Summer/Fall 2001

Membership Dollars at Work: Providing Hunting Opportunities for Physically Challenged Persons

Hunting is a cherished privilege that hundreds of thousands of Mississippians enjoy each year. Many people hunt as a family tradition or for the pleasure of being with friends. Some hunters enjoy using and improving hunting skills, learning to identify tracks and other signs, calling game or scouting for the hunt. Others enjoy preparing and eating the bounty of their harvest. The most important reason people hunt is because it provides a rewarding form of outdoor recreation.

Although hunting provides a mental and physical challenge for all hunters, for some hunters with physical disabilities, the physical challenge is almost impossible unless certain provisions are made.

The Mississippi Fish and Wildlife Foundation has formed a partnership with Avalon Manufacturing, Inc., the manufacturer of the Buckhouse, to develop an innovative program to address the concerns and needs of physically challenged deer hunters in Mississippi. This partnership is providing physically challenged shooting houses to National Wildlife Refuges, State Wildlife Management Areas and National Forests throughout Mississippi. The Foundation provides advertising in Wildlife Mississippi magazine and booth space at its expos in Greenville and Hattiesburg in exchange for physically challenged shooting houses from Avalon Manufacturing, Inc.

To date, twelve (12) shooting houses have been placed and are ready for hunting. No matter where one is located in Mississippi, he or she is not too far from a physically challenged shooting house. The following public areas have been equipped by the Foundation with the shooting houses: Arkabutla Lake (Hernando), Bienville Wildlife Management Area (Forest), Canal Section Wildlife Management Area (Aberdeen), Hillside National Wildlife Refuge (Lexington), Little Biloxi Wildlife Management Area (Biloxi), Marion County Wildlife Management Area (Columbia), Noxubee National Wildlife Refuge (Starkville), Okatibbee Wildlife Management Area (Meridian), St. Catherine's Creek National Wildlife Refuge (Natchez), Tallahatchie National Wildlife Refuge (Grenada), Twin Oaks Wildlife Management Area (Rolling Fork) and Upper Sardis Wildlife Management Area (Oxford).

According to Leila Wynn, President of the Foundation, "It is a great pleasure for me to announce the Mississippi Fish and Wildlife Foundation's Physically Challenged Shooting House Program. It will benefit people in Mississippi with physical disabilities who desire to deer hunt. This program will benefit hunters with mobility impairments, who because of their disability are not able to participate in the traditional hunting experience. This program provides a mechanism whereby individuals with permanent mobility impairments can participate in deer hunting. Basically, we want to make it easier for persons with physical disabilities to hunt and pursue other outdoor activities."

A physically challenged shooting house ready for transport. Photo by Mississippi Fish and Wildlife Foundation.

According to Wendell Whittle, the Sales Manager for Avalon Manufacturing, Inc., "Offering people with physical disabilities an opportunity to hunt deer under safe and mild climatic conditions is what this partnership with the Mississippi Fish and Wildlife Foundation is all about. Sometimes we take our physical capabilities for granted. This program is providing a 'helping hand' in its truest sense."

According to Dr. Jeff Clark, a member of the Foundation's Board of Trustees from Brookhaven, "These highly motivated individuals love the outdoors and are actively seeking ways to support and participate in Mississippi's outdoor heritage. The Foundation believes that the more people that can participate in hunting, fishing and wildlife viewing, the more they will take an interest in it and help conserve it. And besides that, the Physically Challenged Shooting House Program is constructive and educational.

Well-managed food plots are within a short distance from most physcially challenged shooting houses. Photo by Mississippi Fish and Wildlife Foundation.

"It is a well-documented fact that involving physically challenged people in outdoor activities is therapeutic. The opportunity to have access to outdoor facilities and programs is a powerful form of proactive rehabilitation which emphasizes outpatient versus inpatient health care," concluded Clark.

Mike White of Abbeville, Mississippi and Arkabutla Lake Park Ranger Randy Dye after a successful hunt. Photo by U.S. Army Corp of Engineers.

In 1998, Congress passed the Disabled Sportsman's Access Act that will open access to the thousands of acres of military bases in Mississippi to participate in outdoor activities and conservation programs. Where feasible, opening military bases to disabled hunters will go a long way toward rehabilitating veterans and helping meet the conservation objectives of the base. It will also ensure that disabled dependent active-duty personnel will have an opportunity to participate in a variety of forms of outdoor recreation with their families.

"All the programs that the Foundation puts in place today will benefit the next generation," concluded Wynn. "With this program, we are going to create a legacy for future physically challenged hunters."

In the future, the program will expand to include lands of Mississippi's military installations where whitetail deer population control is needed and the mission of the base is not compromised. But in the mean time, the opportunities for physically challenged hunters have never been greater.