PAUL SMITH

Smith: Wisconsin program includes hunting in education of future natural resources leaders

Paul A. Smith
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Scott Craven, left, prepares to demonstrate cleaning of a ring-necked pheasant to University of Wisconsin-Madison students enrolled in a Conservation Leaders for Tomorrow class.

MADISON - As students filtered in for the first session of class in Russell Labs room A228 at the University of Wisconsin, they were greeted with a snack of venison sausage.

Four letters - T (Treat every firearm as if it was a loaded firearm) A (Always control the muzzle of the firearm) B (Be sure of your target and what is before and beyond your target) K (Keep your fingers outside of the trigger guard until ready to shoot) - were scrawled on the chalk board.

Safe to say none of the hundreds of other courses this semester at the large public university had the same welcome.

And with good reason. Officially called Forest and Wildlife Ecology 675: Conservation Leaders for Tomorrow, this class focused on hunting.

Thirteen students enrolled in the two-credit course. They came from disparate places, including California, New York, Wisconsin, even China and India.

But they all had two things in common that brought to this learning opportunity - they are seeking degrees in a natural resources discipline, and they have never hunted.

Jaime Nack, lead instructor for the course, greeted the students.

“This is a hunting awareness course,” said Nack, UW-Extension senior wildlife outreach specialist. “Since you haven’t hunted, this course will help you explore a key stakeholder group that you will undoubtedly interact with as future natural resource professionals.”

About 30% of graduates in natural resources programs at U.S. universities have had no exposure in their lives to hunting, according to course literature.

That’s a problem, said Scott Craven, UW professor emeritus and former chairman of the Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology. 

“Along with many other professors and agency managers, I feel it’s imperative our wildlife and natural resource students know something about hunting and the people who hunt,” Craven said.

In seven sessions spread over four weeks, Ecol 675 was designed to do just that. 

The students were exposed to the cultural, biological, economic, and recreational values of hunting in today's society. Ultimately, Nack said students leave with a clearer understanding of hunting and the motivations of hunters.

Nack was joined in the instruction by Craven, as well as Tim Eisele, an avid hunter and freelance outdoor writer; Mike Watt, a Department of Natural Resources wildlife biologist; and Lucas Olson, a UW student and leader of the Badger Hunting Club, and several other volunteers.

The course, now sanctioned by a national Conservation Leaders for Tomorrow program based at Max McGraw Wildlife Foundation in Dundee, Ill., can trace its existence to Madison.

In the early 1990s, Craven and other professors and natural resources managers noticed a trend among the student population.

“We were getting questions like, ‘You mean they hunt those things?’ about commonly hunted species,” Craven said. “It was clear a growing percentage of our students didn’t hunt, but weren’t opposed to it, either.”

Since regulated hunting plays a significant role in wildlife management, including funding of state natural resources agencies, a group of forward-thinking Wisconsinites decided to make sure non-hunting students had an opportunity to learn about it.

More than 50% of funding for wildlife management programs (including for non-game species) at most state agencies is derived from hunting license fees and hunting and shooting-related excise tax programs.

UW-Madison professor emeritus Scott Craven speaks to a class of students enrolled in Conservation Leaders for Tomorrow class at UW-Madison. Craven helped develop the program, which has its roots in UW-Madison in the mid-1990s.

“Deer hunting is to the DNR’s wildlife management department what the UW football program is to the sports department,” Craven said. “It’s the big revenue producer that keeps the engine running and supports the non-revenue programs.”

Together with colleagues and associates, including Carl Batha, Charlie Killian and Don and Doris Rusch, Craven developed an outline for a hunting awareness class at UW-Madison.

It included a class instruction component, a firearm safety and shooting outing and an optional hunting experience. The first course was offered in 1993.

The initiative was originally called the Wisconsin Student Hunter Project.  

Craven recalls feeling like a nervous parent at the first hunting outing for the class 25 years ago. A pheasant flushed, a student swung and fired her shotgun, the bird fell.

Would there be remorse? Ambivalence? Tears?

The class was designed to be informational and non-judgmental. Any reaction would have been accepted by the instructors.

As it turned out, the first-time hunter was nothing but proud.

Craven said the student repeatedly cried out, “I got 'em, I got 'em!” as she held the rooster.

After a few years, the value of the class was recognized outside of the state, too.

The need for such instruction was discussed and highlighted at the 2001 North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference.

In 2004, the Wildlife Management Institute and Max McGraw Wildlife Foundation partnered on a two-year pilot program followed by three years of classes for non-hunting university students.

The effort was determined to be a success; demand steadily increased, too.

In 2008, the program, then called Conservation Leaders for Tomorrow and based at Max McGraw, was launched nationally.

Forty-six universities and 42 state agencies are now participating in the program. 

Two basic courses are held, one for university students and one for those already employed in a natural resources field.

The program is explicit in its aim: to provide participants with insights into who hunts, why hunting is important from biological, social, cultural, economic and recreational standpoints, and its role in conservation.

Mike Drossel, right, a volunteer with the Conservation Leaders for Tomorrow program at UW-Madison, demonstrates shotgun cleaning after a pheasant hunt.

It’s also clear about what it is not: a hunter recruitment effort.

“If people want to hunt after they take the class, fine,” Craven said. “But our objectives are to provide understanding of the diverse values and important roles of hunting and its impact on conservation to people who have previously had no connection to hunting.”

The program has received strong support from the conservation community.

“We have witnessed firsthand that this program changes lives and translates into a stronger understanding and more effective on-the-ground wildlife management practices,” said Blake Henning, chief conservation officer of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation.

The RMEF is a sponsor, as is the Wildlife Management Institute and the McGraw Foundation.

The UW class receives support from the national CLfT program as well as Dane County Conservation League, National Wild Turkey Federation, Dane County Pheasants Forever, the Ruffed Grouse Society, North Bristol Sportsman’s Club and Ken and Marcy Heim.

The national program has offered 115 workshops, Craven said. Most are five days long and free to the students.

And the University of Wisconsin continues to offer its own course every other year.

The 2018 edition included five indoor classes at Russell Laboratories on the UW-Madison campus, a hunter education field day and shooting session at North Bristol Sportsman’s Club in Sun Prairie and an upland bird hunt at Magnolia Game Farm in Evansville.

Along the way, they leaned how to process wild game, ate a wild game meal and saw how hunters and bird dogs interact in the field.

All 13 students passed the class, Nack said, and also successfully completed the Wisconsin hunter safety course.

Biranna Ohm, a UW junior majoring in microbiology and wildlife ecology, was one of the students in the course. She grew up in Oshkosh in a non-hunting family. 

Prior to the course, she had a common American view of hunting.

“It was pretty much foreign to me,” Ohm said. “Not negative, but something other people did.”

Although fewer than 10% of Americans hunt, most surveys show 70 to 80% of U.S. residents support regulated hunting.

After taking the class, Ohm said she feels better able to relate to hunters.

“I can definitely see how people would like hunting,” Ohm said.

The 13 students will be among the next generation of natural resource managers who will make decisions that will impact this important conservation activity.

Craven officially retired five years ago. But he intends to continue to help expose students to hunting.

“And I’m convinced this effort will only get more important in the years to come," Craven said.