Sports - Mixed Feelings

This past weekend was our Hunter Safety Training course weekend. For those of you who don't know, the taking and passing of this course is mandatory and a certificate indicating completion must be obtained prior to being able to purchase a hunting license. The state certified instructors are the gate keepers to all those wanting to participate in the hunting sports.

On Saturday, my team of Terry Wetmiller, Jim Picard and myself certified 56 new hunters completing the basic course, or as we refer to it as the "gun" course and in addition, on Sunday we certified 53 additional new bow or archery hunters. That, for three instructors, is a load and I'm very proud of my team for the number of hunters we put through as well as the test scores we saw that indicated we did a good job.

That's the positive side of things. On the other side of the coin is that many of these students were forced to come to our classes from Warren, Washington, Hamilton and Clinton counties because there were no courses scheduled in their areas. One gentleman drove all the way from Ticonderoga. I had three other gentlemen who wanted to attend our course but couldn't match up with the schedule and had to go to Vermont to be certified. And because our courses in Saratoga County were filled by people from these other counties, we had to turn away dozens of local applicants right up to the day the courses were being held.

The reason for this is that many of the certified instructors in the northern counties are not scheduling courses. What I am hearing is that they have some sort of problem with the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) for whom we work as instructors. All instructors are volunteers who give their time free of charge because they love the sport of hunting and I don't much care what you non-gun people think, hunting is a traditional sport enjoyed by millions and is a healthy activity for our young people to become involved in for many, many reasons. We can debate this topic at another time.

The point I'm trying to make here is that for those of us who love this sport and want to see it grow and be sustained by new and younger people taking part in it, refusing to schedule Hunter Safety Training courses is not the way to "get even" with some political entity for whatever the reasons might be. And trust me, my fellow instructors, I know the problems you are having because I also have the same problems and I'm also dealing with the same issues and people. But cutting off the supply line of new hunters by refusing or making it difficult for them to obtain a hunting license isn't the way to protest. All this does is to shoot ourselves in the foot (please excuse the modifier). 

By refusing to conduct courses and limiting the number of new hunters obtaining licenses, we not only prevent new blood in our sport, we also exacerbate the never-ending issue of money. Our sport depends heavily on the monies taken in by the sale of licenses to say nothing of the downstream income realized from tax monies generated by the purchase of clothing and equipment.

So I ask you, my fellow instructors, who are you hurting? Do you really think that the DEC is going to be affected by your actions? Do you really think that you are going to prevent people from getting licensed? Do you really think that these people will not drive to wherever courses are being held? The real answer is to hold the courses and show the DEC we can do it without them, that we are resourceful, independent men and woman who cherish hunting more than politics.

See you outdoors!