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Mountain Area hunting camp is on target

Tiffany Tuell

(Updated: Thursday, July 29, 2010, 12:00 AM)

Camp teaches youth hunting skills, conservation and firearm safety.

For the last 12 years, children from 11 to 15 years old have been attending Quail Unlimited Hunting Heritage Covey Camp at the Ecker Ranch in Coarsegold, to learn hunting, fishing, conservation and, most importantly, firearm safety.

"I would love to see every child go through firearm safety to cut down on accidents," said Bruce Kenyon of Simi Valley, a certified hunting and firearm safety instructor and part of Quail Unlimited's board of directors.

Carl Gowan of Ventura, also a certified hunting and firearm safety instructor and a member of Quail Unlimited, was at the camp all last week.

"I became involved to give back to the kids for the future," he said. "Some of them won't hunt, but they'll know safety with firearms."

Before children can attend the five-day camp, they first have to earn a hunting license, either through a class or by attending the Quail Unlimited camp in Los Banos, which also qualifies them for the license.

Jill Leads, 18, of Orange County, picked up a firearm and shot for the first time two weeks ago at a different camp and already is a counselor at Ecker Ranch.

"I love being out here and love the hunting experience, showing the campers how to hunt and camp," she said. "By helping them out, I am learning myself. I've been to a lot of camps, but this one is great and very safe."

Out of the 15 children at camp, other than counselors, there was only one girl camper, but that didn't seem to phase her.

"I'm the only girl in my family so I'm used to it," said Rachel Eye, 12, of Chowchilla, a second-year camper who was at camp along with her two brothers. She said she plans to return again next year and one day hopes to be a junior counselor at the camp.

"It's a great experience to learn," Eye said. "It teaches safety with firearms and not enough people know safety."

Besides firearm safety and shooting, the camp also teaches conservation, survival skills, mapping, hunting with dogs, fly fishing and even geocaching.

Tim Buletti of Auberry, a biology teacher at Foothill Middle School, was teaching for the first time. He taught students geocaching by sending students out in search of a variety of birds, while at the same time, instructing students about conservation and each species.

"We want to use natural resources, but don't want to destroy them," he said. "We want the campers to appreciate and respect what's out here so it will be here for their children."

Aarone Bottorff, 13, of Madera was at the camp for the first time, although he's spent time with his family at a gun range.

"It sounded like it would be fun to learn shooting outdoors and meet people," he said. "Things they teach are important like gun safety. Without it, if something happened, you wouldn't know what to do."

J.B. Overstreet, owner of the Ecker Ranch, has a California Rangeland Trust written for the ranch to preserve the 1,080 acres for life.

"I get a lot of letters from parents and kids thanking me," Overstreet said. "It makes me feel good to know the ranch will stay this way for younger generations to enjoy."