Syracuse.com - Class gives SUNY ESF students different persective on hunting and fishing

[HuntingNY-News]

"We have an increasing number of students coming into our programs -- such as wildlife ecology, conservation biology, environmental biology majors --who didn't grow up in rural areas or on farms and simply haven't had exposure to hunters or trappers," said Jacqui Frair, an assistant professor of wildlife ecology at SUNY ESF.

Submitted photoSUNY ESF student Samantha Goss gets a lesson in shooting a bow at the Fayetteville-Manlius Rod and Gun Club. Jacqui Frair said she was seeing it more and more at SUNY ESF and decided to take some action.

“We have an increasing number of students coming into our programs — such as wildlife ecology, conservation biology, environmental biology majors — who didn’t grow up in rural areas or on farms and simply haven’t had exposure to hunters or trappers,” said Frair, an assistant professor of wildlife ecology.

For the first time this fall, Frair offered an elective course, “Hunter and Trapper Education for Wildlife Professionals.”

Among the highlights of the course: each of the 40 students enrolled were required to go through a hunter safety course (for firearms), a bowhunter safety course, a waterfowl ID course and a trapper safety/education course. More than a dozen local instructors — the same folks who offer these courses at local rod and gun clubs and other settings to beginners in Central New York — donated their time.

“The point is that hunters and trappers are among the major constituents that resource professionals serve,” she said. “You need to at least respect these communities and what they do.”

Frair said participation in her course has been an eye-opener for many of her students, who were juniors and seniors.

“You can’t walk out of a hunter safety course and not respect these guys,” she said. “They talk conservation, ethics. Their love of the resource really translates well to the students.”

Frair said she’s been supplementing what the instructors offer with lectures on the history of conservation and the role that hunters and trappers have played, and continue to play, in wildlife management in this country.

The bottom line, Frair said, is that she’s “making sure the students have opportunities to interact with the (local) hunting and trapping communities.”

During the Oct. 1-2 weekend, she said students helped at waterfowl check stations on the Perch River and Oneida Lake. During their Thanksgiving break, she added, they’re helping out at deer and bear check stations near their homes in this state and others.

She also is requiring that they attend deer processing businesses and check deer that are handled there.

Frair said most of her students “can get their heads around hunting,” but many are somewhat ambivalent about trapping, which they are currently studying in the course.

“They need to respect and understand trapping (and the need for it), even if don’t do it themselves,” she said.

Michael Arnold, of Camillus, was among those volunteers who helped out with a hunter safety course in Frair’s class. He said most of the instruction took place at SUNY ESF, but added the field sessions for the hunter and bowhunter safety courses were held at the Fayetteville Manlius Rod and Gun Club.

He said he was honored to interact with potential future leaders and researchers in the area of wildlife management and that Frair should be commended for putting the course together.

View the full article on The Syracuse Outdoors Blog