Eric Nuse is the executive director of Orion - The Hunters’ Institute. He succeeded founder Jim Pozewitz in 2009 after serving as president. Orion is best known for its books and advocacy for fair chase hunting, hunter ethics and teaching hunting heritage. More than 600,000 copies of Beyond Fair Chase have been sold and are a mainstay in hunter education courses nationwide.

Eric also has facilitated a Think Tank sponsored by Orion and the Max McGraw Wildlife Foundation to examine factors needed for ethical hunting and to differentiate hunter ethics from hunter preferences. Think Tank II is scheduled for Sept 2011 and will look at developing a framwork for ethical decision making while hunting.

In addition, Eric runs a consulting business, working with state fish and wildlife agencies on hunter recruitment, hunter safety and ethics issues. He is in demand as an expert witness for high profile hunter-related shooting incidents in criminal and civil proceedings. Currently, Eric just published a book, Vermont Wild, about his experiences as a game warden, and he hosts the Fair Chase blog.

From 2004 to 2006, Eric served as the executive director of the International Hunter Education Association. While there, he launched the online hunter education training course, obtained funding for an online hunter education class search portal and received a multi-state grant for conducting hunter education program peer reviews. He was involved with or led six of those reviews. He also brought South Africa and New Zealand into the IHEA.

In 2004, Eric retired from the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department after 32 years as a game warden, hunter education coordinator and administrator. During this time, he graduated from the Agency of Natural Resources four-year Leadership and Management course, was certified as a Vermont Public Manager, and received an associate’s degree in Criminal Justice. He was responsible for bringing the Becoming an Outdoors-Woman program to Vermont, started the Becoming an Outdoor-Family program, was a certified police firearms and defensive tactics instructor and wrote the first hunter education instructor manual and SOP. During this time, he also won the NRA police revolver championship for conservation officers and became a 4th degree black belt.

Eric holds a Bachelor of Science degree in wildlife Management from the University of Maine.

Eric is married, has five children, and two granddaughters He is an avid reader, and a passionate hunter, woodsman and fisherman. He hangs his hat in Johnson, Vermont.