More youth hunters will have the opportunity to participate in the 2011 youth goose hunt in southernmost Illinois, which is shaping up to top 2010 for hunting opportunities and a fun-filled banquet, according to one of the organizers who helped to make last year’s event one of the biggest and best hunts in the history of the hunt.
Designated as a goose hunt, ducks may also be harvested, according to the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. The hunt itself, which will be held in Union and Alexander counties, is set for Dec. 28, with the banquet held the evening before to assign blinds to the youth participating in the event.
“Yes, we are in the planning process. We’ve had planning meetings with IDNR already. And we’ve had planning meetings with Ducks Unlimited, Shawnee Chapter; Whitetails Unlimited; Delta Waterfowl; and IBEW, Illinois Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. Things are progressing greatly,” said Gene Morgan, founder of the Muddy Kids Foundation, an organization dedicated to introducing youth to wildlife, conservation and the outdoors.
Morgan was a major force in the planning of last year’s event, which garnered praise from both IDNR officials and participants.
“We are going to have a bigger, better banquet than we did last year,” he said in a recent telephone interview. “We plan to have more kids hunting than we did last year. We had fifty last year. If you remember at the banquet last year, the director [of IDNR, Marc Miller] asked us to double it. Well, we’re not sure we can double it, but we hope to get somewhere between seventy-five and one hundred kids signed up to hunt.”
Although, the hunt is months away, youth need to obtain their permits now; the application deadline is Oct. 1. There is no charge for the permits. The hunt is open to kids ages 10 to 15. According to Stacey Solano, a spokesperson for IDNR, preference will be given to first-time hunters, but all kids who are eligible are welcome to apply.
Morgan said that the early deadline has an effect on lower numbers of kids signing up for the hunt.
“This was a problem last year, so many kids just didn’t realize that the deadline for permits [was] September 30,” he explained. “Well, it’s during dove season. We’re not thinking about shooting ducks during dove season, although teal season’s in.”
Morgan, who was inducted into the Illinois Outdoor Hall of Fame in 2002 for the many innovative environmental projects he developed during his careers as a high school teacher and as a federal park ranger, gives a lot of credit to the volunteers and organizations involved, IDNR employees and local hunt club owners in helping to make the annual hunt and banquet become one of the premiere youth hunting events in the state.
“The kids will be hunting both Union County public hunting areas, Union County private clubs, Horseshoe Lake public hunting area and Horseshoe Lake area private hunting clubs,” Morgan said. “Horseshoe Lake had all of their blinds washed away during the flood, but they have already got them all back and in working condition. Mark Clary [at Union County] and Joey Thurston [at Horseshoe Lake] have been working unbelievably hard to get their hunting areas ready for waterfowl season.”
The free, mandatory dinner, where blinds are assigned, will be held the evening before, Dec. 27, at the Great Boars of Fire banquet hall near Anna. Each youth hunter must be accompanied by a parent or guardian or a responsible adult at both the banquet and the hunt and that youth hunters must have a valid Illinois hunting license and have completed and passed an IDNR hunter safety course.
“This year’s ticket arrangement will be a little different,” Morgan said. “We are supplying the hunter and his companion – whether it be Daddy or Grandpa or close friend – with free tickets to the banquet. Any additional tickets will be $10 each. Banquet will run from 5 o’clock until 8 o’clock, just like last year.”
At the 2010 banquet, each youth hunter received a bag full of mementos from the event, and there will be plenty this year, too, Morgan said. “We’re giving away at the banquet this year more guns. We’re going to have more silent auction items, and we’re going to have an outstanding art collection, wildlife art, to be both auctioned off and silent auction items. We’re going to give away at least five guns to the kids [and] one gun to the adult companion – we’re going to include them in a separate giveaway, also.”
But none of that will compare to the memories and excitement for the kids the next day at the hunt.
Like the kids who will be signing up, Morgan himself is looking forward to the season: “You probably may have heard this is supposed to be a banner year for waterfowl migration. Something we haven’t seen in many, many, many years [in] total numbers coming down from the north.”
The hunting permit application is available here from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources.
More articles from Jayn Bigler:
CPO Asks Young Hunters: How Do You Want to Be Remembered?
Kids Have Plenty of Outdoor Opportunities This Fall in Southern Illinois
Hunting Retriever Clubs and Delta Waterfowl: A Natural Partnership