The Blaine County Journal News-Opinion - We've Got The County Covered

Chinook resident Mischelle Fisher was honored recently by the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks (MFWP) for her exemplary dedication to Hunters Safety in Montana. The MFWP recognized the distinguished service of their Region 6 Hunter and Bow-hunter Education volunteer instructors at their annual workshop. After after a two year hiatus due to the Covid-19 Pandemic the workshop was held in Havre on April 2, 2022.

The MFWP workshops are an annual event held in each of the MFWP Regions and welcomes all the volunteer instructors across the region to experience a fun filled day with plenty of activities taking place. In addition to visiting face to face for the first time in a long while guests were provided with updates to the programs in place as well as plenty of demonstrations with regard to new equipment and ideas. The highlight of the day was recognizing and honoring the many years of dedicated service by the Volunteers.

Mischelle was recognized for her 30 years of service as a Hunter Education instructor and received a plaque. In a Press Release from the MFWP Region 6 Information and Education Program Manager Marc Kloker stated, "As evidenced by the decades of service our instructors give to our programs, there's an incredible amount of dedication and commitment out there in our communities."

In further explaining the volunteers efforts Kloker stated, "These volunteers play a key role in shaping future Montana hunters by providing training in safety, ethics, conservation, and the proper use of firearms and archery equipment. Mischelle Fisher, Mark Sullivan, John Demarais, Howard Pippen, and others like them, have worked tirelessly over many years to pass the state's rich hunting heritage on to the next generations. Please be sure to thank your local hunter and bow-hunter education instructors when you see them."

People volunteer for a number of reasons, maybe they have a child involved or a family member. Maybe they just want to give back to the community they live in. So what motivated Mischelle to start teaching Hunter Safety? "Rick (Mischelle's Husband) and I had just started the 4-H Shooting Sports program in Blaine County and I was looking for more education to help the kids with."

The Shooting Sports required volunteers to follow their education curriculum and Mischelle and Rick quickly became certified instructors with regards to 4H. Mischelle was actively pursuing other shooting sport activities in the community at the time, "We also started community hand gun shooting and other things firearms related so Hunter Safety seemed like a natural extension of that."

That first year, what kind of learning curve did Mischelle have? Was she thrown into the fire or have someone show her the ropes? "I became an instructor under Otto Paulson and he threw me under the bus that first night," exclaimed Mischelle. "Otto said, and our next subject is, 'Mischelle take it away!'. That's when I realized how much I loved teaching, fell in love with the kids right away and it just seemed like a perfect fit right from the start and really ignited my passion for firearms safety."

In the beginning All instruction was done indoors and the curriculum was provided by MFWP. It was entirely lecture based with some firearms hands on instruction. To successfully pass the course ten hours of instruction in all had to be completed.

The course seemed dull to the Fishers, and Mischelle began looking for ways to 'liven' up the classroom, "Rick and I decided to make it more hands on with more interaction in hopes of helping the kids learn and retain more of the instruction," stated Mischelle.

Some of that added instruction wasn't deemed appropriate at the time, but Mischelle convinced them otherwise, "Early on I added the live fire portion as a voluntary option because it was discouraged by the MFWP do to liability issues. Through the years that viewpoint has changed and the MFWP now encourages it. The program is still not a requirement for the course but it is now highly encouraged. I feel that in the near future it will be a requirement."

They weren't done making improvements by no means. "Another thing Rick and I did was introduce a field course. At the time nobody else had even heard of such a thing and now the field course portion IS a requirement," stated Mischelle.

The field course consists of 15 different stations that include: Asking landowner permission, safely crossing a fence, how to validate a tag, animal identification, safe zone of fire, shoot don't shoot scenarios, and how to stow and retrieve a firearm from your vehicle. These are the most important of the stations to include general firearm care.

Through the years Fisher states that many changes have been made to hunter safety education from the age of legal hunters with the addition of the apprentice program as well as online education programs to provide hunter safety education. The goal of MFWP and its volunteers is to encourage all hunting enthusiast to be able to safely enjoy the great out doors under Montanans Big Sky. Mischelle added, "Hunter education is required to obtain a legal hunting license in the state and must be proven to receive a hunting license in the state of Montana.

Mischelle is committed to continuing her effort to promote Shooting Sports and teaching Hunter Education in Blaine County for the long haul, "The most impactful moment in my life was when Chad Haugen passed. Chad had attended every hunter education course since he was eight years old with his older siblings and friends." Mischelle added, "Chad took the course for three years, but never officially as a student. Rick and I shot with the family many, many times and they were very safe shooters, but you can't take that bullet back. One second, one shot and it's over. We share that story every year with our class. If it prevents one wrong bullet from being fired then it means something beyond words."

In her thirty years as an instructor the class makeup hasn't really had many trends, Fisher Honored

"Never seemed to be a real pattern change. We have always seemed to have three or four adults attend to take the test," said Mischelle. "A lot of parents stay with their students and attend all the classes and we just tell them 'well you've been to every class might as well take the test'. Always seems to be about 18-25 in the class. One year we did two classes because we had 40 but generally its around 20. Always more woman adults but more boy students."

Chad Haugen was an avid shooter and attended Hunter Safety Classes with his older siblings for three years while Mischelle provided the instruction. His tragic passing is the reason Mischelle plans to teach "Until I die, I will always do it for Chad."

What does she see for the direction of Hunter Safety Courses moving forward, "Everything is in transition due to online education. So we will probably increase the number of field course opportunities. We will continue to offer our class in the fall even though some locations have chose to provide a course in the spring." Blaine County has a ton of stuff going on throughout the year and the course is a requirement if young hunters want to fill a tag in the fall, " We compete with football, volleyball and soccer for students to attend our class, so having the online class available is great. All classes have to be taken and that helps more kids meet that requirement. I'm sure we will always have a physical class of some sort though."

How long does Mischelle plan on teaching, "Untill I day! I'll never stop because of Chad. I want to keep kids safe while sharing our passion for shooting sports."

The Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks are always looking for new volunteers to join the many dedicated and qualified instructors across the state. For information on becoming a Hunter, Bow-hunter, or Trapper Education instructor in Region 6, please contact Marc Kloker at 406-228-3704, or go to the website at fwp.mt.gov/education/hunter/instructors/ to learn more and apply.