LA GRANDE – The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) is offering a class to hunters ready to complete Phase 2 of the Master Hunter Program. The class is scheduled Saturday, July 14 in La Grande from 1:00 to 5:00 PM at ODFW’s Northeast Region Office at 107 20th Street. Pre-registration is required.

To register for the class, call Mary Hoverson, ODFW’s NE Region Education Coordinator at (541) 962-1826 or by e-mail at mary.e.hoverson@state.or.us.

The Master Hunter program is an advanced hunter education program designed by ODFW to help hunters increase their knowledge of the sport, and particularly help them understand the concerns of private landowners.

The Master Hunter Program goals are to:

• foster positive relations between hunters and private landowners;
• to increase access to private lands by giving landowners a way to identify hunters who have graduated from the program;
• to improve the public image of hunters; and,
• to develop a pool of ethical and knowledgeable hunters for possible use in sensitive damage control situations in the future.

The program includes a home study course, a four-hour class followed by a written test, a test of firearms proficiency and a requirement to do 20 hours of volunteer work to benefit some aspect of natural resources. A check for wildlife violations will be done before an award is made and no individual with any violation in the past five years will be allowed to graduate.