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KDWP Offers Online Furharvester Education Course
Internet course saves time, money at no charge to the student.

Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks

PRATT, KS — -(AmmoLand.com)- The Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks (KDWP) has announced conversion of the agency’s current Furharvester Education Correspondence Course to an online course. The paper correspondence course will no longer be issued. Any paper tests received after Aug. 15 will not be accepted. The online course is currently available free of charge.

“We have never had enough furharvester instructors to meet the demand for classes,” says Keith Sexson, KDWP assistant secretary for operations. “As a result, we have had to provide a paper correspondence course that has not really filled our needs as a learning tool. The new online course is much more thorough and will do a much better job of preparing students for the trapping experience.

“Instructor-led furharvester education courses will still be offered but will continue to be limited in number and location,” Sexson adds. “The online course will provide the majority of certifications, which will save considerable money in staff time for data entry, printing, processing, and mailing costs.”

To take either the online course or an instructor-led course, students will go to the KDWP website, www.kdwp.state.ks.us. From there, click “Other-Services,” then “Education,” then “Furharvester” to reach the furharvester education page. To choose an instructor-led course, click “Course Schedule.” To take the online course, click Kansas Furharvester Education online course. Students will be asked to create an account and will then be sent an email confirming their account creation and providing a link to start the course. Once the course is complete, students will be issued an official Kansas Furharvester Education certificate that they may print out at home.

“One advantage of the online course is that it allows the students to log in and out as they desire,” says Wayne Doyle, statewide Hunter Education Program coordinator for KDWP. “They do not have to complete the course at one sitting, and quizzes are given as they progress through the course. A wrong answer to a quiz question will require them to return to the missed instruction and get it right before proceeding.”

Once students have completed all sections of the course, they will take a final test and must score at least 84 percent to be certified. If they fail the test on the first try, they can re-study and re-take the test until they get a passing score.

For more information on the course, phone 620-672-5911 and ask for Hunter Education.

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2009 Kansas Waterfowl Seasons Set
Wildlife and Parks Commission to set seasons Aug. 6; similar to last year.

Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks

PRATT – -(AmmoLand.com)- At an Aug. 6 meeting in Medicine Lodge, the Kansas Wildlife and Parks Commission approved seasons for late-migrating waterfowl. Following frameworks allowed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and recommendations from Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks (KDWP) staff, the upcoming 2009-2010 late waterfowl seasons will allow 74 days of duck hunting in the Low Plains Zone and 97 days in the High Plains.

Duck regulations and season dates for the fall and winter of 2009-2010 are as follow.

Bag limits, possession limits, shooting hours
Five ducks is the daily bag limit, which may include no more than two redheads, two scaup, three wood ducks, and one duck from the following group — one pintail, one canvasback, one hen mallard, one mottled duck (except for the first five days of the season, in any zone, when mottled ducks may not be taken). The daily bag limit for coots is 15, and a daily bag limit for mergansers is five, which may include no more than two hooded mergansers. The coot and merganser seasons will run concurrent with the regular duck seasons.
Possession limits for all species (ducks, coots, and mergansers) are double the daily bag.
Shooting hours for all species are one-half hour before sunrise to sunset.

Duck Season Dates

• High Plains Zone Youth — Oct. 3-4.
• High Plains Zone (West of U.S. 283) — first segment, Oct. 10-Jan. 5, 2010; second segment, Jan. 23-31, 2010.
• Early Zone Youth — Oct. 3-4.
• Early Zone — first segment, Oct. 10-Dec. 6; second segment, Dec. 19-Jan. 3, 2010.
• Late Zone Youth — Oct. 24-25.
• Late Zone — first segment, Oct. 31-Jan. 3, 2010; second segment, Jan. 23-31, 2010.

(For details on zone boundaries, see the 2009 Kansas Hunting and Furharvesting Regulations Summary, available Sept. 1 at most KDWP offices and license vendors.)

During the youth seasons, youth must be 15 years old or younger and accompanied by an adult, who cannot hunt. The supervising adult must be at least 18 years old, and the adult does not have to have a hunting license or stamps required of waterfowl hunters.

For Canada geese, season segments are Oct. 31-Nov. 8 and Nov. 11-Feb. 14, with a daily bag limit of three. For white-fronted geese, the season segments are Oct. 31-Nov. 8; Nov. 11-Jan. 3, 2010; and Feb. 6-14, 2010, with a daily bag limit of two. The light goose season segments are Oct. 31-Nov. 8 and Nov. 11-Feb. 14, 2010, with a daily bag limit of 20. (Under a federal Light Goose Conservation Order, light geese may also be taken from Feb. 15-April 30, with no bag or possession limits.)

All waterfowl possession limits are twice the daily bag limit, except for light geese, which have no possession limit.

For falconers, federal frameworks allow no extended season in the High Plains Zone. In both the Early and Late zones, the season runs Feb. 24-March 10, 2010. Because of the 107-day hunting limit imposed by the federal Migratory Bird Treaty, and the increased length of the September teal season from nine to 16 days, there are seven fewer days left for falconers in the Early and Late zones, and none available in the High Plains Zone.

For more details, visit the KDWP website, www.kdwp.state.ks.us, or phone 620-672-5911.

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