This fall they will feed their families locally-sourced free-range meat that has been foraging on natural grasses, leaves, nuts and berries—clean, delicious food without a trace of chemical additives.
And they will be pilloried on social media by strident voices who otherwise advocate that we move away from industrial food production and eat locally-sourced, healthful food.
They are women hunters.
It may surprise many to learn that this fall more than 1 million females over age 16 will enthusiastically take to America’s woods and waters to ethically harvest wild game. And the pheasants and ducks and deer they bring home are in most places across the American landscape more abundant than since frontier times.
Tammy Bashore of Sioux Falls is among 18 individual female hunters across the country profiled in a revealing new book called Why Women Hunt. The book is the first of its kind. Author and hunter K. J. Houtman of Minnesota takes an intimate look at the lives of these intrepid outdoor women. Their diverse personal stories explore what motivates them to connect—spiritually and physically—with the natural world in one of humankind’s most ancient food-gathering rituals.
Not only did Tammy not grow up hunting; she grew up not really liking meat. It wasn’t about “saving the animals.” It was a dislike for the meat: where it came from, what producers did to it—adding hormones—and the whole packaging and processing part of it.
Now Bashore and her family, including two young children, bond by exploring the beautiful sweeping countryside of South Dakota together, hunting for the state’s iconic ring-necked pheasants and pronghorn antelope, along with mule and white-tailed deer and wild turkey. She told the author that she wishes women who don’t see themselves as hunters would try it. “Maybe if they could just go along and watch what happens and see how close they can get,” Tammy said “There’s so much to it—so much more.”
According to the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s latest National Survey of Fishing, Hunting and Wildlife-Associated Recreation, 10.3 million American males hunted in 2016, a number that has been steadily declining in recent decades as traditional wildlife-sustaining habitat is obliterated by strip malls and tract housing. Fewer distracted suburban young men are hunting. However, according to the exhaustive survey, 1.1 million women hunted in 2016—and their participation is statistically holding steady.
These dedicated outdoor women—of all ages, professions, education and cultural backgrounds—make up an increasing proportion of licensed American hunters. There is a real story here.
Publication August 1, 2019
Durable laminated hardcover
243 pages, all color
8.5 x 11 inches on heavy matte stock
Fully illustrated with 90 original color photos
ISBN 9780999309346
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018948565
Printed in North America
$49.95 exclusively from Wild River Press
Wild River Press: www.wildriverpress.com
Book website address: www.whywomenhunt.com
Reviewers may freely quote passages in the book. For extended excerpt rights and radio/television appearances of the author and hunters featured in Why Women Hunt: publisher Thomas R. Pero 425-486-3638
3D color images of the cover available: tom@wildriverpress.com