February 17, 2005

TO: Mr. Vern Ross

       Executive Director

RE: Hunter- Trapper Education

Dear Sir:

            Several months back I wrote a letter as a reaction to an article that was written in the Pennsylvania Game News in regards to Hunter-Trapper Education. The article tried to demonstrate the fact that young people have very little time to take two or three days to participate in Hunter-Trapper Education and the solution seemed to be offered that Hunter-Trapper Education should be presented on line through the internet and that there should be changes in order to accommodate the busy schedules of youth that do not have the time to take the course as it is currently presented. I wrote back to the Game News about this issue and tried to make the author of this article understand the fact that if the youth cannot give up their time for taking Hunter-Trapper Education then more than likely they will not take the time to even go hunting. Mr. Ross, I understand that some items in Hunter-Trapper Education could be taught on the internet but the bulk of the demonstrations can only be learned through the actions of the instructors. The last training we had in the North-West Region was a disaster for the most part. Many of the long time instructors were debating on continuing to teach this program. It seems that who ever came up with certain decisions about how Hunter-Trapper Education was going to be presented did not consult the instructors on what was working but rather made a judgment call and then is going to try and force it on us to abide by. Sir, with all do respect, we instructors know what works. We continue to make the program more informational but most of all we make a big impact on the youth that we teach. Many students come up to us after a class and thank us for taking the time. Paretns likewise are impressed and go away with a better understanding of how they will continue to work with their young hunter in the future. This type of interaction is what makes Hunter-Trapper Education effective and this is what contributes to the continued fall in hunting accidents. I do not want to think aobut what will happen in the future with the Hunter-Trapper Education program being watered down and the importance of safety being less stressed. It scares me to think that Internet learners will be out in the field.  I have video taped several sessions of our program at the Northwestern Sportsmens Club in West Springfield Pennsylvania and we work from those tapes to improve on our program. Mr. Ross what I challenge you to do is to look at what works and then see what we can improve upon, not take the entire program and fix what isn’t broke. I believe that the Internet can be used for some aspects of Hunter-Trapper Education but the current program works so why take the risk to make it easier for the few when you put the many at risk in the woods. I hope to hear back from you sir and we can work through some of these issues that seems to be a problem.

            I can vouch for the fact that using a tradition method works better than this new proposed system by the fact that there are fewer accidents. I can also attest to the fact that the youth now a day need something traditional. It seems that this tradition method has a bigger impact on them and that giving them what they are used to, i.e. computer training, is not going to make the impression we as instructors and hunters want to see. I have been studying this generation for over twenty years now and the personalized-traditional methods stick with them as something new because everything to them is computerized and that does not make any impression on them. Therefore: If we make this new program go into effect I predict a lot of good and long time instructors will quit, the accident rate will climb and it will all be for the sake of the few who could not free up a weekend. Further, if we stay with the current program and make changes recommended by those that are instructors we continue to maintain low rates of accidents and continue to encourage youth to hunt. After all Mr. Ross, no matter what you hunt on the computer it will not end up in the Pennsylvania Game News.

                                                                  Respectfully,

                                                                Dr. Paul A. Bensur, Jr.

                                                                President

                                                                Northwestern Sportsmens Club