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Sierra Sportsmen:
Interview: Holly Heyser

Holly Heyser is a recovering newspaper reporter and editor who now teaches journalism at her alma mater, California State University, Sacramento, where she advises and manages the campus newspaper. During her time in the newspaper business, she worked for papers including the San Jose Mercury News, the Orange County (Calif.) Register, the St. Paul Pioneer Press and the (Norfolk) Virginian-Pilot. She took up hunting in 2006, the year she started teaching, after her boyfriend - also a newspaper reporter - kept feeding her delicious wild game meals and inviting her to join him in the field.

In addition to teaching, Heyser also works as a freelance food photographer (credits include The Art of Eating, Gastronomica and Meatpaper) and she has a blog about her hunting adventures called NorCal Cazadora - Becoming a Huntress.

Q: You write the NorCal Cazadora blog-- what is it about, and the name?

That name comes from my name on the Duck Hunting Chat, which I joined in 2006, when I started hunting. "NorCal" is where I live -- Northern California. People around here have lots of NorCal T-shirts and bumper stickers because we love where we live, even though it's not L.A. or San Francisco, which define California for so much of the country. "Cazadora" is Spanish for "huntress." I love Spanish, and I love the Spanish and Mexican influences on California, and when I joined the Duck Chat, I wanted a distinctive name, and that's what I came up with. When I started my blog a year later, I decided I'd just stick with that, though I added "Becoming a Huntress" to denote my status as a new hunter. I'm not an expert at hunting, but I sure am an expert at being new!

I do three basic things with the blog: hunting stories, gear reviews and commentary. Originally, I thought I'd just write about what's in the news about women hunting, but once I told a few hunting stories, I found readers loved them - and not just fellow huntresses. Turns out almost everyone in the hunting world likes a well-told story about a hunt, because we can all relate to every bit of it. In my case, even experienced hunters like the stories, because they can relate to being new and trying to master the complexities of hunting. I get a lot of "I remember when…" comments, and "keep up the good work -- you're learning." I feel like I have a cheering section, which is pretty cool. It keeps me going when the hunting isn't going well.

Gear reviews are really important for women, and that's my most popular category of posts on the blog -- the item in the index people hit most. There is precious little hunting clothing for women, and often we have to buy it online, unless we live near a major hunting retailer like Cabela's. And while men's clothes are very standardized in terms of fit and size, women's are not -- some clothing lines run large for their size, some small; some are made for women with skinny legs, some for women with big thighs. Women want to hear another woman's perspective before making a leap and buying online. I also really enjoy the opportunity to support women's hunting clothing companies by writing about their products. Most of these companies are run by independent female entrepreneurs, and I want them to be successful. Writing about their products actually convinced me to stop buying men's hunting gear, period, when a women's alternative is available.

Finally, commentary. I've always been very opinionated. I spent 19 years in the newspaper business, where I had to keep my opinion to myself. Two years ago I left the business to teach journalism at my alma mater, Sacramento State, and it's like the duct tape has been ripped from my mouth -- I love it! There's always a lot of interesting stuff going on in the hunting world, and I love bringing it to readers' attention, adding my two cents and starting a discussion with my readers.

Q: Is it safe to say your blog comes from a "woman's perspective" on hunting?

Oh, definitely, but not so much that a man would look at the blog and think, "This isn't for me." I think probably 75 percent of my readers are male.

But I always highlight female issues. For example: I just wrote about a new women's clothing company that makes a "double fly" pant -- a regular fly like men's pants have, and a zipper all the way around the crotch so that we don't have to pull down our pants when we've got to "go." Guys would never think about that, but it's a huge issue for women -- if it's a pain to take a leak, then you're going to limit your liquid intake and get dehydrated. I do that all the time, and it's very unhealthy.

Surprisingly, men often read the posts that are geared to women. The same day I did that post I got an email from a guy saying I cracked him up with my little dissertation on peeing from a treestand (and why I wouldn't want to do it).

Q: Do you think more women are hunting these days? If so, why?

The latest statistics from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service show our numbers are basically holding steady, but we're probably about to see a big boom because the number of girls ages 6-15 has doubled in the past 15 years, and you can't say that for any other demographic in hunting. I'm guessing this is in large part due to a new kind of dad out there who's just as eager to take his little girl out hunting as his little boy, and I give these men major props. Of course, it could be moms too, but there are nine male hunters for every one female hunter, so statistically, the credit has got to go to dads.

Anecdotally, I can't really say I've seen an increase because I've been hunting for just two years now. But I participate in a lot of hunting forums, and I hear people remarking all the time about how many more women are out there these days. Also, through the blog, I've made a lot of friends, and we're starting to have lots of girls outings, which is really fun. In January, I went out with three other women (and two female dogs!) on a duck hunt over a traveling wooden wigeon decoy named Bald Pete. This thing has gone all over North America -- people hunt over it, then sign the log book and add photos when possible. Our hunt was the only all-female hunt, and it got a LOT of attention. It was crazy fun.

I'm also very actively involved in getting women into hunting. I'm a member of California Waterfowl's Women's Outdoor Connections Committee, which just held a women's and kids' shoot day at Coyote Valley Sporting Clays. I can tell you there were some women who walked in there never having fired a gun before and walked out ready to start hunting.

We're also holding a Valentine's Daddy-Daughter Dinner in February in the Bay Area, which is going to be fantastic and adorable. It'll be a traditional duck dinner -- food, raffle, auction -- but really focusing on the girls. We'll have special auction items for girls and women too, such as a new pair of pink binoculars, a signature product of Keli Van Cleave of Pink Outdoors, made by Alpen Optics.

Q: What do you think women bring to the "traditional" world of hunting?

A lot. One of the most important things right now is credibility. Hunting's biggest problem right now is that the non-hunting public doesn't know much about hunting, and has terrible stereotypes of hunters -- like we're all drunken, lawless poachers who go on shooting rampages in the forest, cut off trophy heads and leave the rest behind to rot. Like all stereotypes, this one obviously has real-life examples, but it does not represent who we are. I live in a world of non-hunters -- journalists and university professors -- and when I tell people I hunt, their first question is almost always, "Do you eat what you kill?" Well, no shit, Sherlock. Do you think I going to spend eight hours shivering in a marsh to bring down a few ducks and NOT eat them? Please. But can I blame them for not knowing? That's a stereotype, propagated brilliantly by folks like the Humane Society of the United States, and we haven't done enough to combat it.

So why are women important? Here's why: It's easy to stereotype a male hunter, because once he's in his camo, you can't tell if he's an insurance executive or an unemployed alcoholic. But when you see a woman out there in the field, it's immediately difficult to categorize her, because she doesn't fit the mold. Women are nurturing. Can you imagine a woman going on a shooting rampage in the forest and leaving everything but the racks to rot? No way! In fact, research by Responsive Management in Virginia shows that meat is the No. 1 reason women hunt, and hunting for meat has the highest level of acceptance by the general public.

This stereotyping issue is obviously unfair to men, but it presents a great opportunity for women hunters to be positive ambassadors to the non-hunting world.

Another thing women bring to hunting is our style of relating to one another. When I hunt with men, they'll always rib each other for missing shots. When I hunt with women, we really cheer on each other's good shots, and we coo soothingly about the missed shots. "Oh, that was a tough one -- I don't think I could've gotten that." There's nothing wrong with men's way of relating to each other, but we women are definitely more nurturing, and it shows when we hunt.

Q: What are some of the things you learned about yourself while hunting?

The first thing I learned is that all that play I did as a child had purpose. When I was a kid, we lived on five acres near an irrigation ditch in the San Joaquin Valley, and I would spend my free time prowling around the property, examining plants and animals, hiding, seeing how close animals would get to me if they couldn't see me. The very first thing I thought when I started hunting was, "Wow, this is just like play!" Not that taking animals' lives is a game, but that my play as a child had a purpose, just like it does with puppies and kittens. This is what I'm wired to do.

I've also become much more aware of the food chain, and my place in it. On that five-acre farm, my family raised animals for meat, so I was no stranger to slaughtering and butchering, but going out and doing it myself makes it much more real. I actually eat less meat now than I ever have, and I never, ever waste it. I have so much respect for it. And I also see animals much more as equals. Anti-hunters think we're animal haters, but we're really not.

Being an active participant in the food chain makes me understand we are all equal occupants of this earth. Before I started hunting, I never apologized to a hamburger, but I almost always apologize now to the animals I've shot, and I express gratitude for the sustenance they give me. Vegans have told me that this is a sign of my guilt and I should just stop eating meat, but I disagree with that because I accept that I'm an omnivore whose body needs meat. What it really is is a sign of my respect for the life around me, and a reflection of my understanding that killing should never be taken lightly.

Q: What kind of hunting is your favorite?

Ducks, hands-down. You have to be really obsessed to hunt ducks, because you need a lot of spendy gear, and the very best day of duck hunting is what most people consider a miserable day best spent by the fireplace: cold, wet and windy. Ducks are very, very challenging because they fly crazy fast -- you have to do a lot of calculating every time to figure out where to place that shot. It's not just broadside/quartering forward/quartering away -- it's angle of flight, speed, altitude, maneuvers. It's really complex, and I've always craved complexity.

And for me, as a new hunter, the fact that I can spend the whole day hunting and get many opportunities to shoot is important, because I'm still learning, and I need lots of opportunity. Let's just say I'm the ammo manufacturers' best friend at this stage.

Q: What do you think are the challenges to the hunting experience these days, and what gives you hope those challenges can be met?

Loss of habitat and ignorance about hunting. I think we can address ignorance to a certain extent -- that's just simple marketing that we can do whenever we put our minds and wallets to it. But loss of habitat is HUGE. It drives me crazy seeing new subdivisions named "Pheasant Ridge" and "Teal Estates." What a joke! But this is the good thing about a housing bust that's coinciding with a huge increase in gas prices -- suddenly McMansions in the exurbs aren't looking so smart anymore. In-fill development is looking better and better.

The good thing is that hunters put huge amounts of money into habitat restoration and preservation, so we're part of the solution. But some of this goes into private property, which is great for the animals, but not great for the hunters who can't afford club memberships. If we increase the number of hunters -- which I think can happen -- there's going to be huge pressure on the limited public areas, and if we don't provide more areas to hunt, those new hunters are going to give up and go away -- and take their money with them.

Another challenge is going to be the lead ammunition issue. California just banned lead ammo for most types of hunting in about one-fifth of the state inhabited by the California Condor. There's a lot of talk about banning lead ammo nationwide. I can't help but think this is a good thing for the environment, for animals and for humans -- all this lead can't be a good thing. But non-lead ammo is very limited now, and excruciatingly expensive -- I pay $2 per cartridge. When lead shot was banned for waterfowl in the 1980s, there was a huge die-off of hunters because the steel shot was horrible and expensive. Our numbers still haven't recovered. If we're not careful about how we transition to non-lead, we'll drive a lot of people out of all forms of hunting, and those people will take with them all those dollars that go into habitat, whether it's through the taxes that feed Pittman-Robertson or all those duck dinners they go to.

It's interesting to note that a recent report by the American Ornithologists' Union on the future of the California Condor called for a nationwide lead ammo ban, but it also highlighted the importance of hunters, who leave gutpiles that provide vital sustenance to the condor. And the report strongly praised Arizona's approach, where they provide free non-lead ammo to hunters and achieve 80 percent compliance, and recommended that California and other states in the condor range look to Arizona as an example. I think what that means is there's a way to do this right, if people on all sides keep an open mind, listen to each other and work together.