Too Cool for Safety?

No, I'm not your mom or pops, but the article below is a great organization for teaching the up and coming hunters out there how to climb a tree safely. Please don't ever thing you're too cool to be safe in a tree. Check out the article.-Jake

Over 200 Tree Stand Safety Experts have been qualified to teach tree stand safety to hunter education instructors and other professional safety educators. These Experts have successfully completed an intensive eight hour course on tree stand safety and are now a part of the Project STAND (Stop Tree stand Accidents 'N Deaths) initiative.

The course, approved by the National Bowhunter Education Foundation, covers all aspects of tree stand safety. It was designed to prepare an elite group of professional tree stand safety experts who train hunter educators, scout and 4-H leaders, outdoor communicators, first responders, retailers, manufacturers, outfitters, and other professionals interested in tree stand safety and accident prevention.

"Project STAND's Tree Stand Safety Experts are the best of the best when it comes to training", said Marilyn Bentz, Executive Director of the NBEF. "These guys really know their stuff and are a critical link to eliminating tree stand accidents. They are battle ready foot soldiers on a mission to eliminate tree stand accidents and deaths. They will accomplish this mission by training thousands of hunter educators and other professionals with an interest in tree stand safety."

"Tree stand safety is a huge issue with more people being seriously injured and killed from tree stand accidents than from firearm accidents in the field. We can't ask every hunter in America to take an 8 hour course but we can develop a cadre' of highly trained dedicated experts to act as resource people to the vast network of hunter safety instructors across the nation."

Project STAND was launched in 2008 as an industry wide initiative to reduce tree stand accidents and deaths. In addition to training hundreds of experts who will in turn train thousands of instructors or communicators, Project STAND will also blanket magazines and outdoor TV programming with its tree stand safety message as well as keep the hunter education curricula up to date.

"Our goal is to significantly reduce tree stand accidents and deaths by 2010", remarked Bentz. The approach to tree stand safety is being revised in light of new tree stand safety information. Tree stand injuries and deaths can be prevented. They are bad for the image of hunting and often result in personal tragedy. We are attacking the problem on all fronts with new approaches to tree stand safety and new teaching techniques."

Project STAND is being led by the National Bowhunter Education Foundation with support from the hunting industry, state, and federal wildlife agencies, medical organizations and first responders.

For more information on how you can contribute to the Project STAND campaign or to order a Safe Tree stand Hunting Strategies DVD, contact Marilyn Bentz, NBEF Executive Director at mbentz@nbef.org or 479-649-9036.