Over the last four days, I played the roles of a Certified Wildlife Biologist, hunter, instructor, and mentor, while interacting with high achieving college students participating in a nationwide program called Conservation Leaders for Tomorrow. This program is sponsored by the Max McGraw Wildlife Foundation and the Wildlife Management Institute.
The goal of the CLfT is to identify future and current leaders of the natural resource profession who do not hunt and provide them with an understanding of the diverse values and important roles of hunting and its contribution to conservation.
More than 40 universities and 20 government agencies have been involved in CLfT. As a whole, the program holds 12 workshops at 7 different facilities across the nation. This was the first time to conduct the program in Texas, which was hosted by the Welder Wildlife Foundation.
Fourteen students from Texas A&M University, Texas State University, Sul Ross State University and Texas A&M University - Kingsville were selected among their peers to attend this interactive workshop. CLfT is not intended to recruit or train the participants to be hunters. Instead, the objective is to provide participant with insights into why hunting is important from biological, social, cultural, economic and recreational standpoints— and its role in conservation.
Plans are already underway for next year’s Texas workshop. To learn more about these trainings and to hear from students and instructors, please see the CLfT videos. Spending time with these outstanding students and interacting with my friends and colleagues from around Texas and other states was very rewarding and time well spent.