Outdoors enthusiasts are known to wear their hearts on their sleeves. Now, they may have a little extra badge of honor for their clothing.
The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission's new Outdoors Skills Program rewards beginning and veteran hunters and anglers with a special patch for their accomplishments in the outdoors.
The outline of the program is simple: When a person attends one of many workshops offered by the commission's education division, he becomes eligible to receive a patch.
The initial patch labels him a beginner in one of 10 outdoor disciplines. From there, participants can complete different tasks for each discipline to move up through intermediate, advanced and expert rankings, each with its own rocker to accompany the initial patch.
Patch categories include archery, conservation leadership, fishing, game-calling, hunting, paddle sports, rifle marksmanship, shotgun marksmanship, trapping and watchable wildlife. Some of the categories cross over and lead into others, while some are independent.
Eric Maynard, assistant chief of education, said the new program will be available through all Game and Fish education centers, nature centers and regional educators this year.
Maynard said Game and Fish devotes a lot of time and effort to introduce the outdoors to youths and newcomers.
He said the large volume of people going through all of the agency's programs will prevent staff from just handing out the patches at every workshop offered. Instead, participants of most courses will get a voucher to take to a nature center and claim their patch.
Sports on 01/22/2019