In my senior project on may 19 I finished painting the building were people sit for the shooting range. It did not take that long and it was pretty easy. After I finished that I started clearing an area in the woods so that people could see a deer target better than they could before. I cut and moved brush and I also cut down small tress. This makes the deer target much better.

Lucas Windsor

Senior Project Week 3

May 22, 2016

            This was my last week of senior project. It was one of the best experiences that I had during my Proctor career. It was a great week and extremely fun. I did a lot of things during this week that I did not expect that I would do at all during my senior project or my Proctor career.

            One thing that I did not expect to do at all was when I was told that I would spend my day with a conservation officer. I was very excited about this, as I want to become a conservation officer for my career. During that I day I helped stock fish and set up a training course for new officers. That was one of my favorite days during my senior project.

            Most of my week was pretty typical as it has been. I finished painting the areas that needed painting. However, another thing happened that I did not expect. During my last day a bear that was in the city of Manchester had to be moved. I was actually able to witness the bear being released into the woods so that it would be further away from people. They brought in two wild life biologists in order to do the moving of the bear. They actually used a type of cage that was a cage mesh and you could actually see the bear inside of the cage.

            I had a very good last week of senior project. It was very fun, I learned a lot, and there were things that I expected to happen and things that I did not expect to happen. I could not have asked to have a better senior project nor could I think of one.

Today was my last day of Senior project. I went out with Tom to drop off a backhoe so that it could be fixed. After we dropped it off we went to the fish hatchery to look at the fish that were there; they looked very big and hearty. We had lunch at a nice restaurant. After we ate our food we got to watch a wild bear get released back into the wild. It had been up a tree in Manchester. It was a really great and really fun senior project I would do it again in a heartbeat.

In my senior project today, I finished painting the target holding area for the gun range and then painted the area where the people sit for the gun rage. The entire target area looks good now. It was a good day and the conservation officer I meet the other day came over as well. During the day that I spent with the conservation officer we talked about different types of fish and that there are not that many conservation officers in NH. It was nice to see him again.

For my senior project today, I had to paint the small parts of the fence that I did not get and managed to finish that up pretty quickly. We also had another field day for people who took the online course so that they can get their hunter safety cards and hunting licenses. I tagged along with another 'shoot or don't shoot' course and it was really fun. I learned even more about how to teach people. After the field day ended I started painting the shooting range. However I was unable to finish before the day ended.

Today for my senior project I helped out a NH game warden. I meet him at 8:30 in the morning at a police station and he drove me over to a decommissioned prison/jail where I meet 3 other conservation officers and a lieutenant  who was in charge. I helped them set up a training course where they walk around in different rooms with an unloaded hand gun and shoot at targets. We left that a bit early, at around 11:00, so that I could go help him stock fish. I was having a lot of fun until I fell into the river. That was not too bad as the water was not very cold. Right after I fell in, the conservation officer got a call about a search and rescue. I stayed with the fish stocking people, who were very nice, and helped finish stocking. After I finished with the fish they brought me back to my car and I headed home. It was a great day.

Week 2 Reflection

            I had a very fun week during week two of my senior project. I started off by scraping the paint off of the fence at the Hunter Ed center. It is one of the first things you see when you arrive. It took a very long time as the fence was very big and had many different sections. Though it took a long time, it was will worth it. Now it looks much nicer when you drive in.

            Another thing that I felt very good about was when I managed to finally get very large nails out of some 4X4 beams that I had been working on for a very long time. This made me feel so good because it was very tiring to do this and it was also very difficult to do. Getting the nails out makes them safer and gets them ready to be reused for another area.

            The next thing I did was observing a hunter safety course. This course was for people who took most of the class online but they had to have face to face instruction for the gun safety part of the class and had to do a ‘shoot or don’t shoot’ course. This was a lot of fun to watch and gave me ideas on how to teach people hunter safety.

            A lot of people like to go hunting. Owl Brook Hunter Education Center helps them do this. Thanks to their facility they are able to teach many people hunter safety so that they can buy a hunting license. They are extremely important to the NH Fish and Game Department, as it is a safe place to do training. They also teach people how to become hunter safety instructors. The majority of the classes I have seen at Owl Brook tend to be middle-aged people, however there are occasionally younger kids. There are more men than women in the classes; they are trying to get more women involved. They are also encouraging kids to take the classes and even have special programs for them. It is a great place and New Hampshire is lucky to have it.