Passport to Texas

This is Passport to Texas

Voluntary hunter education started in 1971 to satisfy requirements for Texans hunting in Colorado.

05— And so, that’s really the beginnings in Texas of a formal hunter education course.

Robert Ramirez, who oversees Hunter Education, says by 1987 this training program became mandatory in Texas with the first mandatory certifications occurring in 1988.

09— And at that point, if you had taken it voluntarily, we would recognize that. And, subsequently, our incident accident rate has dropped.

Ramirez says in 1968, Texas recorded 105 hunting accidents with 37 fatalities. Since mandatory hunter education, those numbers have dropped substantially.

20— Today, we’re below three incident accidents per hundred thousand. So, great strides [have been achieved] since it became mandatory. Who has to take it? Well, anyone who was born September 2, 1971 or later is required to have it, you are exempt if you were born before that.

Currently Hunter Ed involves a two day classroom experience, or a home study course. But if approved, online opportunities will expand.

23— We’re going to embrace the technology that’s out there. It’s dynamic; it’s no longer a static webpage – it’s interactive. And then you’re going to have the video aspect with broadband technology what it is right now, you can insert a lot of that dynamic video with professional actors to get the main, basic points of Hunter Ed across to the general public.

Tomorrow: You can determine the future of Hunter Ed.

The Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Program supports our series funded by your purchase of fishing & hunting equipment and motorboat fuel. For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.