It's 8 a.m. Official shooting time begins.

The parking lot at the Springer check-in station is nearly full of trucks.

Almost all the hunters have already fanned out across the windswept prairie, distant dots of bright orange on a sea of tall, tan grass.

A couple of distant cracks fill the air, the sounds of a shotgun popping the first shots of the day at a flushing bird.

Pheasant season has been going for some time now, but only the little people are armed here today. It's the second and final youth-only hunting day at the Springer Wildlife Habitat Management Area in southeast Wyoming.

Well, most of the hunters today are little. The ones in their teens are taller than most of the dads who accompany them.

The special hunt, organized by the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, is for kids under 18 who have completed their hunter's safety courses. Similar youth-only days will be held at Glendo State Park each Sunday this month and at the Sand Mesa and Yellowtail Habitat Management Areas on Nov. 17.

The hunts are one of many programs Wyoming Game and Fish offers to help parents pass on the tradition of hunting to their kids.

Ready to get going this morning is 12-year-old Tanner Wickham. Standing in the parking lot, shotgun in hand and wearing an orange camo-patterned baseball cap that's a little too big for his head, he's patiently waiting for the go-ahead from Grandpa that it's time to take the field.

Grandpa is talking to a reporter.

"This is my first time ever doing a hunt for youth-only and I think it's fantastic," his grandfather, Orris Wickham, says.

Orris Wickham, who helps organize youth activities for the Cheyenne Rifle and Pistol Club, says programs such as today's youth-only pheasant hunt are needed to help preserve the traditions of hunting and gun ownership. He's among many hunters today who are concerned with the steady decline of interest in hunting and fishing in recent generations.

He turns to his grandson: "You ready, Tanner?"

Tanner nods. He was born ready.

The two are joined by Tanner's uncle, Brent Wickham, and his young Springer spaniel, Deuce.

At first Tanner leads the way, wading through the waist-high grass. Then Deuce is let off the leash and bounds past the boy, zigging and zagging, nose on the ground. The black-and-white dog meanders off course in all the excitement. Brent Wickham shouts out the young pup's name and the eager bird dog races to the front and gets back to the busy canine work of sniffing out birds.

Like Tanner, this is Deuce's first pheasant hunt too.

According to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimates, the number of hunters in the United States has been slowly but surely declining since at least 1996. In nine states of the mountain west region, including Wyoming, there has been a combined decline of 15 percent in hunting participation in that time.

While the number of big game hunters has held steady over the past five years nationwide, participation in migratory bird hunting has plummeted 22 percent, and interest in hunting other small game has dropped by 15 percent. Fishing has taken a hit too, losing 12 percent of its participants over the last decade nationwide.

For eight years the Wyoming Game and Fish Department has put on youth-only hunts at Springer and other locations around the state. The agency also puts on an annual outdoors Expo and has several other youth programs in the hopes of reversing, or at least slowing, the apparent fade of interest in hunting.

Hunting isn't typically a sport a person can jump right into. It's difficult to learn. It takes time. It also takes the help of another, usually a parent, to get started.

"I think fishing and hunting just doesn't seem to be a priority anymore," says the Game and Fish Department's Steve Schafer who raises pheasants and releases them on hunting areas in southeast Wyoming.

Hunting, traditionally a rural activity, is getting lost in today's busy urban world of single-parent households and two-income families.

"There's so much other stuff going on. Families have changed, more single parent households," Schafer says. "Like any tradition or type of heritage you want (hunting) to continue on down and hopefully their kids will be doing it."

During youth-only hunts, adults must accompany hunters under the age of 14, but the adults can't hunt. They just come along to teach, supervise and spend time with their kids. The hunts also allow the kids a chance to hunt without having to compete with older folks in the field for birds.

While statistics show that hunting and fishing participation has declined over the last decade, the number of wildlife watchers continues to grow.

More people are getting outside. Fewer are hunting.

Birders, wildlife photographers and other watchers outnumber traditional sportspersons in the United States by 28.7 million.

In 2006, there were 29.9 million anglers, 12.5 million hunters, and 71.1 million watchers.

Hunters and anglers pay most of the bills for managing wildlife by buying licenses and paying excise taxes on sporting equipment. The money they spend funds state wildlife agencies. A decline in hunting interest means less money for states.

"It's a concern," Schafer says. "For us it's a really important source of revenue for the department."

After an hour or so of hunting, Grandpa has fallen behind young Tanner, who is in pursuit of a cagey rooster pheasant with his Uncle Brent and their dog, Deuce.

Orris Wickam stops to chat with a group from Cheyenne who are heading back to the truck. John Hurley Sr. and Dean Temte are grinning from ear to ear. So are their 16-year-old sons, John Hurley, Jr., and Ian Temte. They've got four birds between them.

"I ran out of ammo," John Hurley, Jr. says.

Yeah, the hunting was pretty good.

The dads also have two daughters that they plan to take hunting soon. Passing on the tradition of hunting to their children is important, they say, but it just doesn't seem to be a priority for many others of their generation who are interested in other things.

"People are busier now. There are a lot of other distractions out there," John Hurley, Sr., says. "We're a big hunting state but nationwide it's declining. They're just drifting away."