BC Wildlife Federation women’s outdoors weekend highlights growing interest in hunting, fishing

Women and the wilderness

Photo: Cindy White

Women practice archery during an outdoors training course at Camp Winfield in March 2022.

A popular program offered by the BC Wildlife Federation returns to the Central Okanagan next month.

Silver Lake Forest Centre near Peachland will host the BCWF Spring 2025 Women Outdoors Weekend from Friday, June 6 to Sunday, June 8.

This year, participants can learn everything from nature photography to off-road driving to archery to how to skin and stretch a beaver hide. Space is limited and the courses fill up quickly.

“We do some basic orienteering, hiking, camping, fire building and that kind of thing but it’s the harvesting wild protein that people are most interested in as an add-on to that basic skill set,” said Randy Shore, BCWF public relations & communications specialist.

He said more and more women are learning to hunt and fish because they are looking for wild, healthy proteins to feed their families. That’s where the fur handling & pelt preparation course is key because it is an introduction to field-dressing game.

“Mammal physiology is pretty similar across the board, so what you learn from handling a beaver carcass is more or less the same skills you are going to need for a deer and eventually for an even larger species,” said Shore.

Another course that comes in very handy is Introduction to off-road driving.

“If you want to be in the wilderness, you need a way to get there. Sometimes that means driving off-road, sometimes that means wrangling a trailer with a boat and it’s not as intuitive as you would hope. So it really pays to get some instruction,” said Shore.

He says there are about 20 spaces left for the Spring 2025 Women Outdoors Weekend. It costs $399.99 (+GST) for BCWF Members and $464.99 (+GST) for non-members. Click here to register or learn more about the weekend event.