ESCANABA — A trapping supplier in Gladstone says it’s important to get kids excited about being in the outdoors.

Clint Seawright, 39, with Skunk Creek Trapping Supply said many of the trappers he saw at the National Trappers Association Convention last week in Escanaba were older. He said it’s up to the older trappers to mentor a younger person.

“I don’t see the kids excited to go out into the woods. I don’t see the kids just dying to do what their dads and uncles did. So I worry that my generation, we’re failing our children. We need to get them out there and teach them and take them to camp. It’s out job to restart that fire,” he said.

Seawright said many of the kids involved in trapping gained the interest from someone outside of their family.

He said a great event is the youth program during the winter in Hermansville where the U.P. Trappers Association shows kids how to trap.