[Setterman]

Having been in charge of wildlife conservation programing for the Northern part of the Province I feel I have a good idea of how educational programing works. In my opinion this is the only way something like this would work.

Any madatory course would be very challenging to develop and would take a great deal of time and money. I would suggest that one could organize a sheep seminar. This could be run through an organization like AHEIA. A one or two day seminar could involve guest speakers, experts in the field, CO's, horse people and experience sheep hunters. This type of seminar would be available for interested individuals who are interested in learning more about sheep. A nominal fee could be charged to recover costs of running the seminar. At first this could be done in Calgary and Edmonton and if there was enough interest perhaps it could be expanded. I remember about 8 years ago there was an awesome 1 or 2 day seminar out of the Calgary AHEIA office about cougars- very informative. I believe the "expert" that was brought in has passed away but something similar may be what some sheep hunters are looking for. Just my two cents.

just had to throw this out there. At this time there is a great program that is already developed called the " Alberta Fishing Education Program". The program is already developed, there are certified instructors throughout the province and still F&W will not make it mandatory that new fishermen/women take it. It would be very challenging to get the governmetn on side to make a sheep course mandatory plus I think poeple are tired of the government telling them what to do. Again just me two cents.

Cheers SM