Education Is A Lot of Things

By Ian Bartelmez, WWA Education Committee Chair

This article originally appeared in Wisconsin Waterfowl Association’s September Newsletter edition.

Outdoor education, waterfowl identification, how to read the wind direction, concealment practices, knot tying… wow   it can just go on and on.

I had prepared a different column for you this moth, but that’s now for October. This is more of a friendly reminder about observing the rules and regulations in preparation for our upcoming hunting seasons.

I went out for early goose and teal over opening weekend, and would you believe, people didn’t read the regs. Teal opens at sunrise to aid in identification, but there were people shooting a half hour, probably a little more, before. We need to do better, we can all read, we can tell time, presumably you should be able to identify your intended target.

Bang bang bang, squeal go the woodies as they flee.

How does this chastising commentary tie in with education? It illustrates the importance of knowing and adhering to the law. We as Wisconsin waterfowlers were granted the privilege of the early teal season, we passed the test during the probationary seasons! And now we are going to do foolish things? So here is the educational content.

The legal hours in your zone for a given species are in the waterfowl pamphlet and online here, you can also download the Hunt Wild Wisconsin app that has the listings and even a calculator to help you out.

Waterfowl identification is a basic for our sport, we should be proficient enough to not smoke a woodie or a spoon bill during teal season. If we can’t, we should sit it out until we can.

We must educate ourselves and those we hunt with and be the best we can be.

Have a safe and successful season everybody!