By Andrea Nicholl
Paradise Hill will get more than a few minutes of fame with two episodes airing on the national TV series The Fowl Life with Chad Belding.
The TV series recently visited the rolling landscape of Paradise Hill to film two episodes of local waterfowl hunting with Grant Kuypers, local Paradise Hill hunter and Buck Paradise Outfitters owner.
“We go up and call ducks, geese and waterfowl around the Northern Saskatchewan River and every year has just been consistent,” said host Chat Belding. “The people of Saskatchewan welcome us with open arms, we work with the Saskatchewan Bureau of Tourism and they’re always very receptive to what we have going with our TV show.”
“It was a lot of fun, but a little more work,” Kuypers said of hunting with the film crew. “Trying to hide cameras when you’re huntin’ is always challenging, but when it all comes together it’s pretty awesome.”
The Fowl Life with Chad Belding airs across Canada, throughout the United States and on the south island of New Zealand. Belding says the program really shows what Saskatchewan has to offer as a hunting destination.
“It’s one of the best experiences a hunter can have. We try to show the personality of the people that live in Saskatchewan. People see us in there and they see the good time we’re having, that we enjoy ourselves and that we’re welcomed by the landowners – they’ll let you hunt on their field any time, any day, but before they give you permission they want to get to know you, have coffee with you or maybe even cook you breakfast or dinner.”
Belding and Kuypers agree exposure of Saskatchewan’s hunting opportunities is great for the community and a boost to the economy.
“We support the community of Paradise Hill quite heavily,” said Kuypers. “It’s definitely a huge impact for us. Outfitting as a whole brings a lot of big money into Saskatchewan.”
“Most of the waterfowl hunting seasons don’t start in America until mid-October or even November, so it’s a great opportunity for Americans to come up to Canada and catch some waterfowl, to break the ice and get their feet wet again because they’re itching to get out there,” said Belding.“They go up there and rent hotel rooms, they eat in restaurants, they buy fuel, they buy snacks, they buy hunting licenses, so all that money goes into all those different small Saskatchewan communities.”
In addition to world class waterfowl hunting, the Buck Paradise Outfitters camp also offers whitetail deer hunting and black bear hunting.
“We’re in a pretty good part of the world for all the kinds of hunting that we do,” said Kuypers.
“On the shows you’ll see a storyboard of what happens in Canada. It’s not just a slam dunk, you have to work and you have to be dedicated to making it happen every day,” said Belding. “We hunt all over the world and I think that Saskatchewan has some of the finest waterfowl hunting to offer no matter where you’re at.”
“The thing about Saskatchewan is that there’s so many different species of waterfowl and they’re so abundant to where one day you can be hunting mallard ducks over a pot hole, the next day you can be hunting Canada geese over a pea field and the next day you could be hunting a huge flock of snow geese over a wheat field,” said Belding.
The national reality series airs in more than 40 million homes throughout North America and was recently awarded the 2010 WILD TV Grizzly Award for best show production and editing in Canada. For more information about the series visit www.thefowllife.com.
For more information and lodging dates for Buck Paradise Outfitters visit www.buckparadise.com.