Outdoor News

OUTDOOR NEWS:   WISCONSIN HUNTER EDUCATION INSTRUCTOR ASSN. (WHEIA) held their conference on May 6^th at the Holiday Inn in Fond du Lac, WI. WHEIA and the Dept. of Natural Resources (DNR) put on the 2017 Hunter Education Training Conference and Instructor Recognition Banquet. WHEIA was originally formed to help all instructor across the State and it still amazes me that more instructors do not belong to this great group, who’s only goals are to make teaching hunter education better through-out the years. I’m going to take a few comments from the program they handed out to everyone there. In it are some real interesting notes. The WHEIA group operates pellet gun ranges in Richfield, Mosinee, Rothschild, Sun Prairie and Green Bay. For the past several years they have staffed Hunter Education information booths at events in Madison, Rothschild, Green Bay and Milwaukee. The only way they can support themselves is through raffle sales, so the next time you are seeing them, please purchase some of the raffle tickets, and that will help them. This group is made up of volunteer instructors from the whole state, and if you are an instructor, do you belong to WHEIA?  If not, why not? When this group was founded, they would meet in Stevens Point all the time, and the members at that time had none of the easy ways to communicate with each other like today. We only had U.S. Mail, land-lines and fax machines, unlike today with computers, cell phones and internets.  With about 4,151 instructors in the state, there are only about 250 members in WHEIA. WHY? All 4,151 instructors should belong to the group. Of those 4,151 instructors they have offered around 1,100 Hunter Ed, Internet field days, Archery classes, and adult test out. Hunter Education Group of the Year goes to Waupaca Hunter Education Group. They offered a variety of classes for the public to include field days, traditional Hunter Education classes and also members of their group offered Trapper Education as well. A total of 488 students were offered certification in 2016.  Instructor of the year was Chris Wunrow represents a small area of Wisconsin and he continues to do more even when he doesn’t have to. According to John King Hunter Education Administrator, Chris goes up and beyond  in making sure the instructors in his county have the training aids they need to teach hunter education. Congratulations Chris!  And here is the best part of their awards program, three instructors who reached 50 years teaching hunter education for the DNR. They are Michael Noonan of Hazelhurst, Dick Rudolph of Medford, Jack Williams of Horicon, and to George Hanson, from Spooner who completed his 50 years and passed away on February 20, 2017. It shows why Wisconsin leads the country in having the best Hunter Education Instructors in the Unites States.

When I entered the meeting hall, I was met by smiling faces of Hunter Education Instructors of all ages and the number of youth attending shows why Wisconsin is a leader in the field of Hunter Education. They are focusing on having the Jr. Instructors stepping in to continue to teach Hunter Education in the coming years. I noticed a lot of raffle items and the fact that companies from around the country donated to the conference shows how well they approve of the hard work that hunter education instructors are doing today. The meeting started at 9am and they ran a tight ship as far as the schedule goes. They had 10 Jr. instructors present and it was mentioned that older instructors need to hep all Jr. instructors get started to take over for all the older ones.

DNR Warden April Dombrowski gave her report in which she reported that all instructors will need to help and work with the Jr. Instructors and they will need to have a bigger in-put into the program. There will be big changes coming out of the DNR in the next few years and you can expect some big changes in the way Hunter Education will be taught. Within the Law Enforcement Div. of the DNR, some big changes are happening right now. More duties are being placed on the wardens around the state. So watch for these changes, as many are happening right now in this county.

John Plenke, retired DNR Safety Warden & WHEIA Board member discussed what the future will be in teaching Hunter Education. Originally class hours were only 6 hours long and the cost for the class was $3.00. John went on to explain how the classes were when they first started and how they are now. Changes within classes are huge and we all need to be focused on how we teach a class. Without the instructors in this state, there would not be any hunter education today or in the future. The instructor will never be replaced as to a saving of our future in hunting in this country. It’s very important that all instructors go back to a training program and having classes will be longer than 6 hours. Talk was to increase class hours to around 20 to 25 hours, but that is up for discussion. It was also brought up that it would be a wonderful thing to allow those individuals with learning disabilities to take a class and have some one on one training. In some cases, one on one training is needed for some students, and instructors need to be able to provide it. The members were broken up into groups to barn storm ideas on how the classes should be run in the future and what issues need to be included in the classes.

Bob Nack DNR spokesperson for the Deer Management Assistance program (DMAP) spoke to the group about the program. He explained what it is, Why someone would enroll in it, What the DMAP has to offer the landowner(s), Public land eligibility and Participant Contributions. Other speakers were Keith Warnke, DNR Hunting and Shooting Sports Coordinator, Paul Piencilowski-WHEIA Board member, and Doug Kostreva, owner of Horny Buck Seed Company as the Keynote speaker during the Banquet. In closing, if you are a Hunter Education Instructor, do you belong to WHEIA and if not, why not. Join today. Go to: www.WHEIA.com and sign up.