Teach local hunters with IDFG

As hunting season approaches in Shoshone County, the Idaho Department of Fish and Game (IDFG) is seeking volunteers to teach hunter’s education classes.

“Completion of hunter’s education is required in order to purchase a hunting license,” said Wendy Koons, IDFG Hunter/Trapper Education and Volunteer Services coordinator of the Panhandle Region. “The various topics expose children or any student to the complexities of safe, responsible, ethical hunting. Hunting involves so much more than walking into the woods with a firearm or a bow, shooting it, and harvesting an animal.”

Shoshone County Prosector Benjamin Allen recently held a Hunter’s Education course for elementary-aged children. The class had limited seats that were completely filled within just a few hours, highlighting the need for more volunteer instructors.

“Hopefully, introducing youngsters to hunting through hunter education will start an awareness for them as to how hunting is a tremendous conservation tool used in the management of wildlife,” Koons said. “Hunting benefits not only humans by providing food, leisure and building character traits such as confidence, patience, and an appreciation for nature, but in using it to manage wildlife population it helps to control disease, starvation and predation.”

Koons continued that although in-person hunter education classes may not be as prevalent as they have been in previous years, they are by no means going away.

“In recent years, many longtime instructors have stepped away from teaching. Volunteerism, in general, has experienced a decline in recent decades, in large part due to today’s busy family lifestyles, so it has been difficult to recruit and retain interested individuals,” she said. “The COVID pandemic impacted hunter education when all in-person classes had to be canceled for nearly a year and a half, leaving the online option for completing hunter education as the only option. It’s a misconception that we no longer need instructors because of the online program, as in-person classes are still the most popular option for completing hunter education.”

The basic requirements for becoming a certified volunteer hunter education instructor for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game are as follows:

• Prospective instructors must be at least 18 years old and pass a criminal background check.

• Complete a two-page application, including an agreement for a background check and a fingerprint card (fingerprinting can be done at any local law enforcement office).

• Submit the completed application and fingerprint card to the IDFG Regional Hunter Education Coordinator.

• The coordinator will forward the application to IDFG Headquarters in Boise for completion of the background check, which can take a month or more.

• All prospective applicants must complete a three-hour New Instructor Training, which is offered several times a year.

• All prospective applicants must apprentice teach with an already certified instructor.

• After the background check is completed (and the prospective instructor has been cleared to teach), and they have completed the New Instructor Training and apprentice teaching, they will receive a letter indicating they have been certified to teach hunter education.

• In order to maintain certification, instructors must teach at least once each calendar year, as a lead, assistant or guest instructor. Lead instructors are responsible for all aspects of a hunter education class; assistant instructors teach and help the lead instructor throughout the entire class; guest instructors may only teach one or more topics and are not required to be in attendance for the entire class.

• Certified hunter education instructors may also teach or assist with Hunting and Shooting Sports programs related to hunter education.

For more information on becoming a certified instructor in Shoshone County, visit idfg.idaho.gov and go to the Education tab, or contact the Panhandle Regional office at 208-769-1414.