Education program continues to educate local hunters

The Mat-Su volunteer hunter education instructors had their annual steak dinner and course scheduling meeting with the Fish and Game staff who oversee this program at the Grouse Ridge Shooting Facility in Wasilla this past Tuesday. Two things were unique to this particular meeting.

First, instead of a “grill your own steak” dinner format, prime rib was served to the group without any instructor needing to lift a meat tong. I enjoyed this change in the dinner program and if asked, I would like to see this format continue! Second, this evening saw the smallest turnout of instructors I remember seeing at this annual planning meeting. There were maybe a dozen instructors who attended out of approximately 60 who are listed in the Valley.

Not good!

Recognition was given to the most active instructors and a door prize was given in a drawing of the instructors who signed up to teach one or more classes next year. A couple more door prizes were draw from a bowl containing the names of the instructors who attended. I didn’t win anything! I’m beginning to think if my name was the only one in the bowl, I still wouldn’t win a door prize!

Ah well, just call me “Lucky!”

The hunter education program continues to educate our Alaskan hunters in the safe, responsible, and ethical approaches to hunting. The following numbers are minimums for 2014, since there are still a handful of classes yet to be taught this calendar year.

Statewide, about 168 basic courses, 86 bowhunter courses, and 25 muzzleloader courses were presented. Over 3,632 students were certified in one or more of the courses and over 6,000 volunteer instructor hours were donated.

All three courses have a “traditional” version and an “online” version. For the basic course, 94 were traditional and 74 were online. In the bowhunter course, only 16 courses were traditional while the other 70 were presented online. The muzzleloader classes were closer to an even split, with 12 classes being traditional and 13 online. All the classes, regardless of whether they were traditional classroom or online presentations, have a proficiency shooting requirement which the student needs to pass in order to be certified.

In the Valley, a total of about 27 basic classes, 10 bowhunter classes, and three muzzleloader classes were presented. Approximately 648 students were certified among the three courses and volunteer hours totaled 865. I haven’t seen the numbers for other regions of the state, but I would expect Anchorage to have the lion’s share of the statewide numbers with the Interior and Southeast looking somewhat similar to our’s.

We discussed a couple of things either happening as we speak or with a possibility of happening in the very near future. Attention all you bowhunters! The Alaska Board of Game (BOG) passed a regulation last year requiring all bowhunters hunting big game in Alaska to have a bowhunter education certification card in possession. This requirement goes into effect on July 1, 2016. If you do not already have your certification, you have about 1½ years to take the course and earn the card. If you are caught hunting big game with a bow and arrow after the effective date and you don’t have the bowhunter certification, you will be cited!

The other item will possibly be addressed by the BOG in their meeting cycle this year. A proposal has been submitted which would require anyone hunting with a crossbow in Alaska to have a crossbow hunter education certification. Crossbows were defined in regulation by the BOG last year and have been legal to use during the general firearms big game hunting season for a number of years. This proposal seeks to add the same requirements for hunting with a crossbow as the bowhunter, muzzleloader, or firearms hunter currently faces under certain circumstances in Alaska. Personally, I think it’s a great idea!

There is a catch, however. No crossbow hunter education currently exists in Alaska. Crossbow hunter education programs are available through the parent bowhunter education group (IBEP) and the State of Maine has a specific program, so it’s not like the wheel needs to be reinvented. An Alaska-specific program could be developed fairly easily using existing programs, I would think, and then instructors could be certified to teach the program.

Crossbow hunting is exploding across the Lower 48 but hasn’t really caught on big time up here yet. Times are changing and it’s best to be prepared!