Pass on the tradition.

Saturday and Sunday’s youth pheasant hunt at the Arnold Release Site south of Oak Harbor was a time for young and old, both human and canine, to get together and renew the tradition that is pheasant hunting in America.

In today’s world of video games and MTV, many young people have no interest in tromping around stubble fields with a good dog and sighting down the barrel of a shotgun as one of the brightly-colored Chinese roosters breaks from cover with a roar of wings.

A dedicated group of local “vet-

eran” hunters are working hard to stimulate more interest in bird hunting and this past weekend was their chance to share many years of accumulated experience with those who are less so.

Will Dillrud from Oak Harbor brought his German short-hair pointer, Greta, to the hunt.

“She’s just a pup yet, only five-months old, and she is still learning,” Dillrud said. “Learning to socialize with other people and other dogs is an important part of training.”

Greta showed her spirit without too much prompting and enthusiastically jumped into some thick brush to recover a dead bird her master tossed into the tangle.

Ginger, another German short-hair pointer belonging to Bob Triggs from Oak Harbor, has a little more field experience.

“She just turned three,” Triggs said. “It’s all about the kids getting out here and enjoying the hunt.”

Warren Everett from Langley said he has been helping plant birds for youth hunts for years.

“The birds are raised down in Centralia and a few years ago, there were three or four farms where the farmers actually raised the birds as a crop,” he said.

Now there is one big facility in Centralia where approximately 50 to 70 thousand birds are raised each year.

“These birds are used for hunts like the one we’re having over in Eastern Washington, they release the birds into the wild,” Everett said.

Twelve-year-old Emily Bain, a seventh-grade student at Oak Harbor Middle School, had success in the field both days and was the only hunter to bag a bird on Saturday.

Assisted by her uncle, Matt Nienhuis, and grandfather, Eldy, Emily had two roosters fall to shots from her Remington 20-gauge on Saturday and bagged a rooster and a hen on Sunday.

“This is the first year I’ve been hunting and I had a lot of fun,” she said.

Her efforts made the weekend a success as at least one young person learned there is more to life than video games and MTV.

Bain was also one of the raffle winners along with Jim Canby, Ben Ross and Spencer Hummer. All four won $15 gift certificates from Ace Hardware and Big 5 Sporting Goods.