Group to teach hunting, foraging skills

JOHNSON COUNTY - Through a new program called Edible Outdoors, Corridor residents will be able to learn how to fish, forage and hunt.

The first class, focused on catching, cleaning, preparing and storing fish, will be from 5:30 to 8 p.m. Friday at the Terry Trueblood Recreation Area.

The non-profit Take a Kid Outdoors is operating the Edible Outdoors program. Events will be offered once a month through November.

'Being involved in these activities, I think, can help folks to see how important conservation is,” said Rachel Vanderwerff, program director for Edible Outdoors.

Brad Freidhof, conservation program manager for the Johnson County Conservation Board, is one of the instructors for two of the classes. He said many people think of the grocery store as their only source for food, but he wants to help them realize food is right outside their back door.

'If the grocery store shuts down for some unknown reason, you've got skill sets,” he said.

Holly Schulte, a training specialist at the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, who also will help with training, said the group is about more than just learning the skills to find food.

'We've grown apart from the outdoors,” she said. ' ... It's just creating that connection that I think has been kind of lost.”

Members of the public can purchase $10 tickets for the Friday event, or sign up for a $50 membership. A pheasant hunt in October only will be open to members.

The last event, in November, will be a potluck dinner. Those in attendance will learn to prepare pheasants. Then the program will go on hiatus until April 2016.

Schulte said those who participate in the program likely will develop a sense of pride in being able to find their own food.

'They can put together, at the end of the day, a nice supper of fish and plants that they went out and harvested themselves,” she said.

For more information visit the organization's Facebook page.