They Didn't Know

There was a time not so long ago when most wildlife management students were hunters, and their early involvement with and appreciation for the outdoors drove them to careers working with nature.

Today, many wildlife-management and natural-resources students - indeed most Americans - have lost all sense of connection to the land. Just 5 percent of the U.S. population hunts, and young wildlife-management professionals have trouble relating to the hunters on whom they heavily rely to control populations of large mammals such as deer and bears.

Gary San Julian, professor of wildlife resources in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences, decided to do something about it. He established a program to expose students learning to be wildlife managers to hunting. "It is not that we are trying to turn them into hunters," he says, "but since hunting is the most important wildlife-management tool, they need to have an understanding of its role."

Last fall, San Julian took 18 students from the School of Forest Resources—more than half of them women—to the Max McGraw Wildlife Foundation in Dundee, Ill., 30 miles from Chicago. There, they and 20 wildlife management students from the University of Wisconsin at Madison and the University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point experienced four days of intensive training.

At McGraw, students attended sessions on the ethics, morality, role and responsibility of hunters, along with gun and hunter safety, skeet shooting and even pheasant hunting. After earning their hunter-safety certificates, when it came time to try their hand at pheasant hunting, not every student participated. "Nobody was pressured or forced to go hunting, but most of us did," says Amy Carrozzino of Milroy, Pa., a senior majoring in wildlife and fisheries science. The 21-year-old former president of the Penn State Student Chapter of the Wildlife Society didn't kill a bird, but she enjoyed the experience.

"I grew up in a suburban area and I had no exposure to hunting," she says. "I was never really against it, but I was uninformed. I realize now that I was at a disadvantage not knowing what hunting was all about. I plan to work in wildlife management, so I think this will help me in my career. The course taught me a lot and it was a great experience."

Leslie Jones, a senior majoring in environmental resource management, was strongly opposed to hunting before taking the course. The 22-year-old vegetarian from Erie, Pa., witnessed her entire concept of hunters and hunting change through her experience at the McGraw facility.

"I took the course because I wanted to be more well-rounded because, in my field, I will be dealing with hunters. To manage properly, I felt I had to understand them," she says. "I went from being an anti-hunter to really appreciating hunting—I came to understand that the hunters I have known are the kind we don't want. I felt that they didn't adequately value the life of the animals they killed. But I realize now that ethical hunters respect the life they are taking and use the animals, and that hunting is necessary."

Surprisingly, Jones, who had never held a shotgun before, turned out to be a pretty good shot and may even consider hunting in the future. "I didn't eat the pheasants, but the other students did, and they said they were delicious," she says. "I am actually more interested in target shooting than hunting. Since I don't eat meat, I won't hunt because I would never waste an animal, but if I ever start eating meat, I may well start hunting. I would definitely be more comfortable eating meat from a wild animal that I shot rather than from a cow."

Elizabeth Huber, a wildlife and fisheries science major from Pittsburgh, had never held a gun before, either, but she enjoyed the training and found it valuable. Her father and grandfather hunted when she was very young. "But I was too little to understand," she says. "I have friends who are deer hunters, and I could never understand why they hunted. But now I understand the thrill and the satisfaction. I shot two pheasants and skinned, cleaned and ate pheasant that night. It was delicious.

"I found the course very helpful," she adds. "Now I know that a lot of people who hunt have a deep respect for wildlife and fisheries. I had a wonderful time and learned so much about the environment. It was great to be able to go out there and experience it."

San Julian doesn't claim to have invented the concept of teaching wildlife management students to understand and appreciate hunting, but he'd like to play a role in expanding it. "I think this is so important," he says. "We are cementing a foundation for a national program. Our future wildlife-management professionals will need to work with hunters and use hunting to manage wildlife populations. Without this, their education is not complete."