Each year at the ATA Trade Show, I spend most of my time reporting on meetings with many of the Archery Trade Association’s partners in state and federal wildlife agencies. Some meetings start two hours before the Show opens each morning so archery dealers and manufacturers can hear and share ideas with agency chiefs and other VIPs before “reporting for duty” at their booths.

The annual ATA Trade Show is everyone’s chance weigh in on topics that will affect archery and bowhunting for years to come. For instance, at January’s Show, ATA representatives met with agency and industry representatives to discuss wolf management, deer management in Michigan, and the ATA’s new Explore Bowhunting program for youths. It's also a great place to honor those who go out of their way to promote archery and bowhunting, such as Ralph and Vicki Cianciarulo, who Muzzy Products honored with its annual "Tall Man Award" during a ceremony at the company's booth. 

Pittsburgh Steel QB Ben Roethlisberger poses for photographs with BowTech staff during the 2012 ATA Trade Show.

Unlike celebrities who drop in or work all three days of the Show – whether it’s rock star Ted Nugent, Pittsburgh Steeler quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, or the industry’s home-grown celebrities like Lee & Tiffany Lakosky, the Drury brothers, or Greg & Jake Miller – folks recognize few of the agency VIPs. They blend in with the other 8,000-plus people, which this year included a record 513 exhibitors for the second straight time. The Show also attracted more than 2,700 retailers from 49 states and 32 countries during its Jan. 10-12 run at the Greater Columbus (Ohio) Convention Center.

Among the VIPs you might have missed in January were Daniel Ashe, director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, who discussed gray-wolf management during a Jan. 11 breakfast meeting with several ATA Board members and Miles Moretti, president/CEO at Mule Deer Foundation; and David Allen, president/CEO of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation.

Among those meeting to talk wolves during the 2012 ATA Trade Show were, from left, front row, Michele Eichler, Muzzy Products; Myles Moretti, Mule Deer Foundation; Mitch King, ATA; Dan Ashe, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; David Allen, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation; and Dave Gordon, Gordon Composites Inc. Back row, from left, Wayne Endicott, Bow Rack, Oregon; Pete Shepley, PSE; Ben Summers, TRU Ball; and Mark Copeland, Jay’s Sporting Goods, Michigan.

Mitch King, ATA director of government relations, moderated the meeting. Ashe was pleased to see wolves removed from the federal Endangered Species List in the Great Lakes states, which took effect Jan. 27. By delisting wolves, the federal government is allowing state wildlife agencies in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan to take over wolf-management work, which will eventually include hunting and trapping seasons.

Mitch King, right, ATA director of government relations, moderates an ATA Trade Show meeting between Michigan DNR director Rodney Stokes and several Michigan-based manufacturers and retailers.

Ashe said that while it’s important for states to manage their wolf populations, he doesn’t consider wolves the biggest challenge to healthy populations of big-game animals in the United States. “Predators exist for every game species we hunt, whether you’re hunting ducks, geese, elk or deer,” he said. “The bigger threat to all game species isn’t hawks, eagles, wolves or mountain lions. The biggest threat is declining habitat quality, loss of habitat and fragmentation of habitat.”

The day before, shortly after lunch, Rodney Stokes, director of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, met with ATA-member dealers and manufacturers from his state. Among them was  Greg Sesselmann, founder and president of ScentLok; Larry Griffith, president and owner of Bohning Inc., and several archery dealers from the Great Lakes state.

Ralph and Vicki Cianciarulo, far left and right, received the 2012 Muzzy Tall Man Award from Michele Eichler, right, and her mother, Barbara Musachia, during the 2012 ATA Trade Show.

Sesselmann encouraged Stokes to also seek ways to make Michigan a destination for deer hunters, instead of a source of hunters who travel to hunt Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa and other states. Sesselmann believes Michigan has the potential to produce far more quality deer if hunters realized all it takes is better habitat and self-restraint on shooting young bucks.

Rodney Stokes, Michigan DNR director

Stokes agreed Michigan has that potential, but worries that the DNR no longer has the funding to do necessary habitat work on many of its public lands. “I don’t know any household anywhere that can get by today on an income level that hasn’t changed in 15 years,” Stokes said. “We are not preserving the quality of habitat on state properties the way we’d like.”

Meanwhile, celebrities like Nugent and Roethlisberger couldn’t move more than a few feet down the aisles before stopping to sign autographs and pose for photos with archery dealers.Roethlisbergersaid he likes to attend the show to check out the latest bowhunting gear. Although he gets little time to bowhunting during football season, he spends many of his Tuesdays off in the woods.

Nugent told interviewers he likes attending the ATA Show because it’s “his show, and these are his people.” Nugent said he is a “blood brother to anyone who follows the mystical flight of the arrow.”