UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- A contingent of Penn State natural resources students will attend a four-day workshop designed to give them a broader understanding of the value of hunting in wildlife management.

The workshop, sponsored by the Max McGraw Wildlife Foundation, the Wildlife Management Institute, the University of Wisconsin at Madison and at Stevens Point, and Penn State will be held Nov. 29-Dec. 2, and will be repeated from Jan. 24-27, 2008, at Paradise Ranch, near Julian.

Gary San Julian, professor of wildlife resources in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences, has taken students to this workshop the past two years and has run a similar program at Penn State before it went national. "We're not looking to turn students into hunters, but we're trying to make them understand how hunters think and show them how hunting works with wildlife management in their fields," San Julian says.

The workshop is intensive, according to San Julian. "This is a very full educational program," he says. "It starts after supper on the first night until 10 p.m., then goes from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. on the next two days, and from 7 in the morning to noon on the last day."

Students take part in field exercises, ranging from firearm handling and shotgun shooting to dog training and game preparation. Participants have the option to go on a pheasant hunt the third day of the conference. Students also take part in roundtable discussions about social and biological issues involved with hunting.

"Basically, we want students to drive the discussions," says San Julian. "This program is for their benefit, and we want them to ask questions that challenge us. The whole purpose of the dialogue is to have an intelligent discussion that can enhance the students' perceptions about hunting and society."

The program has grown in the past few years. Besides Penn State, universities involved in the conference this year are West Virginia, Nebraska, Frostburg, Ohio State and Wisconsin (at Madison and at Stevens Point). San Julian notes that the program might expand into other regions soon. "In addition to the Mid-Atlantic workshop that we have here in Pennsylvania, we're trying to set up a Midwest workshop in Nebraska and one in the Southeast," he says.

San Julian believes it is important to show students in natural-resource majors how vital hunting is to society and to their fields of study. "I think it will tune them into the needs of the hunting public and give them a broader perspective of natural resources," he says.

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Editors: Contact Gary San Julian at 814-865-4287 or by e-mail at jgs9@psu.edu

Writer: Mike Mucci

Editor: Jeff Mulhollem 814-863-2719 jjm29@psu.edu