Hunter Safety Course Offered in Bay County
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) is offering a free hunter safety course in Bay County.
The course is at Gulf Coast State College, in the second-floor lecture hall of the Student Union East building, 5230 W. U.S. 98 in Panama City. Instruction is from 6 to 9 p.m. on Aug. 7, 9, 14 and 16. The range portion of the class is Aug. 18, from 7 to 11 a.m.
Students who have taken the Internet course and wish to complete the classroom portion must bring the online-completion report and attend only the Aug. 7 and 18 sessions.
An adult must accompany children under the age of 16 at all times. Students are encouraged to bring a pencil and paper with them to take notes.
The hunter safety course is required for people born on or after June 1, 1975, to purchase a Florida hunting license. The FWC course satisfies hunter-safety training requirements for all other states and Canadian provinces.
People interested in attending this course can register online and obtain information about future hunter safety classes at MyFWC.com/HunterSafety or by calling Hunter Safety Coordinator George Warthen at the FWC’s regional office in Panama City at 850-265-3676.
The Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission came into existence on July 1, 1999 - the result of a constitutional amendment approved in the 1998 General Election as part of the package proposed by the Constitution Revision Commission.
In the implementation of the Constitutional Amendment, the Florida Legislature combined all of the staff and Commissioners of the former Marine Fisheries Commission, elements of the Divisions of Marine Resources and Law Enforcement of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, and all of the employees and Commissioners of the former Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission.
Five years later, after consulting stakeholders, employees and other interested parties, the FWC adopted a new internal structure to address complex conservation issues of the new century. The new structure focuses on programs, such as habitat management, that affect numerous species. It will focus on moving the decision-making process closer to the public and did not require any additional funding or additional positions.
