Hunting Instructor Stresses Respect for ‘What Nature Has Put’ in the Woods

“You can’t imagine the beauty of walking out there and watching it snow,” John Eimers said, “and seeing the face of an entire mountain change before your eyes.”

Well, that’s one way of hunting, said the 39-year-old La Habra resident, who volunteers his time to teach a state Department of Fish and Games class, which is required to obtain a hunting license.

There are other ways of hunting, Eimers said, adding that “sometimes I just go out with a camera to shoot what I see so I can relive it at another time.”

But the real adventure, he told his class of 25 at a recent Saturday session in the Fullerton High School cafeteria, is to take a rifle or bow and arrow and hunt the quarry--quail, duck or deer.

And sometimes bear. “I have a bearskin that my dad shot (30 years ago),” he said. “That’s quite a trophy that brings back memories of the days I went hunting with him when I was really young.”

But times have changed and so has hunting, including the way it is done, Eimers said. “Many hunters who are proficient with rifles and want more challenges have changed to stalking the prey with bow and arrow.”

Aside from the hunt itself, he places much of his emphasis on the environment and why hunters should care for it.

“One of the things we teach in the class is not to abuse what nature has put there,” he said. “And we try to tell them to pick up after others who litter and otherwise scar the beauty of the outdoors.”

Eimers said that helps counter the allegations of people who say hunters are not only destructive to animals but also to nature. “We have a lot of hunters who pick up the trash dropped by campers and sightseers and take it out of the woods,” he said.

And he defends what he calls the sport of hunting, noting that it’s drawing more younger people, especially those who want to hunt with bow and arrow. That includes his daughters, ages 11 and 18, both of whom are bird hunters.

“The younger people enjoy the outdoors,” he said, “to get away from the fast-paced life of today.”

A hunter for most his life, Eimers too is caught up in the struggle to find time to get away from his work as an installer of car telephones. “I only hunt about 14 days a year,” he grumbled, “and I spend more time than that teaching the hunting class.”

When he does find time to go hunting, it’s in Northern California.

“But when I do get out,” he said, “I only hunt what I’m going to eat. You just can’t buy meat that tastes as good as what you’ve hunted yourself.”

Ron F. Waltz, 36, a sheet-metal worker from Anaheim, has been refurbishing a Victorian home he bought last year. While checking underneath the structure, he found a coin purse secreted under floorboards.

Waltz said he felt like a little kid finding a treasure when he opened the purse and found such mementos as a token for a free beer and some receipts, one dated May 5, 1888.

He made copies and said that although he doesn’t believe what he found has any significant value, he is unsure what he will do with what the mementos. He indicated he might donate them to the Anaheim Museum for display in a room dedicated to local history.

A history buff, Waltz also has a collection of old pharmaceutical bottles, including one that reads “Dr. Kilmer’s Swamp Root Kidney Cure.”

The Children’s Museum at La Habra is planning to break ground this summer for a new wing and has a clever program to help pay for the $500,000 structure.

The museum, a learning center for children, is selling 500 bricks for $100 each, with the donor’s name stamped into it. The bricks will form a new entry.

Museum Director Cathy Michaels said the brick sale is a chance for someone to have a permanent record of his or her charitable support. Donors will also receive a “Brick Certificate.”

Michaels said 50 have already been sold.

Tommy Tender, the 250-pound fiberglass Hereford that was rustled off the roof of Wall’s Quality Meats in Anaheim, was found grazing in a nice grassy knoll behind Loara High School in Anaheim.

Alan Wall, the steer’s owner, said he is going to give the 8-foot-long animal a new paint job and keep it inside the store. This is the third time Tommy Tender has been lifted from the roof by pranksters.

Wall, of Newport Beach, said the steer looked happy at its latest temporary grazing spot. “The time before this, we found him atop a school bus,” he said.

Although there are no suspects, Wall said if one pops up, he’ll have the culprit prosecuted.