Growing up in rural communities tends to mean you’re growing up around a lot of hunters. My grandfather is a sponsored hunter, my dad and him always out traveling the US to hunt.

I’ve always seen the conservation side of hunting, but recently I’ve realized that most people who didn’t grow up in rural communities are attacking hunters for things in which they truly have no experience.

While I stick to bushcraft and other survival skills, my best friend, Hannah Mabbott, is an avid hunter and conservationist.

She is killing it in a male-dominated industry, so I sat down with her to ask her more about her passion.

She was drawn to the sport of hunting by her respect for wildlife. Hunting has exposed her to a more primitive way of life, making her feel more connected to the natural world. Not only does she hunt for animals while she’s out there, but she also forages.

She gets to see how ecosystems work first-hand and partake legally in helping maintain populations while feeding herself and friends for the next year.

She gets to learn how breeding, diseases, and other naturally occurring events are impacted and intertwine with wildlife populations.

The criticism she gets for being a female hunter is unhinged. She gets backlash from a lot of male hunters doubting her hunting abilities, saying things like, “women hunters are frauds” or “you only do easy hunts!” There are a lot of assumptions that a man taught her everything she knows when in reality she’s learned just as much on her own and from her mom, then she has from any male role models.

There are women who are self-taught, who really do just get out in nature, not guided by men.

Hannah also does all of her own European mounts, all by herself, by hand.

If there was one thing she could tell non-hunters and anti-hunters, is that true hunters will not poach, they will turn in poachers. Also, that tag amounts being given out is lowering due to populations being low after last year’s harsh winter; not because of people advocating against hunting.

Not only does her hunting help conservation, but it also helps people who regularly use the outdoors for backpacking, skiing, hiking, climbing, camping, etc.

Currently, there is a cougar that she is tracking that is so big, he has a hunting range of 160 miles in a day according to ODFW biologists that she works with. This cat has been terrorizing the community, deer populations, and he has been killing his own kittens so he can breed even more, and he continues to outsmart hunters.

The scary part about hunting cats is they are silent and, most of the time you are in the outdoors, they are actually following you. You never know they are behind you until you are tracing back your own path and see giant cougar prints over your footprints

She is also an advocate of poachers getting their licenses revoked completely, permanently. She says, “The sport of hunting is not a sport of reckless killing that isn’t going to support your family; that isn’t what the sport is about. It’s about helping maintain populations, getting back in touch with primitive instincts, and feeding yourself... You need to have a respect for life, and for the life that is leaving when you pull the trigger or release your arrow.”

For more information on hunting and conservation, she suggests you check out the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife's page.