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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Think ahead, instructor warns

Rich Landers Outdoors editor

Hunter education instructors have lives to live and passions to pursue, a point that’s especially worth making this time of year, their Washington state leader says.

“When fall comes around, the hunter ed instructors want to be out in the field scouting and getting ready for the hunting seasons,” said Marlin “Red” Nierstheimer of Spokane. “If you wait until late summer to take a hunter education class, it might be too late.”

Now’s the best time to enroll, he suggested.

New hunters born since 1972 must show proof of passing a certified hunter education course before they can purchase a Washington hunting license.

In Idaho, the certification requirement starts for hunters born since 1975.

Like many active members who distinguish the Inland Northwest Wildlife Council, Nierstheimer said he saw a place where he could contribute and jumped right in.

“I got certified and taught since 1996 and the next thing I new I threw in my hat for president of the state Hunter Education Instructors’ Association.”

The council’s stable of certified instructors teach hunter education to hundreds of students each year. But the organization’s members have priorities that go beyond hunting seasons.

“We don’t take registration until the Big Horn Show (March 17-20 at the Spokane County Fair and Expo Center),” Nierstheimer said. “Until then, we’re too busy getting ready for the show.”

Meanwhile, certified instructors from other groups have been holding classes since January. New classes are starting around Spokane County and outlying areas this week and later in March, April and May.

In Washington, students can use the Washington Fish and Wildlife Department’s Web site to find class dates and contact phone numbers for instructors or sponsoring businesses, such as Sportsmen’s Warehouse.

In Idaho, students must register on designated days. Sign-up for classes in March and April will be held March 2, starting at 8 a.m., first come, first served, at the Idaho Fish and Game Department office, 2750 Kathleen Ave., in Coeur d’Alene.

Since a few state fish and game agencies started offering hunter safety courses in 1949, virtually every state in the nation has a hunter education requirement and more than 35 million hunters have enrolled in the courses, according to the International Hunter Education Association.

Mandatory hunter education is credited for a dramatic drop in the rate of hunting-related accidents, IHEA says.

Last year, about 70,000 hunter education instructors were in the pool that taught 750,000 students across the country, the IHEA Web site says.

Originally they were called “hunter safety” classes. While hunter safety is still a foundation of the program, they have been renamed “hunter education” classes because nowadays they also deal with hunter ethics, wildlife management, survival, shooting skills and other topics.

Nierstheimer, 49, said volunteering as an instructor was his way of “giving something back to the community.”

“I’m from Alaska, and the things I did there — nothing illegal — but I didn’t think about them ethically until I got down here and joined the council,” he said. “I started looking at the way I was hunting, and to me it was a way of looking at myself.

“There’s a lot more satisfaction in being an ethical hunter instead of doing things like driving all over in a rig and being a slob.”