QUEENS OF THE FOREST
BOW TEACHES OUTDOOR SKILLS
Lyana Snow grew up with a father who loved to fish, and while the experience bonded her to the outdoors, it didn’t make her an expert angler. It was an anomaly she took with her into adulthood. “My husband wanted to go fishing with me, because he knew that I’d been fishing most of my life. He was like, ‘You must know everything,’” she said “No, I only knew how to do what my dad told me to do. That didn’t necessarily translate very well into complete confidence to be able to do things on my own.” Snow’s husband was a hunter, but tending young kids at home meant she could only recently dabble in the sport, just enough to know she wanted to know more. Two years ago, she enrolled in a class through the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission’s Becoming an Outdoors-Woman (BOW), a program that helps women perfect their outdoor skills across a range of activities. She was immediately hooked. “I loved the dynamic of learning things with a large group of women who are also learning,” she said. “It really removes the ‘Oh, you’re just a girl. You don’t know what you’re talking about’ stereotype.” BOW programs have afforded Snow the chance to participate in group duck hunts, bass fishing trips and numerous individual classes, such as outdoor photography and Leave No Trace camping. More than that, she’s found a group with whom to share her adventures. “Myself and two other ladies are now really good friends. We actually just went shooting two days ago to get better for the next waterfowl season,” she said. “And they’re both younger, in their 20s. Two other women who went on the duck hunt with us are older, both grandmothers. So, we’ve got younger women and older women and we’re all learning how to do the same thing. I really love that.” Snow, 41, said she’s seen a lot of progress in companies designing outdoor apparel and equipment specifically for females, something that speaks to the appetite women have to be outside. Through BOW, she and her classmates can indulge that passion with confidence. “The BOW program has brought me a lot of really great new experiences that I never thought I would be able to do by myself,” she said. “I’ve met so many women, I’ve made so many friends, and it’s really opened a whole new area of my life.”
Snow’s time on the range yields success in the field.
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