There are pictures of a young Shawn, his oldest son, showing off the deer and elk he'd bagged. Others show his four grandsons, who also hunt.
“I'm running out of space for my pictures,” Gleason said. “When I go down there, I pass them all the time - it brings back some fond memories.”
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.
Another year of preserving those family traditions, which help Montana lead the nation in hunting, will begin at sunrise Sunday - when the general big-game rifle season opens across the state.
Gleason, a retired Butte elementary schoolteacher, was among the first in his family to hunt, having picked it up while in college. He wanted to pass that along to his children when they were old enough.
Two of his children, Christine and Jason, weren't interested in hunting and that was OK, Gleason said. He never pushed it on them.
But Shawn loved 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 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 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 Montana 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.
Last year, 12.5 million Americans ages 16 and older, or about 5 percent of the population, went hunting, according to the 2006 National Survey of Fishing, Hunting and Wildlife-Associated Recreation.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service conducts the survey every five years to gauge public participation and money spent while pursuing outdoor activities.
The 2006 count was down from 14 million hunters in 1996, then about 7 percent of the U.S. population. In 2001, 13 million Americans went hunting.
The loss of hunters nationwide is attributable 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.
Chief among the factors pushing people away from hunting, Duda said, is the huge number of people moving into 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 hunting grounds, whether private or public, is another key factor that sportsmen and women are quick to mention when surveyed. Duda said states with access to federal land are not showing as sharp a decline in hunter numbers.
That's why Montana and other Western states haven't had as sharp a loss. And hunting opportunity, as measured by game populations, hasn't been as good in decades, with many species over the targeted populations set by wildlife officials.
A related factor is the loss of the culture associated with hunting, Duda said. For most people in cities and suburbs, especially young people, hunting simply isn't among the things they do in their free time.
Montana, too, has lost hunters over the past decade. But the Treasure State has slowed the loss in recent years, and remains No. 1 nationwide in percent of residents who take to the field each year.
In 1995, more than 216,000 Montana residents purchased a hunting license, according to FWP. That fell to 205,000 in 2000, and dropped 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, and South Dakota and Wisconsin, which tied for third at 15 percent.
Baumeister, FWP's education bureau chief, said while the good news is that Montana is holding its own, there's 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.
State officials and lawmakers have taken some steps in recent years to help kids get into hunting a little easier.
Would-be hunters between ages 12 and 17 who have completed Montana's hunter education course now receive a free youth combination license for their first year of hunting.
And young hunters between ages 12 and 15 can kill cow elk in most hunting districts throughout the state throughout the season.
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, kids still need 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, Baumeister said.
And although the downward trend continues nationwide, Duda said he's optimistic it can be turned around. The best programs 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 instead sent Shawn with neighbors and friends to hunt.
Gleason said he's proud to have done his part to help create four young hunters.
“You get that through 10 families and pretty soon you have 40 hunters,” he said.
Montana Standard reporter Nick Gevock can be reached at nick.gevock@mtstandard.com
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