Oregon outdoor scene evolving from hunting, fishing

Once upon a time in Oregon and the United States, if you identified yourself as an outdoorsman, there was a good chance you were talking about hunting and fishing.

The ethos of Ernest Hemingway's hunting and fishing stories and the philosophical nature of Norman Maclean's "A River Runs Through It" permeated a culture in which men traveled to the forest with a rifle or fishing rod in hand.

In the 1970s, one in four Oregonians went fishing and one in seven went hunting, according to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.

That was the culture that I grew up with. In my family, you didn't go hiking without a gun or boating without a way to catch fish.

But as the decades have passed, the concept of outdoor recreation has undergone a slow but steady transformation. The outdoor experience is no longer dominated by fishing and hunting but has broadened with the expansion of traditional activities such as hiking and new activities such as stand-up paddle-boarding.

Despite a statewide population that has almost doubled, there are fewer fishers and hunters in Oregon today than in the 1970s.

The rate of participation has declined by half, Fish and Wildlife says, with one in eight Oregonians fishing and one in 17 hunting since 2010.

So what happened?

Well, a number of things.

The decline of fisheries and game is one major factor.

Dominic Aiello, president of the Oregon Outdoor Council, pointed out that the success rate for bagging mule deer in Oregon dropped to 28 percent in 2010 from 57 percent in 1970. For bucks, it dropped to 17 percent in 2011 from 28 percent in 1971.

And the days when you could walk across Oregon's rivers on the backs of salmon and steelhead, as the old-timers like to say, have long passed into history.

"The lack of game is probably the largest influencing factor," Aiello said. "If you go four years without filling your freezer with meat, you're probably going to try hunting somewhere else or quit altogether."

But the biggest reason for the shift probably has less to do with hunting and fishing themselves than with the way people consume the outdoors in general.

The rise of hiking, mountain biking, kayaking, rock climbing, wildlife-watching, photography and any number of similar subsets, such as adventure racing and stand-up paddle-boarding, have spread out the ways people enjoy rivers, lakes and forest.

These "not-consumptive" outdoor sports, ones that do not involve physically consuming the natural resource, are often viewed as easier and cheaper than hunting and fishing, and they are particularly popular among younger generations.

According to the 2015 Outdoor Participation Report, produced each year by the Outdoor Foundation in Washington, D.C., the most popular outdoor activities among people ages 6 to 24 are:

1. Running, jogging and trail running.

2. Bicycling (road, mountain and BMX bikes).

3. Camping (car, backyard and RV).

4. Fishing (freshwater, saltwater and fly).

5. Hiking.

The fastest-growing outdoor sports, according to the same report, include adventure racing, kayaking, backpacking and biking.

The shift can be seen everywhere and felt in the culture, particularly in Oregon, Washington and California.

Instead of Hemingway, perhaps the best-known scribe of outdoor literature today is Portland's Cheryl Strayed, whose book "Wild" is about backpacking the Pacific Crest Trail.

Travel Oregon, the state's tourism commission, has broadcast a vision that is heavy on postcard beauty and fitness-focused activities, such as hiking, biking and camping, and light on fishing and hunting.

On the wild section of Southern Oregon's Rogue River, a stream famous for salmon and steelhead for a century, outfitter-supported hiking trips have surpassed fishing trips.

The implications of the shift are easy to spot. Oregon's Department of Fish and Wildlife, which relies on fees from hunting and fishing licenses, is facing a $32 million budget shortfall.

Meanwhile, the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department, which specializes in non-consumptive outdoor experiences at its state parks, has seen attendance jump from 28 million in 1975 to 45.5 million in 2014. Parks and Recreation has a more stable budget, buoyed by dedicated Oregon Lottery dollars that Oregonians voted into the state constitution.

None of this is to say that fishing and hunting are going anywhere.

Hunting has seen some growth nationwide, though not in Oregon, and remains a big part of the culture in Oregon's rural areas. It remains an economic powerhouse, as well, with no better evidence than the opening of Cabela's sporting goods stores in Springfield and Tualatin in the past few years.

Fishing, meanwhile, remains one of Oregon's most popular outdoor activities and economic drivers, and that seems unlikely to change soon. Even though it has declined over the years, there are still 490,000 resident anglers — with an additional 120,000 coming from out of state — which ranks fishing as one of Oregon's best-loved activities.

But times have changed, and I should know.

Today, when I go to the forest, I'm more likely to shoot with a camera than a shotgun. When I head to the river, I'm just as likely to hold a whitewater kayaking paddle as a fishing rod.

I still fish and occasionally hunt — and love both — but Oregon is blessed with a landscape that fits so many outdoor adventures it doesn't make sense to limit yourself to just two.

Zach Urness grew up hunting grouse, ducks and deer in Minnesota and spent more time trying to catch steelhead on the Rogue River with a fly rod than anything else. He's been an outdoors writer, photographer and videographer in Oregon for seven years.