The Crowing Post:  09/10/07

Youth Mentor Hunt Season is Here!

Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever chapters are gearing up across the state to provide an experience of a lifetime to hundreds of boys and girls.  The Nebraska PF/QF Youth Mentor Hunt program has developed into the country’s largest mentored youth hunting program with over 900 youth participants at 58 Youth Mentor Hunt (YMH) events held in 2006.  The YMH program is designed to provide youth who have an interest in hunting but very limited opportunity to actually hunt.  Since the program was started PF/QF chapters in Nebraska have hosted 357 events with over 6,000 youth participants.

The YMH is designed to provide an upland hunting experience to boys and girls in a structured setting where safety, ethical hunting, and fun are emphasized.  Every youth participant is paired with an adult mentor for the day.  These mentors share their experience and love for pheasant and quail hunting.  The 1 to 1 youth to mentor ratio is really what makes this program unique.  “Providing a hunting mentor to youth is key to recruiting kids into the sport of hunting” according to Keith Brus, PF Regional Wildlife Biologist.  “These kids have a great time and I think the mentors have even more fun watching the kids hunting for the first time” Brus continued.

A typical YMH starts off with breakfast and then the youth and mentors participate in a Hunter Safety refresher, shoot blue rocks, and learn about several different aspects of upland hunting.  The highlight of the day is an actual pheasant hunt for the youth participants.  Every youth receives a special YMH blaze orange cap and a Boyt hunting vest. 

The Nebraska YMH program wouldn’t be possible without the PF and QF chapter volunteers organizing the events and recruiting the mentors needed to run a successful event.  The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission is also a major sponsor of the program and supports the many chapter events across the state.  Another major supporter of the YMH programs is Wimmer’s Meats of West Point, Nebraska.  Wimmer’s have provided their products for breakfast and lunch for every YMH event for this and the past several years.

To participate a youth must be between the ages of 12 and 15.  The youth must also have passed an approved Hunter Education course.  If you have a youth who meets these qualifications or if you would like to get involved by being a mentor or a dog handler at your local chapter’s YMH contact a PF Regional Wildlife Biologist or someone on your local PF or QF chapter committee.

 habitat today….pheasants forever!