GUILDERLAND — Kelly Stang of Guilderland, the New York State Department of Conservation wildlife biologist who launched and ran a state program introducing thousands of women and girls over the years to outdoor adventures, was promoted last month to oversee the DEC’s hunter-education program.

Stang, who grew up in the Hudson Valley, near West Point, went camping with her family when she was a child and she often accompanied her grandfather, who liked to fish for trout in the Catskills.

She learned to hunt from her classmates at the State University of New York Environmental Science and Forestry College at Syracuse and now hunts in the Hilltowns of Albany County, or in central New York — mainly deer, turkey, and pheasant. She has passed on to her two sons skills in and the love of hunting, fishing, camping, and hiking.

In her new post, Stang said, she oversees the statewide program that provides hunter training to about 45,000 people each year. The training and certification in hunting, bow-hunting, waterfowl hunting, or trapping is mandatory for anyone wanting to buy a license for those activities, she said.

Stang oversees employees in each of the agency’s nine regions as well as about 2,500 volunteer instructors.

“All of our instructors work very hard and they’re very dedicated, to make sure that we train safe and ethical hunters in New York,” Stang said. By “ethical,” she said, she means not illegally hunting animals, not hunting at night, and not taking more than allowed by law.

New York was the first state in the country to mandate hunter education and safety training, she said, launching its program in 1949. Now every state has a hunter-education program, she said.

About 600,000 people currently hunt in New York State, Stang said. Not all of those who complete the training buy a license, she said.

In general, Stang said, the number of hunters in the state is decreasing, judging from license sales. But the state is seeing an influx of young people, she said, who are interested in learning how to hunt because they want to know where their meat comes from and have more control over its handling, rather than relying on commercially raised meat.

Traditionally, the majority of hunters in the state have been white males, she said, estimating 30 percent are women.

But, she said, currently women make up the largest percentage of new hunters. Nationwide too, she said, while overall hunter numbers might be falling, the number of women is increasing.  

“One of the goals of the hunter-education program for a number of years has been to increase diversity,” Stang said.

Through publicity and booths at fairs or other events, the DEC is trying to reach different populations that might be interested in learning how to hunt and provide for themselves, she said.

Becoming an Outdoors Woman

Becoming an Outdoors Woman — the program Stang launched and led — is a prime example of the DEC’s efforts to increase diversity, she said. In addition to the wide-ranging and confidence-building outdoor skills women can gain at that workshop, they can also complete, during the weekend, the education they need for licenses in hunting, bow-hunting, or trapping, she said.

Stang said she thinks that, among the regional coordinators of the program in the different regions throughout the state, there are at least as many women as men, or maybe more.

Becoming an Outdoors Woman is a national program, Stang said, that started at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. Stang went to Wisconsin, trained there, came back, and started putting together a program for New York.

The weekend workshop gives women the education and opportunity to learn outdoor skills — primarily skills associated with fishing and hunting — but also offers about 40 to 50 different courses during weekend workshops, including hunting, shooting, fishing, canoeing, kayaking, outdoor cooking, use of maps and compasses, and survival skills.

The first workshop ran in 1993, and Stang has been heading the program since its inception, she said. This year’s program, which ran from Sept. 7 to 9 in Cortland, was the 25th. “It’s a tremendous success. I’m very proud of it,” Stang said of Becoming an Outdoors Woman; in 2019, it will be held in the Silver Bay YMCA at Lake George.

Initially, Becoming an Outdoors Woman was run on a first-come, first-served basis, Stang said, accepting the first 125 women to sign up and then starting a wait list. Eventually, so many women wanted to sign up that the application process changed to a lottery.

Stang’s promotion means that she will oversee but no longer run the Becoming an Outdoors Woman program, a transition that will be a little bittersweet for her after 25 years, she said, adding that the DEC plans to hire a biologist to take over the main coordination of the program.

Her sons, who are 20 and 13, think “it’s cool,” she said, to have a mother who teaches women about being outdoors, but mostly they take it in stride.

“Really, I started that before they were even born,” she concluded. “It’s just something they’ve always known.”