Washington County Conservation is hosting their spring hunter education course at the Education Center in Marr Park next month.

Iowa law requires anyone born after January 1, 1972 to become hunter education certified before they’re eligible to purchase a hunting license. Naturalist Megan Jorgensen says their free course March 20th is mostly for 11-to-16-year olds and would normally be a 2-day event, but COVID-19 safety concerns has meant changes, “We have to limit our classroom size, typically we would offer a class for 40 students or so each time, but with COVID we have reduced that to 20 and we’re also not allowed to do field days with live fire, so unfortunately the kids don’t get the opportunity to actually fire a shotgun or a rifle, even a bow and arrow, just because it’s a little more hands-on and it’s hard to ensure sanitation with those firearms.”

Jorgensen says students will learn hunting laws, basic survival and first aid skills, water safety, wildlife identification and the basics of wildlife management. She says while their class is currently full, they will take registrations for a waiting list. You can find a link to registration here.