February 24, 2024 • 38 mins
Heidi Lyn Rao was hired by Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) in 1998 and has recruited, trained, and retained volunteers, as the Hunter Education Specialist for Southeast Texas. In 2010 she also assumed the role as statewide Becoming an Outdoors-Woman (BOW) Coordinator.
During her TPWD career, she developed many partnerships and organized many education & outreach events. She started “Take Me Outdoors Houston” in 2009, when the Texas Wildlife Expo ended, and brings this annual family-friendly, free, hands-on outdoor event to Discovery Green, Downtown Houston. She hosts wildlife workshops ranging from alligators to big game. She promotes hunting and outdoor safety to groups ranging from elementary school aged to flying offshore via helicopter to speak to oil and gas employees in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico on a platform. From teaching firearm safety to Rodeo Clowns during the Houston Rodeo, to hosting Hunter Education classes at the Sam Houston (horse) Raceway, conducting National Archery in the Schools Program and Student Air Rifle certifications, and partnering with many hunting, shooting and conservation organizations across Texas.
She has coordinated twenty-seven statewide BOW workshops across Texas, including the first-ever VIRTUAL BOW in 2020. She has reached over 7,000 Ladies who have attended BOW and continued their outdoors skills ultimately becoming hunters, anglers, and archers, especially through mentored BOW hunts. To date, 10 Texas Outdoor Women Network (TOWN) groups have launched across the state because of the statewide BOW.
She received IHEA’s Professional of the Year; IHEA’s Executive Director’s Award; TPWD’s Terry Erwin Hunter Education LEGACY award, Houston Safari Club Educator of the Year and she is also in the Texas Hunter Education Halls of Fame.
She and her (now retired) TPWD Game Warden husband of 25 yrs., John, have 4 boys: Dominic is 21 and works for Laser Shot Simulations in Houston; Matthew is 20 and is a sophomore at the University of Arkansas with a 4.0 and on his way to be a large animal vet; JohnJohn is 17 and is a Junior; and Luke is 14 and is in 8th grade. The Rao’s are avid hunters and enjoy camping, trapping, and the shooting sports together.
WEBSITE: https://tpwd.texas.gov/education/hunter-education
SOCIAL MEDIA: https://www.facebook.com/tpwdoutdoorwoman
During her TPWD career, she developed many partnerships and organized many education & outreach events. She started “Take Me Outdoors Houston” in 2009, when the Texas Wildlife Expo ended, and brings this annual family-friendly, free, hands-on outdoor event to Discovery Green, Downtown Houston. She hosts wildlife workshops ranging from alligators to big game. She promotes hunting and outdoor safety to groups ranging from elementary school aged to flying offshore via helicopter to speak to oil and gas employees in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico on a platform. From teaching firearm safety to Rodeo Clowns during the Houston Rodeo, to hosting Hunter Education classes at the Sam Houston (horse) Raceway, conducting National Archery in the Schools Program and Student Air Rifle certifications, and partnering with many hunting, shooting and conservation organizations across Texas.
She has coordinated twenty-seven statewide BOW workshops across Texas, including the first-ever VIRTUAL BOW in 2020. She has reached over 7,000 Ladies who have attended BOW and continued their outdoors skills ultimately becoming hunters, anglers, and archers, especially through mentored BOW hunts. To date, 10 Texas Outdoor Women Network (TOWN) groups have launched across the state because of the statewide BOW.
She received IHEA’s Professional of the Year; IHEA’s Executive Director’s Award; TPWD’s Terry Erwin Hunter Education LEGACY award, Houston Safari Club Educator of the Year and she is also in the Texas Hunter Education Halls of Fame.
She and her (now retired) TPWD Game Warden husband of 25 yrs., John, have 4 boys: Dominic is 21 and works for Laser Shot Simulations in Houston; Matthew is 20 and is a sophomore at the University of Arkansas with a 4.0 and on his way to be a large animal vet; JohnJohn is 17 and is a Junior; and Luke is 14 and is in 8th grade. The Rao’s are avid hunters and enjoy camping, trapping, and the shooting sports together.
WEBSITE: https://tpwd.texas.gov/education/hunter-education
SOCIAL MEDIA: https://www.facebook.com/tpwdoutdoorwoman
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
Tradition, conservation, family, theoutdoors. It matters to you, it
matters to us. This is HuntingMatters presented by Houston Safari Club Foundation.
Here's Joe Bitar. Good morning everyone, Welcome back to Hunting Matters on KPRC
(00:22):
nine fifty. This is your host, Joe Batar. I am Ramon Robles,
and we are uh, we're sorry. We're gonna see the dog days
of summer here. I think toosoon, Ramone, were got mosquitoes and
fleas in my house. We're alreadyeighty something this week. Dogs are all
scratching and I'm such an old man. I know, Dak got it.
I gotta get my golf cart andgo out and tour the neighborhood. Make
sure those kids are behaving themselves.Yeah, same way. What have we
(00:46):
miss winter? Man? Well,we get three days of it, is
why. It's not as if we'rebeing absurd by wanting it to stick around.
Just remember, for all these peoplethat are thank God that the winner's
over all. Right. You rememberthis in August and sept it's one hundred
and four for the fifth day ina row, and your swealth. You're
crying about the heat, and they'reshifting weather patterns this year. So it's
(01:07):
supposed to be nin ya this summer. Oh is that right? Yeah,
not as bad for the hurricanes andstuff, but it's still going to be
very It's especially going to be veryhot, very dry, and it better
cook as good of a driver,right, yes, yes, So what
have you been up to? Nota lot. Just you know, we
got some things going on. Mywife and I have booked passage for summer
(01:30):
vacation this week and we're pretty excitedabout that. Where you're going, I'm
not telling you, you're not tellingit now, it's passage. It sounds
like you're going to India. We'retaking a trip on the oil hobby.
Now, we're going to Norway.Cool in Scotland, Yeah, and then
London, wow, in that order, in that order, yeah, with
the stopover in rekovec Iceland. Ah, just because training planes and stuff.
(01:53):
Nice. So you need you needto watch The Lily Hammer on Netflix,
That's what I understand. Yeah.Yeah, still there we're we're we're TV
and streaming nerds. I guess youcould say, so you got going what's
going on? Man? Well,you know we uh, we're already planning
now the conventions wrapp are already planningthe next one. But I've got my
(02:14):
I've got my sight set on springTurkey season. I wish I could guard
up. Yeah, you know,I wish you could too, But you've
got should be nice. Your sociallife is too active. Turkey all over
the world and just forty forty sixyears old and never we can't all be
ramon reveless, you know, wecan't all live your life that. Yeah,
but it's okay. We'll make ithappen at some point, at some
(02:36):
point. But yeah, uh,getting fired up for Turkey Season. I
was so excited. Amazon showed upat the house today with my new uh
my new av and X decoys.No, no intentional plug there, but
if you guys want to sponsor thepodcast. But I've been wanting some av
X A V and X Turkey decoysbecause they look so realistic and so lifelike.
And I've used others from other peoplein the past that had the same
thing, and it's crazy after theylook so are they like Christmas Turkey Christmas?
(02:59):
Yeah, which I want to lookthem up on. They're they're life
size, but they they they uh, they have a technology that has like
this high uh high definition finished tothem where when they hit the sun they
actually look like real feathers, butthey're plastic. Probably your thinge, but
they're pretty pretty impressive. So yeah, A V and a V, I
A n X and they make severaldifferent kind of decoys. But I fell
(03:21):
in love with the Turkey decoys acouple of years ago when I saw people
using them. And they're not cheap, but they are worth it. Home,
I bought a hen and a anda jake, so a young time
they give them named. Yeah,so Hen's the hen the female, and
then you I hunt with a jakebecause I don't want to have a big
strutting tom, you know, bigmature male bird out there. And then
some of the toms either sometimes they'llfight them and sometimes they won't. So
(03:43):
I'd prefer to have like a nondominant male chasing a female so the big
times will come up. Hey,hey, little boy, you go,
you can go ahead and vacate thearey we got we got this. I'd
rather just go to TB and tobe missing a lot of stuff going on
there. Yeah, well, yougot to get in the head of a
turkey, and that's not a lotof room in there. I also I'm
looking at these turkeys. I likeJoe Beetar money. That's that's pretty Yeah,
(04:04):
you can tell why didn't pull thetrigger. Yeah, they're coming,
They're nice, they last forever,but they are not cheap. Yeah.
Hey, you know what, mywife always says, payp nut's get monkeys.
So that's that's the thing. Sothat's uh, I kind of stick
with that, okay. Anyway,uh So listen, folks. The show
is always a sponsored by the Houstonspar Club Foundation. Go to we Hunt,
(04:24):
we give dot org and check outthe website. There's a lot of
stuff coming up. Uh. Someregistrations h will be opening soon for our
May Hunting Awards. We're gonna haveJohnny Joey Jones on. He's one of
the Fox News contributors and hosts anda former combat wounded UH staff sergeant.
Uh looking really forward to meeting him. And then we're doing our big quail
shoot and crawfish boil if the pricecrawfish comes down, Uh, coming up
(04:47):
here in May, and lots ofstuff, lots of cool stuff going on.
News information get information about this show, Hunting Matters podcast go to we
Hunt, we give dot org.Float around there and hopefully hopefully you're joined
up Houston Starre Club Foundation to becomea member. So anyway, got the
commercial stuff out of the way today, we are glad to welcome back Heidi
Rao. Heidi was hired by theTexas Parks and Wildlife Department back in nineteen
(05:09):
ninety eight and she has worked withrecruiting and training and retaining volunteers for the
as the hunter Education Specialists for SoutheastTexas and in twenty ten, as if
she didn't have enough to do already, she started her role as a statewide
Becoming outdoors Woman Coordinator or a bowand then during her career she has worked
with a lot of different partnerships anda lot of different education and outreach events.
(05:32):
And we're fortunate with Houston spar ClubFoundation and that they always do a
hunter education course, so they trainhunter education instructors during our convention every year,
and of course they do it allyear long, but it's kind of
cool to have those folks in there, and they're usually wall to wall in
that room. So how do youthank you so much for joining us,
(05:53):
Thanks for having me, what youbeen up to just that gear it up
to the busy season and traveling aroundfun, caring and feeding of our volunteers.
Because our program is run on volunteers. There's only a handful of us
in the state as staff paid employeesby Texas Parks and Wildlife, and we
(06:13):
cover there's five of us that coverthe entire state and of our regions.
We all recruit and train up reallygood volunteers that help us do our jobs
and help duplicate our efforts throughout theregion. So it's like a train the
trainer type. Absolutely, and thereare only five view in the entire state
of Texas. How does that compareto other states? Is are we woefully
understaffed? And I'm not saying thisas a criticism. I mean, everybody's
(06:36):
having a hard time getting staff andthings and funding and that sort of thing.
But it's very similar in other states. I Mean, usually every state
has a coordinator, a hunter educationcoordinator of some type, and some of
them that's all they do. Someof the coordinators have multiple roles. They
may serve the voter education community.They may also be law enforcement officers that
(06:57):
have another duty as assigned as ahunter education coordinator. But we're fortunate here
in Texas that this is all wefocus on. So our coordinator in the
program, Steve Hall, who hasrun the program for many years. He
you know, administers the hunter educationAnd that's pretty much all we do is
we get to you know, reallybeef up our efforts within the realms of
(07:18):
our program. And because there's onlyfive of you, you're not allowed to
be in the same room at allour travel together. Yeah ever, exactly
well, we do more than ourshare of traveling lots of miles on the
trucks. That's crazy. That's crazy, all right, folks. Our guest
today is Heidi Rao from the TexasParks and Wilife Department Hunter Education Department,
(07:40):
and we are going to be backwith Hidi and talk about a lot of
really cool stuff on the other sideof this commercial break. Stay tuned to
Hunting Matters on KPRC nine to fiftybam bound. The Houston Safari Club Foundation
is a five oh one c threenonprofit organization that supports the future of hunting
and conservation while life and habitat conservation, youth education and outdoor experiences, scholarships,
(08:03):
and anti poaching efforts are just afew of the programs supported by this
organization, monthly events, an annualconvention, award winning publications, networking opportunities,
and valuable resources for hunting knowledge arejust a few of the benefits of
being a member of Houston Sapri ClubFoundation. If you're searching for a group
of people dedicated to protecting the futureof hunting, look no further. Join
Houston Safari Club Foundation today at weHuntwegive dot org or call seven one three
(08:28):
six two three eight eight four four. Welcome back to honey Matters on KPRC
(09:05):
nine fifty. This is your JoeBitar. I'm Ramon Roebliss. Was it
you told me about the Food Fighterscover album of the Beg Songs? If
you heard that I have not FoodFighters have a cover album of Begi songs,
you got to check it out.Yeah, my attention to me write
that down pretty crazy? Yeah,Yeah, I love Food Fighters and I
love the Begi's cherefully shamefly. Sobut anyway, we're back to folks this
(09:26):
week with our guest Heidi Rao.Heidi is with the Texas Parks and Wildlife
Department Hunter Education Program. Heidi,I just wanted to ask you a stupid
question right off the bat how doesit feel to be a badass? I
love it. Okay, that's good. I think you are the perfect woman,
and let me tell you why.Primarily because I feel safe around you.
That's simply it. I got yoursix Yeah, I appreciate that.
(09:50):
We'll get into that. I guesshad another time. But you could also
feel unsafe a out here. Well, yeah, that's true. Don't make
her mad. The first time shecame on the show, I did research
and I looked her up and Ithought, ye okay, I'm in love.
I get it. So I'm gladyou're back. I'm a happy year
here. I got a lot ofquestions, but Joe's got the adult stuff.
I'll tell you. Oh that's thegrown up question. Yes, let's
(10:11):
kind of review some basic stuff forpeople who are listening. Because some of
these questions I get asked. NowI have to go back and look.
I know that you live even breathethis every day, but I have to
go back and look. I'm like, Okay, what do you need a
license for that? Or do youhave to be certified for that? So
who's required a complete hunter education inthe state of Texas? Okay, So
in Texas, if you are nineand older. Nine is the youngest age
that we certify hunter education. Onceyou turn seventeen, you have to have
(10:37):
it, regardless if you're hunting sideby side with a licensed adult or not.
So if you have a youngster underseventeen that you want to take hunting
and they don't yet have the huntereducation, they can still legally hunt with
a licensed adult seventeen and older,but once they turn seventeen they have to
have it. Anyone born after Septembertwo, nineteen seventy one, in Texas
(10:58):
has to have hunter education. It'sa requirement nationwide in other states and countries,
So it's in all of North Americaincluding Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico,
Virgin Islands, South Africa, NewZealand, Peru, Australia, and
many others are coming on board.So what that means is if you take
hunter education here in Texas, it'sa one time class, one time certification,
(11:22):
it's lifetime, and it's reciprocal inall of North America, those countries
and those locations. So if yougo to Africa and you are hunting big
dangerous game or whatever you want tohunt over there, you buy your licenses
if they require a hunter. Edyou pull out your Texas Hunter Education,
you're legal to hunt. That's goodto know. Yeah, I took it.
I'm too old to really fall inthat category. I took it with
(11:46):
my kids just because I wanted totake it with my kids. Yes,
and I actually enjoyed the class.I thought it was really really educational.
And that was before there was theonline component. Do they still take you
out make you do the field stuff. That's a part of it. So
there's three different ways that you canget certification. One way is the classroom
option, and our instructors teaching theclassroom it's hands on, you know,
(12:07):
they take you through the entire contentin about a six to eight hour day.
The other option is what we callInternet plus field days, so you
can actually go online and study.We have some free tutorials and three free
lessons that you can study. Thenyou go into an instructor who's offering those
types of classes where they take youthrough live fire exercises, shoot don't shoot
(12:28):
scenarios, through a skills trail usingsome of those Turkey decoys, different scenarios
that you might encounter in the field, and then the exam. And the
third option is if you are seventeenand older, we have an online only
certification option. So we have likesix or seven different vendors that we've accepted
that we partner with that we approvethat they can take it online through those
(12:50):
different vendors. So there's lots ofdifferent ways we want to get that education
and training out there is whichever wayyou can get it. We want to
make sure that people stay safe andlegal. So if I'm a non resident
hunter coming into Texas, it's reciprocating. I can and I've got hunter ed
in another state, it's reciprocates backas well. There the cool thing that
one of my favorite things that's happenedas far as technology, and it's a
(13:11):
huge undertaking for the people who hadto do it, but having licensures having
your licenses on your phone now,I mean, although being in the old
dude that I am, I kindof harken back those days of rolling and
folding up the license and getting itall to fit and everything like that.
But it's kind of weird. Thefirst hunting season I had to hunt,
I could hunt without a paper license. I was like, Okay, I
(13:31):
hope I don't get checked and Ihope everything's right, but it's so easy.
You've got your licenses on there.You can log any of your harvest
on which is going to be agreat thing for Parks and my Life Department
to be able to if people willcomply and we'll log their harvest in.
Is your Hunter Education certification on thatapp as well? Yes? Okay,
so everything ties. We have theOutdoor Annual app that's a free download Android
(13:52):
or iPhone. It's a free downloadand the cool thing about it is the
app it downloads to your device.So once you have it for the current
license here you go hunting out inthe remote boonies where there's no cell service,
you can pull up that app andyou can find your location, find
the sunrise, sunset, legal shootinghours, you know what you can and
(14:13):
can't take, the bag limits,so it's a really handy app. And
then you can also it links upyour Hunter Education number, so if you
are stopped in the field, youjust pull up your app, and by
having your Hunter Education number on yourapp, the game warden checks you.
You don't have to have anything paper. Everything is just right there digitally.
Last year the state rolled out digitallicenses, so if that's what you're referring
(14:39):
to. You can actually if you'rea super Combo holder, and there's several
different parameters that you have to follow, but you can actually purchase a digital
license and you can go in thefield and if you you know, follow
still following the same guidelines, youstill have the same number of you know,
digital tags. But if you takean animal, you have to report
(15:00):
that through that my harvest app.It's another app that you have to submit
your report to and anyway, andthen you get the number and you still
tag it the same way. Ifit's a deer, you know, you
tag it immediately a punk kill andwrite down your number right down your license
number. So there's steps that youhave to follow. But I've talked to
several hunters that are they're all in. They love it. Yeah, we
did that last Turkey season. Weactually did that where we you know,
(15:22):
you don't you don't have it,so you don't have the paper, you
don't have the tax so you can'tcut it out with a knife and all
that sort of thing. You putit on your bird. So you can
just get a piece of paper orthe zip tie and take that information from
your app, put on that pieceof paper and attach it to your animal
and you're done. Yeah. Andthe cool thing about by uploading that information
into the app is biologists now haveinstant data. They know exactly how many
birds barring that the hunters are reportingit, you know, promptly, but
(15:46):
they have instant access to how manybirds are taking what county, you know,
all the different game harvests, whichis really cool. I want to
take if you're listening to the showand you hunt, and you love to
hunting the outdoors, and you're inTexas hunting, if you if you take
an animal, highly encourage people touse the app to record those harvests because
those are those are the things thatare that are useful, like you said,
with the biologists and setting limits andquotas and depending on the game animal
(16:10):
that sort of thing. And youknow, you know, turkeys aren't the
turkey population across the US is andas healthy as it used to be.
I mean, it's kind of starteddecline a little bit in some areas more
and more so than others. Butthe place we hunt, luckily, it's
we had a down year one year, but for the most part it's been
it's been pretty robust. But it'sI just can't stress enough how important it
is to report your harvest no matterwhat the analysts through the app, because
it's just it puts data in researchand clinical studies and that sort of thing,
(16:33):
so far ahead of the curve versushaving to get that antidotal data from
reporting stations and that sort of thing. So I just if you're listening,
folks, please record your animals inthat app or whatever state you're You know,
if you don't ask a kid,they can help you navigate through the
technology. I figured it out,so I mean, it's not that hard.
I actually showed some guy who's liketwenty years old last year how to
use it. I didn't even knowyou could do that. I'm like,
dude, Yeah. On the Parksand Whilife website, there is a lot
(16:56):
of tutorials. There's a lot ofYouTube, Like we have a huge YouTube
presence through Parks and Wildlife and wehave a YouTube channel and you can find
all kinds of videos that walk youthrough and they're they're linked right there where
you can buy your licenses. Thatexplains the digital license and all the app
information. It's got the digital orthe video links that will walk you right
(17:18):
through it step by step. Yeah, we're living in the future. Yeah,
we are in the year two thousand. Your Hunter Education instructors. When
I see when I survey the roomevery year, it seems to be people
in their fifties, sixties, seventies. Are you to is that typical of
most of your classes We've got whereyou've got adults who are kind of passed
or moving into their retirement, retirementera, you know, that's the way
(17:41):
it's always been. Lately, weare seeing a shift. We're seeing a
lot more younger people, a lotmore women are getting along the ranks of
wanting to get certified. Whether ornot they hunt, they all believe in
conservation and getting that message out there. A lot of shooters, a lot
(18:03):
of competitive shooters are coming into ourfold and they want to just pass along
that knowledge, that safety, thatskill, everything that we do in our
program. So we are seeing alot of younger people coming into the program
for different motivations, but the endresult is the same. They're still passing
on that knowledge and reaching abroad,you know, casting a broader net so
to speak. Am I mistaken?And that also the people in the room
(18:26):
seems to be more ethnically diverse aswell than they were even five years ago.
Absolutely. Yeah, that's really coolto say, because I know there's
been a concerted effort by a lotof state agencies, including Texas and other
groups that are really pushing for that. And you know, we've got this
huge population of different ethnicities and weneed to recruit them into the outdoors,
whether it's shooting, sports, orhunting or fishing, whatever it is,
and we just we've got to makesure we capitalize on that. All right,
(18:48):
ramone's going to push us into here, do a break. We'll be
back on the other side. HuntingMatters, KPRC nine to fifty. Name.
(19:18):
When you're with me, I'm smile, Give me well love, love,
your love, your hands, buildme up. When I'm seeking,
touch me and my troubles are bid. Welcome back to Honey Matters on KPRC
(19:47):
nine fifty. This is your host, Joe Bitar. I'm Ramon Roblo and
we're today with Heidi Rao. Heidiis the Texas Parks and Wallife Department Hunter
Education specialists for Southeast Texas and statewidebecoming an outdoors Woman Coordinator. Are you
I pressed? I got it?I got it? Allowed didn't bite my
tongue or anything. Do you thankyou so much for joining us again.
(20:07):
I want to give out the websitesbefore I forget, so folks go to
TPWD dot Texas dot gov slash educationslash hunter dash education and they'll probably be
in the liner notes of the showas well if you go to the website,
and then the other website is TPWDdot Texas dot gov slash education slash
bow as in Bob or Walter,we're becoming an outdoor Yeah, I was
(20:33):
waiting for you to kick in onthat. Heidi. We were talking about
a little bit about the hunter's education, that sort of thing. I think
I asked you this before, butI just want to I want to bring
it up again. If you're abowhunter, do you have to have bow
hunter education in Texas? There arefourteen states that require it, and Texas
is voluntary in most of our state, except if you bowhunt on certain properties,
some of the federal properties, CampBulla's Hagerman National, the Refuge on
(20:59):
their certain areas in Texas that dorequire bow hunter education, which is above
and beyond you're a hunter education,so it's a separate additional certification. I'm
trying to get Romoon into boat running. I'm still working out on the whole
gun hunting, so I'll get tobow's eventually. He'll get addicted to it.
Do you bow hunt? You know? I love archery, but I'm
carefully keeping my arms distance because Igo all in on stuff like coffee we
(21:25):
were talking about. So I've gotmy hands full right now. But yeah,
I'll be able to get into bowhunting. When my wife and I
first picked up a bow, wedidn't do it till I was probably in
my late thirties before I started bowhunting. Didn't anything I tried when I
was a kid, but didn't knowwhat I was doing. And my our
instructor, we went to an archeryshop and I said, listen, but
we don't know anything about this,how to set them up, how to
shoot them whatever? You know thecompound bows And he said, I'm just
(21:48):
going to tell you, mister Beetar, right off the bat, your wife
will be a better shot than youare, faster than you will be,
because they listen and they they havebetter skills. I h hand coordination,
that sort of thing. I went, okay, and sure enough, man,
she was slinging them down twenty yardsinto the bull's eye within like thirty
minutes, which was fine. Iwas. I was glad to see her
enjoy it. Yeah, but shenever pursued it. She never shot an
(22:11):
animal with it. You know,life happens, you get busy, that
sort of thing. But I thinkif you know, if she would ever
get back into it, she definitelywould want to go shoot pigs. She
does not like wild pigs. Wouldshe would shoot pigs in a heartbeat with
a bow. Yeah, okay,But she was really good at it,
really good. It's a lot offun. And we have just a sidebar.
We have over three hundred and thirtybow hunter education instructors here in Texas
(22:34):
and last year they certified eight hundredand sixty five students, So that's I
mean, it's definitely something that weneed more instructors. So anybody out there
that is interested in becoming you know, a hunter or a bow hunter education,
I know people. They get themhooked up so they can go to
the website absolutely and get information throughparks and wilife to our our website.
(22:55):
And how am I as a asa hunter looking for education, how do
I find those those bow hunter andHunter Education instructors and classes, so you
can just go to the website andsearch up education and track your way through
the bow Hunter Education and we putwhen our instructors hold classes, they post
them and it's like a living website. So as soon as one of our
instructors schedules a class, it instantlyappears on our website. So yeah,
(23:19):
and we have classes scheduled year roundstate wide. The kudos to y'all because
I think I don't think I've everbeen to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department
website that I haven't found what Ineeded to find, and there's a lot
of information on that. I stillget lost, but there's a lot of
information on there, but you canfind what you're looking for, and it's
always informative and new. And ifI send somebody from out of state to
go, listen, go to thispage to find out you're out of state
(23:41):
licensure, they very seldom had somebodycall back, call me back and go
I have no clue what they're talkingabout, because I've looked at the Western
state stuff and some of those statesare you can't It's like a jigsaw puzzle
trying to figure out out of Statelicenses. Yeah, are our website team.
I mean they received national awards becausethey do such a fantastic job and
making it user friendly. And theother big thing now is accessibility, making
(24:03):
sure that people that have vision oryou know, learning issues, they can
really navigate through our website and readthings. Well. We have specialists that
actually you know, even the texton our websites. They have people that
are specialized in whatever certification that's called, but they can review that and make
(24:25):
it much more reader friendly and userfriendly. So I mean they do an
amazing job on our web web developingside of the state. Let's change course
here just a little bit. Womenin the outdoors. Yes, for those
who don't keep up with data andresearch information that sort of thing. Women
in the outdoors. There are morewomen participating in hunting and recreational shooting than
(24:45):
ever before. And you can tellme if I'm wrong with my research numbers.
Ten to fifteen percent of all huntersor women and upwards of fifteen million
American women participate in some type ofrecreational shooting activity. Yep, am our
close, am I right on there, and in shooting sports and one thousand
and nine women accounted for twenty sixpercent of all shooting sports participants. In
twenty twenty two, thirty two percentof all sports shooters were women. Fastest
(25:07):
growing demographic. That's hands down,that's exciting and scary. No, not
scary, it's exciting and you knowten years ago will women are the fastest
growing demographic and hunting. But Itake percentages at face value. I don't
like percentages because percentage I don't thinkis a true reflection of the raw number.
So when they're going, you know, it's faster in percentage, what
are the numbers? But it's continueto grow and grow and grow, and
(25:32):
now the numbers are substantial. Werethe real raw data? How does that
make you feel? You know,it's it's good because women hunt, they
shoot, and now that you know, because men have been dominating in the
hunting and shooting sports for so manyyears, the women have done it too.
But now they're getting more organized.If I can coordinate with that or
(25:56):
correlate with that, because programs likethe Becoming an Outdoors Women program, I
mean there's a place that they cango and connect with other like minded women
to do these kinds of activities andthen they form, you know, groups
and chapters and organizations, and theyhit the ground running. As an example
my becoming an outdoors woman, atone of my events, there was a
(26:18):
group of ladies that got together andsaid we need to have a support like
a friends group. And literally theycame together. They said, I'm an
attorney, I'm of this, I'mof that. They came together, they
formed a board, and within amatter of like weeks, we had a
friends group. So they're they're veryquick to organize, especially about a topic
that they're passionate about. And whenyou put those numbers in front of them,
like what their dollars coming into theeconomy are doing, you know,
(26:41):
for conservation, for our wildlife populations. You know, they see the real
results of what their activities are doingand how they're contributing to you know,
to the habitat. Yeah, that'sawesome, and it's and tell me again,
tell me if I'm wrong. Theother thing that was reading some articles
last week, and it's that whilewomen are trying hunting and sports shooting more
(27:02):
often than before, they're also leavingthe activities and higher than average numbers.
Have you heard that at all?I don't. I don't know. I
don't have my source here, butit's you know, there's I think that's
that's not unique. I think it'sreflective of I think some of the data
may have been pulled from post pandemicstuff, because we all know that when
the pandemic hit, everybody, oh, let's go buy hunting official licenses and
let's go outdoors as oh my gosh, there's the whole thing to do.
(27:25):
I enough to stay in my apartmentor whatever, And so I think some
of that that data is slightly twistedbased on those similar trends. But also
I think that you know, theR three effort in this country, which
we talked to our guests last weekabout it on the podcast Recruitment, Retention
and Reactivation. For those of youwho don't know what the R three movement
is, I think this women,just like every other population that's involved now
(27:48):
doors, falls into that in thatgrouping. Do you think that program is
a success in the United States?Okay, I think you know, in
other programs like the BOW program,we've been working the R three program,
we just never had a name forit. And now that they've identified that,
oh yeah, now we're you know, this is a recruitment group.
This is a retention group reactivation,and they're seeing that now that there's a
(28:10):
name and people can actually identify withwhatever stage they're in in that model.
But I think we're so fortunate beinghere in Texas because we have so many
opportunities. You know, we alwayssay that we have the most liberal,
you know, hunting seasons because youcan pretty much hunt something legally year round
in our state. And there's somethingyou know, for everybody, you know,
(28:33):
whether it's small game, whether it'snon game, I mean, whether
it's large game, birds, thedifferent methods you know, whether it's archery
or rifles, or you know,there's so many different opportunities here that there's
avenues. And the one good thingthat our program with the hunter education we're
trying to do is we're trying tocapture those laps hunters or even our instructors
(28:56):
who say, well, you know, I don't think I'm going to be
teaching many huntred education classes anymore,because back in the day it used to
be a minimum of ten hours overtwo days. And we've got some of
the instructors that were of that mindsetand they're like, well, I just
can't teach this in one day.Well, you have so much knowledge.
I mean, you've forgotten more thanI'll ever learn. You know, you
(29:18):
are a great survivalist. You know, teach a one day segment, a
one on one like how to builda campfire, how to shoot a bow,
how to pack a backpack for aday hike. So we're offering more
and more of those one on oneopportunities, and those are taken off like
wildfire. That's awesome. I wantto dig into some details in that program
and the Becoming an outdoors Women programtoo. Taking a break career on a
(29:41):
hunting matters. We'll be back withour last segment KPRC nine to fifty.
I can wash out forty four bearsof socks and have them hanging out on
(30:03):
the line. I can start andI have two dozen ships for you can
come from one to nine. Ican skip up a great big dippople a
lot from the drippings, can throwthe skillett, go out and do my
shopping, be back before it meltsin the pan. I bet e noybody
knows what a dripping dripping can isaround here? You know that you know
the dripping can. My grandmother usedto keep a can of bacon grease on
(30:29):
the back of the stuff. Ihave one. Yep, that was her
dripping can and it was an oldstinksince cane syrup yellow can. I could
still oh, I could still pictureit and sit on the back of that
man. She'd say, Oh,we're having green beats. There's a little
based bacon grease whatever. I loveit. Back back with it. We're
back at it on Honey Matters kPrscene as usual, we digress the food.
That's just us joining us today isHidi RAOHI is the Texas Parks and
(30:52):
Wallefe Department Hunter Education specialists for SoutheastTexas and statewide, becoming an outdoors Woman
coordinator. Hei, do you thinkyou again for joining us? What do
you love the most about your job? Being in the field and getting to
work with so many awesome, likeminded partners. That wasn't a brown nose,
that was true. I mean,but you're welcome. But getting to
(31:18):
you know, preach the gospel ofyou know, hunting and shooting and safety
and seeing that interaction and that excitement, especially with a new person that really
wants to get involved, whether they'reyou know, youth or an adult that
want to you know, where doI go from here? How do I
even get started, you know,just talking about it. And I love
what I do. You know,I've been it's gone by so fast all
(31:38):
these years, and I, youknow, just crossing paths with some really
cool people that like to do thesame thing. It seems quite like a
perfect career choice for you, becauseyou do not seem like a cubicle person.
No, no, no, Idon't. One thing before I forget
we were talking about the growing numbersof women involved in shooting sports and outdoors
and that sort of thing. Onething I want to share with you.
I just I was running some datatoday on our membership at Houston Spark Club
(32:01):
Foundation, and I was shocked becauseI was thinking, oh, it's going
to come out the usual ninety percentold white dudes and ten percent women and
none. No, No, ourmembership is now sixteen percent women versus ten
percent women three years ago. That'sawesome. Yeah, that I think is
pretty exciting that we've got We've gotsuch a diverse group coming up. So,
(32:22):
yeah, sixteen percent of our membersare now women versus ten percent like
three years ago. So that's that'scrazy. I mean, that's really good.
And we have our ladies group,the Gazelless of course that posts on
their deal every year at convention.I've always said, when you hook the
mom, you hook the family,right, So if you give the mom
the opportunities, you know, andshow them how fun, you know,
hunting and shooting is, she's goingto drive the calendar for the family.
(32:44):
It's funny you say that because Iknew a guy who was head of marketing
for a major sporting goods chained andwe were in a meeting with him and
he said, the reason we layout the stores the way we do is
because we know that women are goingto come in and they're looking for this
certain thing, and we design ourstore layout where they come and find the
(33:06):
kids tennis shoes for gym class orwhatever, but right next to the hunting
stuff that they're going to go there. And they said the same exact thing.
He said, the same exact thing. We know if we get mom
hooked on whatever, the family isgoing to follow her into it. That's
crazy interesting. I've never heard that. That makes total sense. I drive
the calendar. I agree, whatsports the king? I'm like, am
I gonna like that sport? Now? I don't like that sport? Now?
(33:28):
It's just what, melt, Idon't understand soccer. Yeah, yeah,
no, we never did soccer.Football and baseball are the two and
hunting of course. So so you'rethe coordinator for the Becoming an outdoors Woman
program and we talked about this thelast time you're on the show. What
kind of give our audit listening audiencean overview about what this this great program
is all about. So it isa three day workshop in Texas. Just
(33:49):
celebrated thirty years of this program herein Texas. It actually started as a
research project up at the University ofWisconsin, Stevens Point. It was a
graduate project of barriers women face whendoing outdoor activities and some of those barriers
where there's not enough gear made forwomen. The clothing, the guns,
the fishing, I mean, noneof that stuff was designed with the woman's
(34:12):
body and mind. And so thisprogram kind of was born. And here
in Texas we do two a year, one of the spring and one in
the fall, and it's a threeday workshop and it teaches introductory outdoor skills
and it's a model that we follow. A third of the classes that we
offer our hunting and shooting based athird are fishing and water based and a
third are the like the camping,the geocaching, the not hunting and fishing
(34:37):
based classes and over that weekend they'reintroductory basic skills and depending on the facility
that hosts the particular workshop, driveshow many people we can open it up
to. And the past several workshops, I have about fifty fifty five zero
different classes that they can choose from. They only get to pick four,
(35:00):
and so they come in on Friday, they welcome, we feed them,
they go off to their first session. Saturday morning is a session, Lunch
afternoon is a session. We doa big auction. My Friends group is
a huge supporter of that. Andthen Sunday morning is their final and fourth
session, the last several bows.Once they open runs, registration opens and
it blasts out to the public andit shared thousands of times on social media
(35:22):
and all over the place. It'sfilled within the hour like these these workshops
are filling like gangbusters. So there'sthat double edge of you know, we
need more of them, but becausewe put on such a you know,
it's it's staff, it's dedicated volunteersand instructors who run the program. You
know, we can't do more thantwo a year at the moment. So
because of the overwhelming demand, thenext three workshops are going to be in
(35:46):
Rockport. They're going to be onthe coast, which, yeah, so
we're all looking forward to that.That's cool. Yeah, it's a really
neat program because what we found.We tell the women that you can't come
back unless you bring somebody with you. And even though we don't prevent people
from coming back, they do becausethey know. We know that people are
(36:06):
going to participate in activities that theyhave a circle of friends to do it
with. So I had a dumbquestion go ahead, but then it sounded
like it was going somewhere serious.No, no, I asked this question
to all o our guests. Ijust forgot. If a VIP is coming
into town and you have to entertainthem, what are you making for them?
What dinner are you preparing whatever thecamp has on the menu. Yeah,
(36:30):
and if they have a special request, then we definitely accommodate that.
Yeah, I met you personally atthe house. Oh me, Yeah,
I'm not talking about Texas Parks andWaldla. I'm talking about Heidi Coffee.
She calls up her retired husband andsays, listen, I'm bringing somebody over
for dinner, right, very good? Do you guys do you guys?
(36:52):
Uh, while you're on the subjectof food and culinary, do you guys
do wild game cooking and stuff?We have, Yes, we've offered how
to feel because I know a lotof dudes that need to take that class,
you know, and fairly, that'sthe question I thought you were going
to hit me with, is isthey're becoming an outdoors man? But seriously,
we have had in the past,we've had men register for this because
(37:13):
they're like, look, I'm asingle dad or whatever. The reason is
they they were not raised doing theseactivities now that they're an adult, and
it's for eighteen and older by theway, this program, but we've made
accommodations and you know, had tolet them come in. But there's definitely
a valid point. We have theTexas Outdoor Family Program that does similar workshops
that they offer to you know,men and families, and you know,
(37:37):
how do family kids have to befor that? When you say family,
is it for families? Like TexasOutdoor Family is family based, Yes,
so any age and the state.It's a small fee to join or to
go and they travel around all thestate parks and they provide everything. So
if you know nothing, if youhave nothing outdoors, the state will provide.
(38:00):
Yeah, that's your sleeping bags sense. Yeah, I mean, it's
it's amazing when you start digging downto find so many populations and subsections of
people that need specific help, aid, instruction, things like that, and
guys, you know, typically guyswon't you know, I'm gonna go ahead
and say it. We won't stopand ask for instructions. Thank goodness,
we have GPS mapping systems now becausewe don't have to worry about that you
(38:21):
and our wife doesn't get mad atus because we don't ask for, you
know, our instructions. But thereare you know, there's those guys out
there that that perfectly describe that thatare just their young single day has never
been exposed to it. They wantto get exposed to it. So well,
Heidi, once again, we're outof time. Unfortunately we zip through
that. There's a ton of otherstuff, but we definitely will have you
back. In fact, we're goingto see you in May to talk about
some other stuff. So folks,thank you for being with us, Heidi,
(38:43):
and folks join us next week hereon Hunting Matters KPRC nine fifty
Tradition, conservation, family, theoutdoors. It matters to you, it
matters to us. This is HuntingMatters presented by Houston Safari Club Foundation.
Here's Joe Bitar. Good morning everyone, Welcome back to Hunting Matters on KPRC
(00:22):
nine fifty. This is your host, Joe Batar. I am Ramon Robles,
and we are uh, we're sorry. We're gonna see the dog days
of summer here. I think toosoon, Ramone, were got mosquitoes and
fleas in my house. We're alreadyeighty something this week. Dogs are all
scratching and I'm such an old man. I know, Dak got it.
I gotta get my golf cart andgo out and tour the neighborhood. Make
sure those kids are behaving themselves.Yeah, same way. What have we
(00:46):
miss winter? Man? Well,we get three days of it, is
why. It's not as if we'rebeing absurd by wanting it to stick around.
Just remember, for all these peoplethat are thank God that the winner's
over all. Right. You rememberthis in August and sept it's one hundred
and four for the fifth day ina row, and your swealth. You're
crying about the heat, and they'reshifting weather patterns this year. So it's
(01:07):
supposed to be nin ya this summer. Oh is that right? Yeah,
not as bad for the hurricanes andstuff, but it's still going to be
very It's especially going to be veryhot, very dry, and it better
cook as good of a driver,right, yes, yes, So what
have you been up to? Nota lot. Just you know, we
got some things going on. Mywife and I have booked passage for summer
(01:30):
vacation this week and we're pretty excitedabout that. Where you're going, I'm
not telling you, you're not tellingit now, it's passage. It sounds
like you're going to India. We'retaking a trip on the oil hobby.
Now, we're going to Norway.Cool in Scotland, Yeah, and then
London, wow, in that order, in that order, yeah, with
the stopover in rekovec Iceland. Ah, just because training planes and stuff.
(01:53):
Nice. So you need you needto watch The Lily Hammer on Netflix,
That's what I understand. Yeah.Yeah, still there we're we're we're TV
and streaming nerds. I guess youcould say, so you got going what's
going on? Man? Well,you know we uh, we're already planning
now the conventions wrapp are already planningthe next one. But I've got my
(02:14):
I've got my sight set on springTurkey season. I wish I could guard
up. Yeah, you know,I wish you could too, But you've
got should be nice. Your sociallife is too active. Turkey all over
the world and just forty forty sixyears old and never we can't all be
ramon reveless, you know, wecan't all live your life that. Yeah,
but it's okay. We'll make ithappen at some point, at some
(02:36):
point. But yeah, uh,getting fired up for Turkey Season. I
was so excited. Amazon showed upat the house today with my new uh
my new av and X decoys.No, no intentional plug there, but
if you guys want to sponsor thepodcast. But I've been wanting some av
X A V and X Turkey decoysbecause they look so realistic and so lifelike.
And I've used others from other peoplein the past that had the same
thing, and it's crazy after theylook so are they like Christmas Turkey Christmas?
(02:59):
Yeah, which I want to lookthem up on. They're they're life
size, but they they they uh, they have a technology that has like
this high uh high definition finished tothem where when they hit the sun they
actually look like real feathers, butthey're plastic. Probably your thinge, but
they're pretty pretty impressive. So yeah, A V and a V, I
A n X and they make severaldifferent kind of decoys. But I fell
(03:21):
in love with the Turkey decoys acouple of years ago when I saw people
using them. And they're not cheap, but they are worth it. Home,
I bought a hen and a anda jake, so a young time
they give them named. Yeah,so Hen's the hen the female, and
then you I hunt with a jakebecause I don't want to have a big
strutting tom, you know, bigmature male bird out there. And then
some of the toms either sometimes they'llfight them and sometimes they won't. So
(03:43):
I'd prefer to have like a nondominant male chasing a female so the big
times will come up. Hey,hey, little boy, you go,
you can go ahead and vacate thearey we got we got this. I'd
rather just go to TB and tobe missing a lot of stuff going on
there. Yeah, well, yougot to get in the head of a
turkey, and that's not a lotof room in there. I also I'm
looking at these turkeys. I likeJoe Beetar money. That's that's pretty Yeah,
(04:04):
you can tell why didn't pull thetrigger. Yeah, they're coming,
They're nice, they last forever,but they are not cheap. Yeah.
Hey, you know what, mywife always says, payp nut's get monkeys.
So that's that's the thing. Sothat's uh, I kind of stick
with that, okay. Anyway,uh So listen, folks. The show
is always a sponsored by the Houstonspar Club Foundation. Go to we Hunt,
(04:24):
we give dot org and check outthe website. There's a lot of
stuff coming up. Uh. Someregistrations h will be opening soon for our
May Hunting Awards. We're gonna haveJohnny Joey Jones on. He's one of
the Fox News contributors and hosts anda former combat wounded UH staff sergeant.
Uh looking really forward to meeting him. And then we're doing our big quail
shoot and crawfish boil if the pricecrawfish comes down, Uh, coming up
(04:47):
here in May, and lots ofstuff, lots of cool stuff going on.
News information get information about this show, Hunting Matters podcast go to we
Hunt, we give dot org.Float around there and hopefully hopefully you're joined
up Houston Starre Club Foundation to becomea member. So anyway, got the
commercial stuff out of the way today, we are glad to welcome back Heidi
Rao. Heidi was hired by theTexas Parks and Wildlife Department back in nineteen
(05:09):
ninety eight and she has worked withrecruiting and training and retaining volunteers for the
as the hunter Education Specialists for SoutheastTexas and in twenty ten, as if
she didn't have enough to do already, she started her role as a statewide
Becoming outdoors Woman Coordinator or a bowand then during her career she has worked
with a lot of different partnerships anda lot of different education and outreach events.
(05:32):
And we're fortunate with Houston spar ClubFoundation and that they always do a
hunter education course, so they trainhunter education instructors during our convention every year,
and of course they do it allyear long, but it's kind of
cool to have those folks in there, and they're usually wall to wall in
that room. So how do youthank you so much for joining us,
(05:53):
Thanks for having me, what youbeen up to just that gear it up
to the busy season and traveling aroundfun, caring and feeding of our volunteers.
Because our program is run on volunteers. There's only a handful of us
in the state as staff paid employeesby Texas Parks and Wildlife, and we
(06:13):
cover there's five of us that coverthe entire state and of our regions.
We all recruit and train up reallygood volunteers that help us do our jobs
and help duplicate our efforts throughout theregion. So it's like a train the
trainer type. Absolutely, and thereare only five view in the entire state
of Texas. How does that compareto other states? Is are we woefully
understaffed? And I'm not saying thisas a criticism. I mean, everybody's
(06:36):
having a hard time getting staff andthings and funding and that sort of thing.
But it's very similar in other states. I Mean, usually every state
has a coordinator, a hunter educationcoordinator of some type, and some of
them that's all they do. Someof the coordinators have multiple roles. They
may serve the voter education community.They may also be law enforcement officers that
(06:57):
have another duty as assigned as ahunter education coordinator. But we're fortunate here
in Texas that this is all wefocus on. So our coordinator in the
program, Steve Hall, who hasrun the program for many years. He
you know, administers the hunter educationAnd that's pretty much all we do is
we get to you know, reallybeef up our efforts within the realms of
(07:18):
our program. And because there's onlyfive of you, you're not allowed to
be in the same room at allour travel together. Yeah ever, exactly
well, we do more than ourshare of traveling lots of miles on the
trucks. That's crazy. That's crazy, all right, folks. Our guest
today is Heidi Rao from the TexasParks and Wilife Department Hunter Education Department,
(07:40):
and we are going to be backwith Hidi and talk about a lot of
really cool stuff on the other sideof this commercial break. Stay tuned to
Hunting Matters on KPRC nine to fiftybam bound. The Houston Safari Club Foundation
is a five oh one c threenonprofit organization that supports the future of hunting
and conservation while life and habitat conservation, youth education and outdoor experiences, scholarships,
(08:03):
and anti poaching efforts are just afew of the programs supported by this
organization, monthly events, an annualconvention, award winning publications, networking opportunities,
and valuable resources for hunting knowledge arejust a few of the benefits of
being a member of Houston Sapri ClubFoundation. If you're searching for a group
of people dedicated to protecting the futureof hunting, look no further. Join
Houston Safari Club Foundation today at weHuntwegive dot org or call seven one three
(08:28):
six two three eight eight four four. Welcome back to honey Matters on KPRC
(09:05):
nine fifty. This is your JoeBitar. I'm Ramon Roebliss. Was it
you told me about the Food Fighterscover album of the Beg Songs? If
you heard that I have not FoodFighters have a cover album of Begi songs,
you got to check it out.Yeah, my attention to me write
that down pretty crazy? Yeah,Yeah, I love Food Fighters and I
love the Begi's cherefully shamefly. Sobut anyway, we're back to folks this
(09:26):
week with our guest Heidi Rao.Heidi is with the Texas Parks and Wildlife
Department Hunter Education Program. Heidi,I just wanted to ask you a stupid
question right off the bat how doesit feel to be a badass? I
love it. Okay, that's good. I think you are the perfect woman,
and let me tell you why.Primarily because I feel safe around you.
That's simply it. I got yoursix Yeah, I appreciate that.
(09:50):
We'll get into that. I guesshad another time. But you could also
feel unsafe a out here. Well, yeah, that's true. Don't make
her mad. The first time shecame on the show, I did research
and I looked her up and Ithought, ye okay, I'm in love.
I get it. So I'm gladyou're back. I'm a happy year
here. I got a lot ofquestions, but Joe's got the adult stuff.
I'll tell you. Oh that's thegrown up question. Yes, let's
(10:11):
kind of review some basic stuff forpeople who are listening. Because some of
these questions I get asked. NowI have to go back and look.
I know that you live even breathethis every day, but I have to
go back and look. I'm like, Okay, what do you need a
license for that? Or do youhave to be certified for that? So
who's required a complete hunter education inthe state of Texas? Okay, So
in Texas, if you are nineand older. Nine is the youngest age
that we certify hunter education. Onceyou turn seventeen, you have to have
(10:37):
it, regardless if you're hunting sideby side with a licensed adult or not.
So if you have a youngster underseventeen that you want to take hunting
and they don't yet have the huntereducation, they can still legally hunt with
a licensed adult seventeen and older,but once they turn seventeen they have to
have it. Anyone born after Septembertwo, nineteen seventy one, in Texas
(10:58):
has to have hunter education. It'sa requirement nationwide in other states and countries,
So it's in all of North Americaincluding Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico,
Virgin Islands, South Africa, NewZealand, Peru, Australia, and
many others are coming on board.So what that means is if you take
hunter education here in Texas, it'sa one time class, one time certification,
(11:22):
it's lifetime, and it's reciprocal inall of North America, those countries
and those locations. So if yougo to Africa and you are hunting big
dangerous game or whatever you want tohunt over there, you buy your licenses
if they require a hunter. Edyou pull out your Texas Hunter Education,
you're legal to hunt. That's goodto know. Yeah, I took it.
I'm too old to really fall inthat category. I took it with
(11:46):
my kids just because I wanted totake it with my kids. Yes,
and I actually enjoyed the class.I thought it was really really educational.
And that was before there was theonline component. Do they still take you
out make you do the field stuff. That's a part of it. So
there's three different ways that you canget certification. One way is the classroom
option, and our instructors teaching theclassroom it's hands on, you know,
(12:07):
they take you through the entire contentin about a six to eight hour day.
The other option is what we callInternet plus field days, so you
can actually go online and study.We have some free tutorials and three free
lessons that you can study. Thenyou go into an instructor who's offering those
types of classes where they take youthrough live fire exercises, shoot don't shoot
(12:28):
scenarios, through a skills trail usingsome of those Turkey decoys, different scenarios
that you might encounter in the field, and then the exam. And the
third option is if you are seventeenand older, we have an online only
certification option. So we have likesix or seven different vendors that we've accepted
that we partner with that we approvethat they can take it online through those
(12:50):
different vendors. So there's lots ofdifferent ways we want to get that education
and training out there is whichever wayyou can get it. We want to
make sure that people stay safe andlegal. So if I'm a non resident
hunter coming into Texas, it's reciprocating. I can and I've got hunter ed
in another state, it's reciprocates backas well. There the cool thing that
one of my favorite things that's happenedas far as technology, and it's a
(13:11):
huge undertaking for the people who hadto do it, but having licensures having
your licenses on your phone now,I mean, although being in the old
dude that I am, I kindof harken back those days of rolling and
folding up the license and getting itall to fit and everything like that.
But it's kind of weird. Thefirst hunting season I had to hunt,
I could hunt without a paper license. I was like, Okay, I
(13:31):
hope I don't get checked and Ihope everything's right, but it's so easy.
You've got your licenses on there.You can log any of your harvest
on which is going to be agreat thing for Parks and my Life Department
to be able to if people willcomply and we'll log their harvest in.
Is your Hunter Education certification on thatapp as well? Yes? Okay,
so everything ties. We have theOutdoor Annual app that's a free download Android
(13:52):
or iPhone. It's a free downloadand the cool thing about it is the
app it downloads to your device.So once you have it for the current
license here you go hunting out inthe remote boonies where there's no cell service,
you can pull up that app andyou can find your location, find
the sunrise, sunset, legal shootinghours, you know what you can and
(14:13):
can't take, the bag limits,so it's a really handy app. And
then you can also it links upyour Hunter Education number, so if you
are stopped in the field, youjust pull up your app, and by
having your Hunter Education number on yourapp, the game warden checks you.
You don't have to have anything paper. Everything is just right there digitally.
Last year the state rolled out digitallicenses, so if that's what you're referring
(14:39):
to. You can actually if you'rea super Combo holder, and there's several
different parameters that you have to follow, but you can actually purchase a digital
license and you can go in thefield and if you you know, follow
still following the same guidelines, youstill have the same number of you know,
digital tags. But if you takean animal, you have to report
(15:00):
that through that my harvest app.It's another app that you have to submit
your report to and anyway, andthen you get the number and you still
tag it the same way. Ifit's a deer, you know, you
tag it immediately a punk kill andwrite down your number right down your license
number. So there's steps that youhave to follow. But I've talked to
several hunters that are they're all in. They love it. Yeah, we
did that last Turkey season. Weactually did that where we you know,
(15:22):
you don't you don't have it,so you don't have the paper, you
don't have the tax so you can'tcut it out with a knife and all
that sort of thing. You putit on your bird. So you can
just get a piece of paper orthe zip tie and take that information from
your app, put on that pieceof paper and attach it to your animal
and you're done. Yeah. Andthe cool thing about by uploading that information
into the app is biologists now haveinstant data. They know exactly how many
birds barring that the hunters are reportingit, you know, promptly, but
(15:46):
they have instant access to how manybirds are taking what county, you know,
all the different game harvests, whichis really cool. I want to
take if you're listening to the showand you hunt, and you love to
hunting the outdoors, and you're inTexas hunting, if you if you take
an animal, highly encourage people touse the app to record those harvests because
those are those are the things thatare that are useful, like you said,
with the biologists and setting limits andquotas and depending on the game animal
(16:10):
that sort of thing. And youknow, you know, turkeys aren't the
turkey population across the US is andas healthy as it used to be.
I mean, it's kind of starteddecline a little bit in some areas more
and more so than others. Butthe place we hunt, luckily, it's
we had a down year one year, but for the most part it's been
it's been pretty robust. But it'sI just can't stress enough how important it
is to report your harvest no matterwhat the analysts through the app, because
it's just it puts data in researchand clinical studies and that sort of thing,
(16:33):
so far ahead of the curve versushaving to get that antidotal data from
reporting stations and that sort of thing. So I just if you're listening,
folks, please record your animals inthat app or whatever state you're You know,
if you don't ask a kid,they can help you navigate through the
technology. I figured it out,so I mean, it's not that hard.
I actually showed some guy who's liketwenty years old last year how to
use it. I didn't even knowyou could do that. I'm like,
dude, Yeah. On the Parksand Whilife website, there is a lot
(16:56):
of tutorials. There's a lot ofYouTube, Like we have a huge YouTube
presence through Parks and Wildlife and wehave a YouTube channel and you can find
all kinds of videos that walk youthrough and they're they're linked right there where
you can buy your licenses. Thatexplains the digital license and all the app
information. It's got the digital orthe video links that will walk you right
(17:18):
through it step by step. Yeah, we're living in the future. Yeah,
we are in the year two thousand. Your Hunter Education instructors. When
I see when I survey the roomevery year, it seems to be people
in their fifties, sixties, seventies. Are you to is that typical of
most of your classes We've got whereyou've got adults who are kind of passed
or moving into their retirement, retirementera, you know, that's the way
(17:41):
it's always been. Lately, weare seeing a shift. We're seeing a
lot more younger people, a lotmore women are getting along the ranks of
wanting to get certified. Whether ornot they hunt, they all believe in
conservation and getting that message out there. A lot of shooters, a lot
(18:03):
of competitive shooters are coming into ourfold and they want to just pass along
that knowledge, that safety, thatskill, everything that we do in our
program. So we are seeing alot of younger people coming into the program
for different motivations, but the endresult is the same. They're still passing
on that knowledge and reaching abroad,you know, casting a broader net so
to speak. Am I mistaken?And that also the people in the room
(18:26):
seems to be more ethnically diverse aswell than they were even five years ago.
Absolutely. Yeah, that's really coolto say, because I know there's
been a concerted effort by a lotof state agencies, including Texas and other
groups that are really pushing for that. And you know, we've got this
huge population of different ethnicities and weneed to recruit them into the outdoors,
whether it's shooting, sports, orhunting or fishing, whatever it is,
and we just we've got to makesure we capitalize on that. All right,
(18:48):
ramone's going to push us into here, do a break. We'll be
back on the other side. HuntingMatters, KPRC nine to fifty. Name.
(19:18):
When you're with me, I'm smile, Give me well love, love,
your love, your hands, buildme up. When I'm seeking,
touch me and my troubles are bid. Welcome back to Honey Matters on KPRC
(19:47):
nine fifty. This is your host, Joe Bitar. I'm Ramon Roblo and
we're today with Heidi Rao. Heidiis the Texas Parks and Wallife Department Hunter
Education specialists for Southeast Texas and statewidebecoming an outdoors Woman Coordinator. Are you
I pressed? I got it?I got it? Allowed didn't bite my
tongue or anything. Do you thankyou so much for joining us again.
(20:07):
I want to give out the websitesbefore I forget, so folks go to
TPWD dot Texas dot gov slash educationslash hunter dash education and they'll probably be
in the liner notes of the showas well if you go to the website,
and then the other website is TPWDdot Texas dot gov slash education slash
bow as in Bob or Walter,we're becoming an outdoor Yeah, I was
(20:33):
waiting for you to kick in onthat. Heidi. We were talking about
a little bit about the hunter's education, that sort of thing. I think
I asked you this before, butI just want to I want to bring
it up again. If you're abowhunter, do you have to have bow
hunter education in Texas? There arefourteen states that require it, and Texas
is voluntary in most of our state, except if you bowhunt on certain properties,
some of the federal properties, CampBulla's Hagerman National, the Refuge on
(20:59):
their certain areas in Texas that dorequire bow hunter education, which is above
and beyond you're a hunter education,so it's a separate additional certification. I'm
trying to get Romoon into boat running. I'm still working out on the whole
gun hunting, so I'll get tobow's eventually. He'll get addicted to it.
Do you bow hunt? You know? I love archery, but I'm
carefully keeping my arms distance because Igo all in on stuff like coffee we
(21:25):
were talking about. So I've gotmy hands full right now. But yeah,
I'll be able to get into bowhunting. When my wife and I
first picked up a bow, wedidn't do it till I was probably in
my late thirties before I started bowhunting. Didn't anything I tried when I
was a kid, but didn't knowwhat I was doing. And my our
instructor, we went to an archeryshop and I said, listen, but
we don't know anything about this,how to set them up, how to
shoot them whatever? You know thecompound bows And he said, I'm just
(21:48):
going to tell you, mister Beetar, right off the bat, your wife
will be a better shot than youare, faster than you will be,
because they listen and they they havebetter skills. I h hand coordination,
that sort of thing. I went, okay, and sure enough, man,
she was slinging them down twenty yardsinto the bull's eye within like thirty
minutes, which was fine. Iwas. I was glad to see her
enjoy it. Yeah, but shenever pursued it. She never shot an
(22:11):
animal with it. You know,life happens, you get busy, that
sort of thing. But I thinkif you know, if she would ever
get back into it, she definitelywould want to go shoot pigs. She
does not like wild pigs. Wouldshe would shoot pigs in a heartbeat with
a bow. Yeah, okay,But she was really good at it,
really good. It's a lot offun. And we have just a sidebar.
We have over three hundred and thirtybow hunter education instructors here in Texas
(22:34):
and last year they certified eight hundredand sixty five students, So that's I
mean, it's definitely something that weneed more instructors. So anybody out there
that is interested in becoming you know, a hunter or a bow hunter education,
I know people. They get themhooked up so they can go to
the website absolutely and get information throughparks and wilife to our our website.
(22:55):
And how am I as a asa hunter looking for education, how do
I find those those bow hunter andHunter Education instructors and classes, so you
can just go to the website andsearch up education and track your way through
the bow Hunter Education and we putwhen our instructors hold classes, they post
them and it's like a living website. So as soon as one of our
instructors schedules a class, it instantlyappears on our website. So yeah,
(23:19):
and we have classes scheduled year roundstate wide. The kudos to y'all because
I think I don't think I've everbeen to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department
website that I haven't found what Ineeded to find, and there's a lot
of information on that. I stillget lost, but there's a lot of
information on there, but you canfind what you're looking for, and it's
always informative and new. And ifI send somebody from out of state to
go, listen, go to thispage to find out you're out of state
(23:41):
licensure, they very seldom had somebodycall back, call me back and go
I have no clue what they're talkingabout, because I've looked at the Western
state stuff and some of those statesare you can't It's like a jigsaw puzzle
trying to figure out out of Statelicenses. Yeah, are our website team.
I mean they received national awards becausethey do such a fantastic job and
making it user friendly. And theother big thing now is accessibility, making
(24:03):
sure that people that have vision oryou know, learning issues, they can
really navigate through our website and readthings. Well. We have specialists that
actually you know, even the texton our websites. They have people that
are specialized in whatever certification that's called, but they can review that and make
(24:25):
it much more reader friendly and userfriendly. So I mean they do an
amazing job on our web web developingside of the state. Let's change course
here just a little bit. Womenin the outdoors. Yes, for those
who don't keep up with data andresearch information that sort of thing. Women
in the outdoors. There are morewomen participating in hunting and recreational shooting than
(24:45):
ever before. And you can tellme if I'm wrong with my research numbers.
Ten to fifteen percent of all huntersor women and upwards of fifteen million
American women participate in some type ofrecreational shooting activity. Yep, am our
close, am I right on there, and in shooting sports and one thousand
and nine women accounted for twenty sixpercent of all shooting sports participants. In
twenty twenty two, thirty two percentof all sports shooters were women. Fastest
(25:07):
growing demographic. That's hands down,that's exciting and scary. No, not
scary, it's exciting and you knowten years ago will women are the fastest
growing demographic and hunting. But Itake percentages at face value. I don't
like percentages because percentage I don't thinkis a true reflection of the raw number.
So when they're going, you know, it's faster in percentage, what
are the numbers? But it's continueto grow and grow and grow, and
(25:32):
now the numbers are substantial. Werethe real raw data? How does that
make you feel? You know,it's it's good because women hunt, they
shoot, and now that you know, because men have been dominating in the
hunting and shooting sports for so manyyears, the women have done it too.
But now they're getting more organized.If I can coordinate with that or
(25:56):
correlate with that, because programs likethe Becoming an Outdoors Women program, I
mean there's a place that they cango and connect with other like minded women
to do these kinds of activities andthen they form, you know, groups
and chapters and organizations, and theyhit the ground running. As an example
my becoming an outdoors woman, atone of my events, there was a
(26:18):
group of ladies that got together andsaid we need to have a support like
a friends group. And literally theycame together. They said, I'm an
attorney, I'm of this, I'mof that. They came together, they
formed a board, and within amatter of like weeks, we had a
friends group. So they're they're veryquick to organize, especially about a topic
that they're passionate about. And whenyou put those numbers in front of them,
like what their dollars coming into theeconomy are doing, you know,
(26:41):
for conservation, for our wildlife populations. You know, they see the real
results of what their activities are doingand how they're contributing to you know,
to the habitat. Yeah, that'sawesome, and it's and tell me again,
tell me if I'm wrong. Theother thing that was reading some articles
last week, and it's that whilewomen are trying hunting and sports shooting more
(27:02):
often than before, they're also leavingthe activities and higher than average numbers.
Have you heard that at all?I don't. I don't know. I
don't have my source here, butit's you know, there's I think that's
that's not unique. I think it'sreflective of I think some of the data
may have been pulled from post pandemicstuff, because we all know that when
the pandemic hit, everybody, oh, let's go buy hunting official licenses and
let's go outdoors as oh my gosh, there's the whole thing to do.
(27:25):
I enough to stay in my apartmentor whatever, And so I think some
of that that data is slightly twistedbased on those similar trends. But also
I think that you know, theR three effort in this country, which
we talked to our guests last weekabout it on the podcast Recruitment, Retention
and Reactivation. For those of youwho don't know what the R three movement
is, I think this women,just like every other population that's involved now
(27:48):
doors, falls into that in thatgrouping. Do you think that program is
a success in the United States?Okay, I think you know, in
other programs like the BOW program,we've been working the R three program,
we just never had a name forit. And now that they've identified that,
oh yeah, now we're you know, this is a recruitment group.
This is a retention group reactivation,and they're seeing that now that there's a
(28:10):
name and people can actually identify withwhatever stage they're in in that model.
But I think we're so fortunate beinghere in Texas because we have so many
opportunities. You know, we alwayssay that we have the most liberal,
you know, hunting seasons because youcan pretty much hunt something legally year round
in our state. And there's somethingyou know, for everybody, you know,
(28:33):
whether it's small game, whether it'snon game, I mean, whether
it's large game, birds, thedifferent methods you know, whether it's archery
or rifles, or you know,there's so many different opportunities here that there's
avenues. And the one good thingthat our program with the hunter education we're
trying to do is we're trying tocapture those laps hunters or even our instructors
(28:56):
who say, well, you know, I don't think I'm going to be
teaching many huntred education classes anymore,because back in the day it used to
be a minimum of ten hours overtwo days. And we've got some of
the instructors that were of that mindsetand they're like, well, I just
can't teach this in one day.Well, you have so much knowledge.
I mean, you've forgotten more thanI'll ever learn. You know, you
(29:18):
are a great survivalist. You know, teach a one day segment, a
one on one like how to builda campfire, how to shoot a bow,
how to pack a backpack for aday hike. So we're offering more
and more of those one on oneopportunities, and those are taken off like
wildfire. That's awesome. I wantto dig into some details in that program
and the Becoming an outdoors Women programtoo. Taking a break career on a
(29:41):
hunting matters. We'll be back withour last segment KPRC nine to fifty.
I can wash out forty four bearsof socks and have them hanging out on
(30:03):
the line. I can start andI have two dozen ships for you can
come from one to nine. Ican skip up a great big dippople a
lot from the drippings, can throwthe skillett, go out and do my
shopping, be back before it meltsin the pan. I bet e noybody
knows what a dripping dripping can isaround here? You know that you know
the dripping can. My grandmother usedto keep a can of bacon grease on
(30:29):
the back of the stuff. Ihave one. Yep, that was her
dripping can and it was an oldstinksince cane syrup yellow can. I could
still oh, I could still pictureit and sit on the back of that
man. She'd say, Oh,we're having green beats. There's a little
based bacon grease whatever. I loveit. Back back with it. We're
back at it on Honey Matters kPrscene as usual, we digress the food.
That's just us joining us today isHidi RAOHI is the Texas Parks and
(30:52):
Wallefe Department Hunter Education specialists for SoutheastTexas and statewide, becoming an outdoors Woman
coordinator. Hei, do you thinkyou again for joining us? What do
you love the most about your job? Being in the field and getting to
work with so many awesome, likeminded partners. That wasn't a brown nose,
that was true. I mean,but you're welcome. But getting to
(31:18):
you know, preach the gospel ofyou know, hunting and shooting and safety
and seeing that interaction and that excitement, especially with a new person that really
wants to get involved, whether they'reyou know, youth or an adult that
want to you know, where doI go from here? How do I
even get started, you know,just talking about it. And I love
what I do. You know,I've been it's gone by so fast all
(31:38):
these years, and I, youknow, just crossing paths with some really
cool people that like to do thesame thing. It seems quite like a
perfect career choice for you, becauseyou do not seem like a cubicle person.
No, no, no, Idon't. One thing before I forget
we were talking about the growing numbersof women involved in shooting sports and outdoors
and that sort of thing. Onething I want to share with you.
I just I was running some datatoday on our membership at Houston Spark Club
(32:01):
Foundation, and I was shocked becauseI was thinking, oh, it's going
to come out the usual ninety percentold white dudes and ten percent women and
none. No, No, ourmembership is now sixteen percent women versus ten
percent women three years ago. That'sawesome. Yeah, that I think is
pretty exciting that we've got We've gotsuch a diverse group coming up. So,
(32:22):
yeah, sixteen percent of our membersare now women versus ten percent like
three years ago. So that's that'scrazy. I mean, that's really good.
And we have our ladies group,the Gazelless of course that posts on
their deal every year at convention.I've always said, when you hook the
mom, you hook the family,right, So if you give the mom
the opportunities, you know, andshow them how fun, you know,
hunting and shooting is, she's goingto drive the calendar for the family.
(32:44):
It's funny you say that because Iknew a guy who was head of marketing
for a major sporting goods chained andwe were in a meeting with him and
he said, the reason we layout the stores the way we do is
because we know that women are goingto come in and they're looking for this
certain thing, and we design ourstore layout where they come and find the
(33:06):
kids tennis shoes for gym class orwhatever, but right next to the hunting
stuff that they're going to go there. And they said the same exact thing.
He said, the same exact thing. We know if we get mom
hooked on whatever, the family isgoing to follow her into it. That's
crazy interesting. I've never heard that. That makes total sense. I drive
the calendar. I agree, whatsports the king? I'm like, am
I gonna like that sport? Now? I don't like that sport? Now?
(33:28):
It's just what, melt, Idon't understand soccer. Yeah, yeah,
no, we never did soccer.Football and baseball are the two and
hunting of course. So so you'rethe coordinator for the Becoming an outdoors Woman
program and we talked about this thelast time you're on the show. What
kind of give our audit listening audiencean overview about what this this great program
is all about. So it isa three day workshop in Texas. Just
(33:49):
celebrated thirty years of this program herein Texas. It actually started as a
research project up at the University ofWisconsin, Stevens Point. It was a
graduate project of barriers women face whendoing outdoor activities and some of those barriers
where there's not enough gear made forwomen. The clothing, the guns,
the fishing, I mean, noneof that stuff was designed with the woman's
(34:12):
body and mind. And so thisprogram kind of was born. And here
in Texas we do two a year, one of the spring and one in
the fall, and it's a threeday workshop and it teaches introductory outdoor skills
and it's a model that we follow. A third of the classes that we
offer our hunting and shooting based athird are fishing and water based and a
third are the like the camping,the geocaching, the not hunting and fishing
(34:37):
based classes and over that weekend they'reintroductory basic skills and depending on the facility
that hosts the particular workshop, driveshow many people we can open it up
to. And the past several workshops, I have about fifty fifty five zero
different classes that they can choose from. They only get to pick four,
(35:00):
and so they come in on Friday, they welcome, we feed them,
they go off to their first session. Saturday morning is a session, Lunch
afternoon is a session. We doa big auction. My Friends group is
a huge supporter of that. Andthen Sunday morning is their final and fourth
session, the last several bows.Once they open runs, registration opens and
it blasts out to the public andit shared thousands of times on social media
(35:22):
and all over the place. It'sfilled within the hour like these these workshops
are filling like gangbusters. So there'sthat double edge of you know, we
need more of them, but becausewe put on such a you know,
it's it's staff, it's dedicated volunteersand instructors who run the program. You
know, we can't do more thantwo a year at the moment. So
because of the overwhelming demand, thenext three workshops are going to be in
(35:46):
Rockport. They're going to be onthe coast, which, yeah, so
we're all looking forward to that.That's cool. Yeah, it's a really
neat program because what we found.We tell the women that you can't come
back unless you bring somebody with you. And even though we don't prevent people
from coming back, they do becausethey know. We know that people are
(36:06):
going to participate in activities that theyhave a circle of friends to do it
with. So I had a dumbquestion go ahead, but then it sounded
like it was going somewhere serious.No, no, I asked this question
to all o our guests. Ijust forgot. If a VIP is coming
into town and you have to entertainthem, what are you making for them?
What dinner are you preparing whatever thecamp has on the menu. Yeah,
(36:30):
and if they have a special request, then we definitely accommodate that.
Yeah, I met you personally atthe house. Oh me, Yeah,
I'm not talking about Texas Parks andWaldla. I'm talking about Heidi Coffee.
She calls up her retired husband andsays, listen, I'm bringing somebody over
for dinner, right, very good? Do you guys do you guys?
(36:52):
Uh, while you're on the subjectof food and culinary, do you guys
do wild game cooking and stuff?We have, Yes, we've offered how
to feel because I know a lotof dudes that need to take that class,
you know, and fairly, that'sthe question I thought you were going
to hit me with, is isthey're becoming an outdoors man? But seriously,
we have had in the past,we've had men register for this because
(37:13):
they're like, look, I'm asingle dad or whatever. The reason is
they they were not raised doing theseactivities now that they're an adult, and
it's for eighteen and older by theway, this program, but we've made
accommodations and you know, had tolet them come in. But there's definitely
a valid point. We have theTexas Outdoor Family Program that does similar workshops
that they offer to you know,men and families, and you know,
(37:37):
how do family kids have to befor that? When you say family,
is it for families? Like TexasOutdoor Family is family based, Yes,
so any age and the state.It's a small fee to join or to
go and they travel around all thestate parks and they provide everything. So
if you know nothing, if youhave nothing outdoors, the state will provide.
(38:00):
Yeah, that's your sleeping bags sense. Yeah, I mean, it's
it's amazing when you start digging downto find so many populations and subsections of
people that need specific help, aid, instruction, things like that, and
guys, you know, typically guyswon't you know, I'm gonna go ahead
and say it. We won't stopand ask for instructions. Thank goodness,
we have GPS mapping systems now becausewe don't have to worry about that you
(38:21):
and our wife doesn't get mad atus because we don't ask for, you
know, our instructions. But thereare you know, there's those guys out
there that that perfectly describe that thatare just their young single day has never
been exposed to it. They wantto get exposed to it. So well,
Heidi, once again, we're outof time. Unfortunately we zip through
that. There's a ton of otherstuff, but we definitely will have you
back. In fact, we're goingto see you in May to talk about
some other stuff. So folks,thank you for being with us, Heidi,
(38:43):
and folks join us next week hereon Hunting Matters KPRC nine fifty
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