Why Do We Hunt?

When

Monday January 28    
7:00 pm - 8:00 pm

Where

The Nature Institute
2213 South Levis Lane, Godfrey, IL, 62035

Event Type

“Why Hunt?”.

Hearing hunting tales from conservationists may seem like an oxymoron, but hunting has many positive benefits for the environment and the economy. Listen to hunter and biologist Ben Funk, from IDNR, as he dives into these benefits on Monday, January 28th at 7 p.m. This discussion is free and will be held at The Nature Institute, located at 2213 South Levis Lane in Godfrey, Ill.

Funk’s discussion will primarily be geared towards people who are unfamiliar with hunting, although he encourages any and all to attend.

“I’m hoping that people take away that hunting is very important for conservation and also that it provides a large amount of money that goes into the Illinois economy.”

Meet your speaker

Funk is a Wildlife and Hunter Heritage District Wildlife biologist for Madison and St. Clair counties, where he is responsible for implementing the states evolving hunter heritage program with a goal or recruiting new hunters/trappers and keeping current hunter/trappers in the sport. Funk is a native of Jersey County.

Funk served in the US Army as an infantryman in the 101st Airborne, completing 2 tours in Iraq. He received a BS in Zoology from SIU-C in 2011 and while there assisted several graduate student projects in Southern Illinois including wild turkeys, swamp rabbits and bats.  He worked the summer of 2011 in Wyoming studying nesting success of sage grouse.  After graduating, Funk worked as a Wildlife Technician with USDA Wildlife Services. In September 2017, he began working as the Natural Resource Coordinator for the Wildlife Disease and Invasive Species program.

This discussion is a part of a monthly speaker program at The Nature Institute (TNI). The organization’s purpose for these talks is to provide the community with environmentally focused dialogue at a low cost. TNI staff plans to bring topics of a wide variety from hunting to gardening.

TNI is a premiere land conservation and environmental education organization based in Godfrey that manages the largest, privately owned nature preserve in the state of Illinois that is accessible for public use. The organization’s mission is to raise an awareness and an appreciation of the natural world through preservation, restoration and education.