Recruitment, Reactivation & Retention

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department has embarked on a campaign known as “R3” — recruitment, retention and reactivation. R3 is based on a national plan developed through a consortium of state fish and wildlife agencies, conservation organizations and sporting industry partners to bolster future involvement by hunters and target shooters, as well as by boaters and anglers on the aquatic side. Read the dynamic plan at the Council to Advance Hunting and Shooting Sports website.

The overall vision is to sustain and grow the highly successful “business model” where resource users (anglers, boaters, hunters, target shooters) fund and advocate for conservation efforts that result in habitat, species and outdoor protection including land acquisition, research, education (hunter, aquatic) and administration. Funds also go toward the development of target ranges offering safe places to shoot.

“Since 1937, hunters and target shooters have been the primary source of funding for wildlife conservation through license fees and an excise tax on sporting goods (made possible through the hunting and sporting arms industry),” the plan states.

TPWD is putting the final touches on the Texas R3 Strategic Plan, which it will distribute to stakeholders and key partners whose history, interests, advocacy and participation in hunting and target sports have existed for well over a century.

Hunting and target shooting remain activities with strong interest in Texas, and the state’s R3 plan aims to keep it that way, increasing participation and interest in the outdoors. Threats to participation include lack of access, motivation, awareness and skills. Strategies and actions in the state’s plan aim to reduce or overcome the many barriers within each of these major threat categories.