Doug Leier posted on September 22, 2008 14:32 :: 1739 Views
During the fall of 1983 I was 11 years old, and like many North Dakota 6th graders I was enamored with sports and the outdoors. The order depended on the day, and for the most part the draw was equal.
Fall was a combination of friends, doves, football, pheasants, ducks and more football. For that reason, to this day autumn remains my favorite time of year. It combines my love of everything outdoors sandwiched between cool edges of the day and the warmth of a clear autumn afternoon, even better after the first freeze knocks out the skeeters, but I won't get too picky.
As I wrote last week, we've been fortunate in North Dakota to maintain or even increase our hunter numbers while most states are having just the opposite experience. Part of that is due to good habitat which has corresponded to high wildlife populations, part of it may be due to a number of youth hunting incentives developed over the last two decades.
And another part of it, which I neglected to mention last week, is the hundreds of volunteer hunter education instructors across the state who've made this possible. Simply put, without the dedicated volunteer instructors, myself and perhaps thousands of others would not be hunting.
Which takes me back a quarter century ago to LaMoure, N.D., when I enrolled in hunter safety. While I don't remember the exact coursework, I do remember having to miss part of a Friday night football game to take my final test. Talk about being pulled in two directions.
I remember my dad relaying that another football game would come the next week, and the hunter education test was a one-time deal. It was good advice even though I missed the first half of the game.
Optional hunter education began in North Dakota in the 1970s. In 1979 the state legislature made hunter education mandatory and required that all people born after 1961 complete a certified course in order to purchase a hunting license. Since then more than 150,000 North Dakotans have been certified.
While I can't find the actual card right now, I can still see the orange, tattered, laminated card with a signature from instructor Barry Townsend who signed off on my final test. Understand, the people who make up this legion of volunteers enjoy fall hunting much like the rest of us, but when the snow flies and the ground freezes solid, these instructors will again offer up classes to the next group of North Dakota hunters.
If you or someone you know will need hunter education, be sure to check out the Department website at gf.nd.gov, and click “online services” and “hunter education” to find out when and where the next courses will be held in your area. Keep in mind, some communities may only offer one course per year and most courses are held between December and May.
While the course has evolved over the past decades with modern audio/visual learning tools, and even more options for older students to learn segments on their own, the goal remains to graduate safer and better informed hunters into the field.
If you are interested in helping pass along the tradition of North Dakota's outdoor heritage, please contact North Dakota hunter education coordinator Jon Hanson.
For those who've taken and passed hunter education, remember your instructor who made it possible. My thanks go out to Barry Townsend and the rest of the hunter safety instructors then and now.
Doug Leier is a biologist with the Game and Fish Department. He can be reached by email: dleier@nd.gov
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