Waterfowl Heritage Days/Youth Hunt

What is it?
The Youth Hunt program which began in 2000 thanks to Manitoba Conservation provided the province with the first ever special youth hunting season for ducks and geese. Youth aged 12 to 17 were able to hunt ducks and geese the first week of September with only a Manitoba Safety Certificate and an adult mentor.

The program when it began was greeted with much enthusiasm and excitement, since 2000 the program has taken off! The program has grown and there are now fully guided hunts for the youth during the first week of September.

Why was this program started?
As most hunters know, The number of waterfowl hunters in Canada has been in decline for the past 25 years, peaking in 1978 at 524,946 before falling to 197,584 in 1999. In Manitoba alone we have lost 65% of our Waterfowl hunters since the peak in 1978. The proplem is that the baby boomers are no longer hunting and the youth of today aren't picking up the slack. With this program the hope to reverse this trend.

Netley Marsh's Youth Hunt
Netley Marsh Waterfowl Foundation is a proud participate in the guided youth hunts. Each September experianced hunters from the surrounding area volunteer to be a mentor for an area youth. Typically the Youth Hunt begins a couple days before the actually hunt, when the youth go through an instructional evening. In this evening they kids learn first and foremost, gun safety. They also learn a little bit on how to call ducks, how to identify ducks on the wing, and they get in a little practice skeet shooting with the help of The Manitoba Wildlife Federation.

In the wee hours of a Saturday morning the kids roll out of bed to begin their waterfowl adventure. The kids and mentor met up and head to Netley Marsh or a field close by to watch the sunrise and hopefully decoy in a few birds.

More information of the Youth Hunt Program
This year there are various locations through out Manitoba that are holding guided Youth Hunts, if you know of a youth aged 12 - 17 that would like particpate in a youth hunt or if you would like to become a mentor please contact,

Jim Fisher at Delta Waterfowl
(e-mail: jfisher@deltawaterfowl.org)
or
Reg Wiebe at the Manitoba Wildlife Federation
(e-mail: huntereg@shaw.ca)

Hunts this year are taking place at the following locations,
Delta Marsh
Netley/Libau Marsh
Oak Hammock Marsh
Russel
Minnedosa
The Pas
Whitewater Lake

Links
Delta Waterfowl
http://www.deltawaterfowl.org

Manitoba Wildlife Federation
http://www.mwf.mb.ca/

Manitoba Conservation
http://www.gov.mb.ca/natres/