BURLINGTON, Connecticut — The Connecticut DEEP is always busy during hunting season teaching safety courses in both bow hunting and firearms protocols, but, in 2020, there is a new normal in the woods as well.
“We’ve actually doubled our capacity for our hunter safety courses,” said Mason Trumble, the new deputy commissioner for the DEEP. Trumble said that Covid-19 has played into the popularity, “we are seeing people interested in getting outdoors in all shapes and forms.”
At Sessions Woods Wildlife Management Area in Burlington, hunting firearms safety classes were full-on an Autumn Tuesday. “We are crazy busy,” said Tom Donlon, the DEEP’s hunter safety coordinator, “it’s a great busy,” he added.
Donlon said the DEEP always puts safety first and that they are seeing more people interested in learning about how to hunt properly. “It’s wonderful to see the types of folks we have joining our classes now,”
Donlon said. Trumble added that Connecticut offers hunters a lot to experience, “it’s really a very solitary form of recreation,” he said, “walk through the woods and really enjoy that peace and quiet that only nature can provide.”
Bow season in Connecticut is already underway, firearms hunting season begins November 15th. The DEEP offers a Hunting Roadmap website with safety and hunting season information, to learn more click here.