from the age of 12-15 can kill cow elk in most hunting districts throughout the state throughout the season to help create more opportunity.

In addition, the state has a "One Shot Hunter" program, which encourages young hunters to strive for a single shot kill. Young people take a pledge to practice and work to achieve such a kill and a handful get photos with their big game posted on the agency's Internet site.

"Some of these kids are sort of motivated in more of a competitive way; they like the challenge," Baumeister said.

These programs are helping. But in the end, a kid still needs a mentor - someone to take them hunting, Duda said. There's a lot to learn, from basic woodsmanship to handling firearms and caring for game.

"It takes a hunter to make a hunter," Duda said. "People don't just wake up one day and go hunting; you have to be surrounded by that hunting culture."

That's not a problem in Montana, where hunting is still a big part of life here, Baumeister said.

Duda said although the trend continues, he's optimistic it can be turned around. The best programs in the nation to recruit young hunters attempt to mimic that natural, slow process of introducing kids to the sport.

Montana currently doesn't have any such programs, Baumeister said. But the state still has a healthy hunter tradition. The key is for families to continue to pass on that heritage.

"You've got to do your part to invest in that next generation of hunters," he said. "It is still a family responsibility."

Jim Gleason said while he planted the seed, he saw how the hunting culture helped make Shawn as avid a hunter as he is today. Sometimes Jim didn't make it out himself, but rather sent Shawn with neighbors and friends to hunt.

Gleason said he's proud to have done his part to have helped create four young hunters.

"You get that through 10 families and pretty soon you have 40 hunters," he said.