• Covey Camp

Merced Sun-Star: Reprinted with permission

Aspiring young hunters acquire skills at camp
Quail Unlimited stresses conservation, hands-on experience during 5-day event.
By MIKE NORTH
mnorth@mercedsun-star.com
LOS BANOS -- A handful of kids were back in school Monday, but they weren't complaining.

Youngsters came from as far as Arizona for "Covey Camp," a five-day course that teaches kids about wildlife conservation, hunting and firearms safety.

Since 1994, volunteers at the 680-acre Stillbow Ranch have been putting on the program in partnership with Quail Unlimited -- a nonprofit organization that aims to preserve quail populations and habitat.

The camp -- about eight miles east of Los Banos -- is one-of-a-kind in California, said Dick Haldeman, regional director for Quail Unlimited. The camp offers a kind of learning that classrooms, television and video games can't provide.

"It gives them an idea of what real life is," Haldeman said. "There's a cruelty and a beauty in nature that you can't pick up on a computer."

Not all the eight Covey Camp participants had experience with firearms before arriving at the ranch, but they did after shooting sporting clays Monday morning.

For Connor Lentz, a 12-year-old from Flagstaff, Ariz., it was his first time shooting a gun.

"I like how they teach you by showing you and not just putting you in a classroom," he said.

After he finishes his hunter's education -- a requirement for all hunters -- Lentz hopes to start hunting big game, such as deer and elk.

About 350 kids have passed through the camp since it opened in 1994, said Dennis Campini, chapter president of Quail Unlimited.

There's a $400 fee charged to participate in the camp, but many kids are partially or fully sponsored through fund-raisers put on by the organization, Campini said, adding that 60 percent of the money raised at the Quail Unlimited chapter stays within the chapter.

A big part of the program's success is because of volunteers, he noted.

Kaleb Eye, a 19-year-old from Chowchilla, is a junior counselor at the camp and hopes to become a hunting safety instructor.

"I like teaching the next generation how to shoot," he said. "It's important to keep it going."

Eye, who went through a similar course when he was younger, is helping carry on a tradition, Campini said.

"This is our future hunting heritage right here," Campini said. "If we don't get these kids involved with it, we're not going to have any heritage."

A Department of Fish & Game official recently told Campini that less than 5 percent of hunting licenses are junior licenses, meaning fewer youths are picking up the sport.

There are several reasons the sport is shrinking, he said. A lack of time, the growth of cities and more distractions are factors.

However, there's a group at the Stillbow Ranch working hard to preserve that legacy.

Reporter Mike North can be reached at (209) 385-2453 or mnorth@mercedsun-star.com.