Conservation Hub

HUNTING

These resources were created in partnership with the US Fish and Wildlife Service to help you develop and implement a hunting program. They include guides, templates, and sample curriculum overviews that will help you prepare to introduce the sport to beginner hunters.

1. PLANNING YOUR HUNTING PROGRAM

Planning your program is the first step towards introducing participants to hunting. This section will give you an overview of everything you’ll need to think about and the guidance necessary to design your program.

GUIDE Introduction and Overview to Hunting

This guide serves as an introduction to all of the basic components necessary to establish a hunting program for youth and young adults with little or no background in the sport. It utilizes an integrated approach that combines theory and “classroom” learning with practical field experience done in partnership with certified instructors and local hunting organizations.

GUIDE Developing a Hunting Program

This guide outlines the general components necessary to create a hunting program. It includes an overview of planning essentials, stakeholder engagement, recruitment strategies, program execution, and program evaluation.

2. TEACHING AND LESSON PLANS

You will want to collect data on each of your indicators. Possible data sources include: information from kids themselves (through interviews, answers to questions on forms, etc.); systematic observations by staff; and third-party data (e.g., school records).

Hunting Course Teaching Guide

This guide features topic prompts that you can use to begin crafting specific lesson plans.

Sample Lesson Plan Hunting Big Game

This lesson plan is meant to supplement the Hunting Teaching Guide with a specific focus on hunting big game.

Sample Lesson Plan Small Game

This lesson plan is meant to supplement the Hunting Teaching Guide with a specific focus on hunting small game.

Sample Lesson Plan Waterfowl Hunting

This lesson plan is meant to supplement the Hunting Teaching Guide specifically for Water Fowl Hunting.

Sample Lesson Plan Upland Bird Hunting

This lesson plan is meant to supplement the Hunting Teaching Guide with a specific focus on hunting upland birds.

3. EXECUTION

After developing your program and recruiting participants, consider using these documents to help streamline the execution of your program. The templates for a Local Operations Plan and Trip Log will help you efficiently organize information and create a portable resource for any field trips. You’ll also find a sample curriculum overview with topic prompts that you can use to begin crafting specific lesson plans, along with a downloadable skills and safety guide.

TEMPLATE Local Operation Plan

Many permitting agencies require you to file a Local Operations Plan (LOP), a summary of relevant resources that can be referred to in an emergency, before running your trip on their land. This template will help you collect and summarize the emergency information that will become your LOP. Remember to check with the appropriate agency, when relevant, to determine the exact information needed.

TEMPLATE Trip Log

A trip log is an excellent way to organize simple information that is pertinent to your trip. This customizable template offers you flexibility to include anything specific to your program. It also contains a post-trip questionnaire used to collect feedback from your trip.

Guide Safety Rules for Instructors

This downloadable guide offers a wealth of useful information pertaining to hunting equipment, skills, methods, safety, ethics, and conservation.

4. ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

This section contains additional resources to supplement the curated content in this path.

Recruiting Resources FOLDER

This folder contains sample resources from other programs to help you recruit participants like flyers, parent letters, and template PowerPoint presentations.

Locavore Guide

This website offers additional resources and tools to help you develop more effective hunter training programs.

Hunter-ed.com

Hunter-ed.com website offers comprehensive online hunter’s safety courses for each state.