Hunting and Fishing - services provided by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources to help handicapped people hunt - Brief Article

Illinois residents are fortunate to have Charlie Pangle in their corner. Sharing in the adrenaline rush of a disabled beginner hunter is one of his job's perks.

"I get to deal with people who have been unable to hunt because of their disability," he said. "To see an individual out in the woods wearing camo and maybe taking a deer is what makes it special for me."

Pangle has served as the Kankakee River State Park site superintendent in Bourbonnais, IL., since 1993. He gets a lot of job satisfaction heading a new accessibility initiative within the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) that enables Illinois residents with physical challenges to better enjoy the outdoors.

In addition to continuing to reduce barriers that may impede access to state sites and their facilities, DNR is developing new recreational opportunities for people with physical challenges. Its goals include establishing partnerships with organizations that represent people with disabilities and with outdoor groups that can help introduce these new participants to fields and streams.

"I'm talking turkey, quail, and pheasant hunting," Pangle says. "I'm talking sporting clays and fishing. We're going to be opening up possibilities to a lot of physically challenged people who didn't think they could do something until they tried it."

Pangle's friend Barry Baron, who hunts and fishes from a wheelchair, lost his legs to a land mine 30 years ago. The adjutant at the Illinois Veterans' Home in Manteno, Baron -- as his schedule permits -- accompanies Pangle to meetings throughout the state to explain the program and solicit organizations' support. Also traveling with Baron and Pangle is Tom Mansfield, Vaughn Paralyzed Veterans of America (PVA) outdoor sports and recreation director, whom Governor George Ryan appointed to serve on the Natural Resources Advisory Board.

"They are going to be my partners," Pangle says of Baron and Mansfield. "They'll be able to talk about their personal experiences hunting and fishing, because they've been there."

Spreading the News

Pangle's hands-on experience in introducing people with disabilities to hunting led to his new assignment. Several years ago his interest was piqued after watching Buckmasters, an outdoor sportsmen's television program that featured a firearm deer hunt for people in wheelchairs.

Kankakee River State Park allows deer hunters to use only bows and arrows. Pangle wondered about holding a bow hunt for people with physical challenges.

After working with Kankakee River Valley Whitetails Unlimited, an international organization that works to enhance deer habitats, in 1995 Pangle's park hosted what he thinks may have been one of the first public bow hunts for people with physical challenges. The event has taken place every year since then. Twenty-nine physically disabled hunters participated in 1999, and they took 17 deer during the ten-day event.

DNR's partnership with Whitetails Unlimited serves as a blueprint of what Pangle hopes to establish with other organizations. For each bow hunting event, local Whitetails chapter members help set up 20 blinds off the park's bike trail, which is closed to cyclists and other visitors during deer season.

A lottery system assigns blinds, and participants have their choice of remaining ones when their names are drawn. Physically challenged hunters are paired with able-bodied individuals from the organization who, although not allowed the first shot, can also hunt during the event. Partners' jobs are to check the shooting area, put down any scent or decoy to attract whitetails, and track deer once they're hit. Park staff use a trailer to transport participants to and from their blinds.

Baron says getting to a spot to hunt, shoot clay pigeons, or fish is the most difficult part of outdoor activities.

"It's the accessibility issue," he says. "In the bow hunts Charlie has organized, it was nice because the park made it so easy to get there. It wasn't a hassle."

Baron hadn't hunted deer until Pangle urged him to participate in the bow hunt for people with physical challenges at Kankakee River State Park.

"Charlie said, 'Oh, come on and give it a try,'" Baron recalls. "I had to borrow everything, including the bow, and I wasn't very good. But I fell in love with it."

It is a sport Baron has adopted. Last year, while bow hunting with Pangle on private property, Baron bagged two bucks 15 minutes apart.

Helping Hands

Pangle also hopes to expand on the opportunities other government units offer. For example, the Rend Lake Conservancy District in southern Illinois has a newly renovated shooting complex that features concrete sidewalks leading to sporting-clay stations and a 3-D archery range. This facility hosted a two-day tournament last September that attracted more than 40 physically challenged hunters.

Organizations can also help DNR's program by lending their sporting expertise.

"Many people with physical challenges don't have the know-how to take part in outdoor activities," Pangle says. "Some disabled people may not know how to shoot a crossbow, or they may have a physical problem with fishing. All it takes is someone with a little know-how and the ability to help with the physical barriers. For members of organizations who want to help, it's not hard to do." (Printed by permission of Outdoor Illinois and the Department of Natural Resources.

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