While teaching hunter safety in Waupaca with another instructor Oct. 1, something magical happened.
A boy about 12 ran excitedly toward the parking lot of the church, where fellow instructor Chris Hazen and I were teaching a group at our tree stand safety station.
“Dad, I passed!” the boy yelled as he approached his dad’s car.
I caught my breath and felt my eyes getting ready for tears. I didn’t want to embarrass myself in front of this group of kids, so I pinched them back.
There’s no payment for the hundreds of volunteer instructors who share their time and talents in order to help new hunters, trappers, bowhunters and ATV riders learn the safe and legal way to do things, but the rewards are enormous.
I’ve taught hunter education since 1987, first in Iowa, then in Wisconsin. Our current group, headed by Paul Piencikowski, has taught more students than almost any other group in the state and has won several awards for our efforts. We’ve had classes as large as 130 students, thanks to our dedicated group of more than 20 teachers.
While every instructor has to give up a few weekends a year, especially during bow season, seeing a young boy or girl pass their field test is always worth the effort.
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources hopes to recruit more outdoor education instructors because of a decline in these volunteers statewide, which in turn makes it more difficult for young hunters to get their credentials for hunting on their own.
It’s no secret that hunting has been losing participants nationwide in recent years. Youngsters have school sports, video games and dozens of other distractions. Add in more single-parent families (many of whom never learned to hunt) and older hunters leaving the sport, and you have a recipe for declining numbers.
Although hunter numbers briefly shot up during the COVID-19 pandemic, in part because more people found themselves looking for outdoor activities and also because there was more need for economical ways of feeding families, hunting license sales have begun to decline again. And there are fewer volunteers nationwide and Wisconsin is following the pattern, said Ashley Van Egtern, the DNR’s hunter education program specialist.
Van Egtern, essentially the assistant administrator for the state’s hunter safety program, has worked closely for many years with administrator Jon King, who left on June 28. She was preparing last year’s program report and noticed the decline in instructors, which was accelerated by the pandemic (for a brief period, there were no in-person hunter ed classes and even those under age 18 were permitted to take online classes alone to satisfy their mandated education in order to hunt alone).
Instructor numbers declined 19% from 2020 to 2021, with about 2,600 active volunteers. Last year, 28,243 students statewide were certified through 315 traditional, 165 internet field day, 31 archery and 12 online-only classes. The number of students has actually risen in recent years, from 21,893 in 2019 and 25,425 in 2020, according to the 2021 report.
“In terms of volunteer instructor recruitment, this is the first year that we’ve joined forces with our Office of Communications and launched an instructor recruitment campaign that involves social media, GovDelivery email marketing, our Outdoor Skills Trailers and the actual instructors themselves,” Van Egtern said.
In addition to the personal rewards of seeing a youngster’s beaming face when they pass a class, volunteers feel pride in the huge contribution they collectively make to a safe hunt.
In 1966, there were 264 Wisconsin hunting accidents. The state launched a voluntary hunter ed program in 1967, which became mandatory in 1985 for those born Jan. 1, 1973, or after. Blaze orange was mandated in 1980 (blaze pink is now also legal).
Hunting accidents have dropped by more than 95% since the mandate, with 12 accidents (including one fatality) in 2021. Hunting is statistically one of the safest of all sports.
As of March 1, all students ages 17 and younger must attend an in-person course (either a traditional class or an internet class with a field day) in order to be certified to hunt alone. Virtually anyone at any age (there is no minimum age) may hunt as a mentor with a licensed hunter (search “mentor hunting” on the DNR website for details).
The recruitment goal is to get 450 new instructors this year, with a long-term goal to add about 700 a year. The DNR provides regular training classes for both new and existing instructors, as well as equipment for classes, including “action sets,” which are non-firing firearms.
Instructors get regular incentive gifts for milestone anniversaries, and can also win recognition and gifts through the Wisconsin Hunter Education Instructor Association, but the real reward is the satisfaction of helping new hunters join our satisfying and historic sport.
Reach out to an instructor coordinator or any instructor in your area if you would like to join the fun, or drop me an email and I’ll help.
Ross Bielema is a freelance writer from New London and owner of Wolf River Concealed Carry LLC. Contact him at Ross@wolfriverccw.com
On the hunt for hunter ed instructors
