“Hunting has been a big part of my family. You could say it’s in my blood.”

Emma Riedi, senior at Notre Dame Academy is in an important part of the year right now, bear hunting season.

Riedi landed a 200-lb bear while hunting two weeks ago.

Thanks to her father, she has been interested in hunting since she was a little girl.

“My dad is a really dedicated outdoorsman and is the one who instilled the passion in me,” she said.

Bear hunting is only one type of hunting she has on her resume, which includes the

standard deer, turkey, duck, goose, pheasant, rabbit and grouse hunting.

Riedi explained that those types of licenses in Wisconsin you can apply for every year and receive, but with bear hunting it’s different.

“Due to the population of black bears in Wisconsin, you put in preference points that take ten years to accumulate (one point each year). So, in short, bear hunting is a once-in-a-decade experience one gets to have,” Riedi said.

Riedi describes bear hunting as “difficult and time consuming” because their family doesn’t use trained dogs to help them hunt.

The Riedi family puts out bait piles filled with corn and sugar goodies to entice the bears.

Tree cameras are useful tools that help them to bait a certain area, leading to the time- consuming part of hunting–waiting in the tree stand for the arrival of the big game.

Riedi did catch a black bear while hunting a couple weeks ago but says she doesn’t like to talk about hunting too much.

“I know not a lot of people agree with it. They become sensitive when they know that an innocent animal has been killed, but when I talk to people I make sure they know it’s not a bad thing,” Riedi said.  “Hunting has been a part of our country’s foundation, and it’s a good thing when you do it for the right reasons.”