Matters of Opinion
Periodically on this page I’ll wander from the topics in the current issue of North Dakota OUTDOORS. This is one of those times.
How often have we heard the future is the young people or the next generation? I hear it all the time in our business, and it’s a valid notion.
Over the last number of years, I’ve had the privilege of hosting some high school seniors through a job shadow program with the local Elks lodge. The purpose of the event is to introduce these young adults to how state and local government works.
We’ve had students from every high school in the Bismarck-Mandan area during my tenure as director and we hope each one came away with a better appreciation for what the Game and Fish Department does behind the scenes.
All of the students we’ve hosted over the years were tremendous young adults and this year wasn’t any different. This year my shadows from Century High School were Hunter Kopseng, Austin Barnhardt and Matthew Strenge. Based on my experience with them for a short time, their parents and Century High School should be proud. They were intelligent, engaged and courteous.
Scott Peterson, Department deputy director, and I, gave the three job shadows a general overview of the Department and then asked their particular interests. One of the students was interested in biology, while the other two planned on furthering their education in the business sector.
Based on past experience we had a good idea that they would all be interested in the technological side of our agency, so we gave them a brief glimpse of some of the research using GPS technology to track animal movements and gather other information.
Following that, we aligned the two students with business interests with the Department’s administrative services staff to give them a primer on the business side of things, such as accounting and grant administration. And we gave the other individual interested in the biological part of our business a tour of Game and Fish lab facilities and an explanation of how we use information learned in the lab to manage fish and wildlife in the state.
As we were traveling to the luncheon for awards and presentations, one of the individuals noted that he came from a hunting family, but while he didn’t hunt, he enjoyed going along on the outings.
That really got me thinking. Hunting isn’t necessarily for everybody, but it emphasized that this young man enjoyed being outside with family and was content with something other than hunting, which is equally important.
North Dakota, on average, has become a much younger state in the last decade. The youth of today are definitely the future. Not all of them will end up hunting or fishing, but I’m willing to bet each of them would be lost if they went outside and didn’t hear Canada geese flying overhead, or walked the prairies and didn’t hear the call of our state bird, the Western meadowlark.
It’s up to all of us, including today’s young people, to ensure the outdoor heritage of our great state continues, whether it be hunting, fishing, or simply walking outdoors with family. Listen to nature. It will tell you a lot of what North Dakota is all about.