This Holiday Season - Blessings to All!

Here's hoping you, your family and/or friends are gathered around a warm fire, staring agape at an antler Christmas tree, adorned with a blue moon awaiting the morning chill, a snorting buck, antsy pig or wily gobbler.  Tis' the season!

Be SAFE, Legal and Ethical! Hunt Texas!

Steve Hall, Hunter Education Coordinator

Another Successful Year!

(From FY 20 O&E Annual Report)

• HE Students Certified – 52,818 + 190 in Bowhunter Education
• Instructors Certified – 264; Active Instructors – 3,598
• Volunteer Hours – 20,266; Value of In-kind - $ 486,384.00
• Online Registration System – continued development and implementation
• Hunting Incidents (2019) - 21 of which one was fatal; Students Involved - 6
• Becoming an Outdoors-Woman (1) – 125 Women, 35 Volunteers
• Annual Conference & Area Chief Meeting - Cancelled due to COVID

Thanks, again, to SCI Houston Chapter and its many partners for hosting the largest course in Texas in 2020 while following TPWD COVID Protocols during this difficult period. SCI HOUSTON held  its 16th annual Hunter Education class at the Long Acres Ranch, and 76 students braved the unusual bitter cold to take the class. Thanks, too, to Heidi Rao, SE TX Hunter Education Specialist and the Houston-area Area Chief and volunteer instructors for teaching the components of the course including live fire exercises spaced out down a large field.  

Blake Werts (R) and his dad, Kevin, Nebraska, were participants at several  annual disability hunts, like this one in 2006, sponsored by the late Royce Faulkner at his ranch near Kerrville, for Turning POINT (Paraplegics on Independent Nature Trips) Nation started by the late Michael "Shorty" Powers. There were over 15 annual hunts, most involving the Texas Youth Hunting Program and TPWD's Hunter Education Program staffs who helped with hunts, skills trail, live-fire and wildlife programs.

Fast forward 14 years to today and through social media and look what was posted. Blake said, "Shot a little 5 by 5 last night!! I dropped it in it’s tracks!! It’s not big but the rack is just cool!! It was a pretty good weekend for the Werts boys!! We all got one!! I would like to thank Kevin Werts, Bryce Werts, Joe Billesbach for getting everything ready for me so I can shoot this awesome deer!! And, I would also like to thank Brenna Fortkamp-Evensen for getting up early Saturday morning and driving me to my parent's house!! And thank you Peggy Koehler Werts for driving me to the farm!! I’ve couldn’t have done it without you all!"   Congratulations, Blake, from the hunter education and Youth Hunting Program folks in Texas!  Keep hunting for life!

Bass Pro Shops Recognized

Jose Garcia, Irving (L) and Steve Polansky, Dallas, presented Sue Ghose, Asst. Mgr., Bass Pro Shops - Grapevine, with a Certificate of Appreciation from the Hunter Education Program and Texas Parks and Wildlife.  Jose and Steve held the course in mid-November for 36 students following the COVID Protocols. Thanks Bass Pro!

Mentor Hunting Report

TPWD Public Hunting Program

"Just wanted to update you on my hunting.  Went on my first deer hunt this weekend and got my first buck.  Got him in Wheeler county with a 270.  Been using a friend of mine as a mentor and he’s taught me a ton.   Have one more deer hunt booked for Dec. 1-3 in Christoval.   Learning and having an awesome time!" - Chris Galban

- Justin Dreibelbis, Public Hunting Director

Conservation Leaders for Tomorrow

"Hello again! I don’t know if I told you but I am now living in Kotzebue, Alaska working at Selawik National Wildlife Refuge with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

I am just so happy I was able to be a part of the CLFT program in 2019 especially since I had no hunting experience prior. It really expanded my understanding and appreciation for the whole experience of hunting. Before that, I just knew hunters as one of many stakeholder groups relating to wildlife management. Once I experienced it in person out in the field alongside others, it really deepened my understanding of that side of conservation.

As soon as I become a permanent resident next fall, my coworkers want to bring me out to hunt caribou when the Western Arctic Caribou herd passes through Kotzebue. I am planning to get a small game license in the meantime. It is such a unique lifestyle living up in a village where food is so expensive at the store and subsistence hunting/fishing/gathering is essential for keeping the freezer filled for the year. 

Here’s a picture of me at duck camp last summer! After a day of picking berries out on the tundra we would all sit down with the freshly hunted ducks and pluck. What a satisfying meal at the end of each day!"  - Best, Christina

Photo above: Smoked salmon & lowbush blueberries 

 Hunting Wire's Weekly Hunting News

"Fellow hunters, as we continue to take to the field in record numbers across America, I can’t help but remind myself of just how fortunate we are to live in a country which not only allows us to express our freedoms but empowers us to exercise them as often as we want.  Indeed, there is no “season” for freedom." Jay Pinsky, Editor READ MORE  And, subscribe today! 

TIC -TAC-TOE Shot Placement Exercise ™

A new training aid to teach successful shot placement for white-tailed deer (and other big game species) was developed by Cross Trail Outfitters (CTO). As stated in the brochure "CTO Youth Hunting & Fishing Clubs in the U.S. have guided and taught thousands of youth participants a strategic method of how to ethically harvest big game animals by using a Shot Placement. Exercise and Dry-fire practice method, with no live range firing!"  They have plenty of experience teaching kids how to successfully take their first shot; so much so, that TPWD Hunter Education Program is going to adopt the strategy and combine forces with CTO in bringing this valuable training aid and technique to Texas hunter education instructors. We are sure you will find the tools developed by CTO invaluable in teaching reduced wounding and introductions to a new hunter's first shot.

The Honorable Hunter

Michael Sabbeth, Denver, after several years of hard work and collaboration, including with many Texas hunter education and youth hunting program staffs, instructors and students/youth hunters, has completed his training manual for instructors with strategies for persuading both internal (students) and external (e.g. media and non-hunters) audiences on the value of hunting in conservation. The manual has tips and ideas for helping everyone understand the values and benefits of hunting, helping students aspire to being honorable hunters and how to even deal with hostile or aggressive attitudes by those who oppose hunting.

Judging Whitetails Afield

A new, updated edition of Observing & Evaluating Whitetails by Dave Richards & Al Brothers will be available to instructors for use in Deer Hunting 101 and related advanced hunter education coursework. Dave, a noted outdoor photographer, whose photos of whitetails are featured in the publication, is also sponsoring a Trophy Whitetail Photography Workshop Jan. 14-16, 2021 on the legendary Hindes Ranch with Richards Outdoor Photography.  For more information, go to: richardsoutdoorphotography.com

"The publication is a direct result of the Hindes’ intensive management of their deer herd and Big Roy Hindes pioneering the methods of aging deer on the hoof.  Twenty of the twenty-one bucks Dave chronicled in the book are Hindes Ranch bucks - as are most of the thirty-five bucks in the judging on the hoof chapter." - D Richards

Evolution of Women as Hunters?

- by Wendy LaFever, Executive Editor posted on November 13, 2020 - Support NRA Women DONATE

Article from November NRA Women

"For just about as long as there have been anthropologists, those anthropologists have functioned from a working assumption about how ancient humans lived: Men hunted and women gathered. However, evidence is beginning to mount that many prehistoric tribal societies did indeed include female hunters. The latest is a find from Peru, in which a 9,000-year-old burial site thought to contain two antediluvian hunters was discovered to actually contain one hunter...and one huntress."  Image: Paleolithic-era horse painting in Lascaux Cave. Are women wielding those spears?

READ MORE

In Memory....

Terry Erwin, former Texas Hunter Education Coordinator, had a favorite saying, "Give Roses" while (Friends/Family) are "Still with Us!"  For his part, he gave lots of roses in his life and his friends and family members are the ones who now echo that same sentiment.

And though he is now gone from this earth, his impact is still spreading, in his case, throughout North America and to other countries as well.

Terry's last wish was to have his cremations spread by his fellow hunter education administrators/friends at destinations within each state/province/country that would give honor to hunter education, hunting or the memories he shared with his co-administrators within those jurisdictions. (Terry made it a goal and achieved visiting every state, many provinces and several countries, when he was hunter education coordinator.)

Spreading HE's Mission!

Idaho/Minnesota

Thanks to Hunter and Angler Recruitment Manager, Ms. Brenda Beckley and her husband, Darren, Terry's memory is felt from the Middle Fork of the Boise River (L), near the beautiful Sawtooth Wilderness National Recreation Area.

Thanks to Capt. Jon Paurus, Ed. Programs Coordinator, Terry's impact is felt along the Mississippi River (R) near Camp Ridley, home of the Minnesota Dept.of Natural Resources Headquarters.

Mississippi

Thanks to Megan Fedrick, Director of Hunter Education, Terry's impact radiates from near the Pearl River Wildlife Management Area with hunting areas and one of three public target ranges built by the State.

Arkansas

Joe Huggins, Hunter Education Coordinator said, "Terry's impact is spread on a ridge near the Winona Wildlife Management Area (WMA) in the Ouachita Mountains. He overlooks the WMA and Lake Winona.  This area is great hunting for small game, turkey and deer.  There is some bear hunting there also.  The lake has some great fishing in the spring. Good Hunting!"

Maryland

Thanks to Commander Jim Satterfield and OFC. Michelle Burnette, Terry's impact is felt on an overlook to the Potomac River, Green Ridge State Forest, near Oldtown.  Burnette also took a brief video of the ceremony to share with the Erwin family.  Thanks for "honoring a legend," as Satterfield put it!

New Hampshire

"I took a hike this morning to the top of Mount Prospect which is the top edge of our Owl Brook Hunter Education Center's property boundary. I picked this spot to spread Terry's remains as it looks down over our Hunter Education facility and has some real stunning views. I'm sure Terry will enjoy the sunrises each day from the spot I released his ashes. I had the opportunity to meet Terry a couple times at past IHEA conferences and he had a true passion for his work in the Hunter Education field.