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The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) has awarded the Indiana
Department of Natural Resources a $59,750 grant from its Hunting Heritage
Partnership to launch a pilot program to help introduce hunter education
graduates to hunting opportunities in the state.
Indiana will use the grant funds to invite hunter education graduates who
lack the social support, such as that provided by family and friends with a
hunting background, to special STEP OUTSIDE(R) events where they will gain
valuable hunting, safety and firearms experience to start their lifelong
pursuit. Social support is the critical factor in getting started in hunting
and a major barrier to entry for those that lack support.
"More than 20,000 kids and adults attend Indiana's hunter education classes
each year to learn about safety and our wildlife heritage. Working with
conservation-minded volunteers, we hope to better mentor these students and
give them the support they need to become active, involved, ethical
hunters," said Glen Salmon, Indiana DNR Division of Fish and Wildlife
director.
The Hunting Heritage Partnership was established by the National Shooting
Sports Foundation, the trade association for the firearm industry, to
provide direct funding to state wildlife agencies to help them with programs
that provide opportunities for, and remove barriers to, hunter
participation.
"Officials with Indiana's Division of Fish and Wildlife have designed a
unique and dynamic recruitment tool and this grant recognizes their
successful efforts and helps them with the launch. This is exactly the kind
of creative program development that agencies in other states can look to as
a model to help preserve our hunting and conservation traditions," said Doug
Painter, president of the National Shooting Sports Foundation.
Indiana's 874,000 anglers and 290,000 hunters spent $846 million in Indiana
in 2001 in pursuit of their pastime, which supported 16,000 jobs in the
state. Efforts to expand hunting, such as youth pheasant hunting days, help
boost the economy in a state where nearly one of every six Indiana residents
hunt or fish, generating over $50 million in state tax revenue.
"When more hunters go afield, everyone benefits. The contributions hunters
and anglers make in unique taxes paid and fees collected fund conservation
efforts for all Indiana residents to enjoy," said Steve Williams, director
of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.
Applications from 36 states were submitted to the Hunting Heritage
Partnership and over $500,000 in grants was awarded to 18 states for
programs focusing on issues from recruitment and retention of hunters to
increasing access to hunting lands. The National Shooting Sports Foundation
is working with the Congressional Sportsmen's Foundation and members of
Congress on behalf of America's 18 million hunters to provide states with
additional funding opportunities through the Hunting Heritage Partnership.
Information on NSSF and STEP OUTSIDE(R) is available at:
www.nssf.org
Information on upcoming hunter education courses is available at:
www.in.gov/dnr/lawenfor/hunt-edu.htm
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