Hunter Education Course
March 12th, 2006 by Administrator
Hunter Education Course will be held from 8 a.m. until 6 p.m. March 18 at the Sequoyah County Fairgrounds on East Redwood Street in Sallisaw.
State Game Warden Karlin Bailey will be the instructor. He said a free lunch will be provided to participants by members of the National Wild Turkey Federation, Many Creeks Longbeards Chapter. Chapter members will also help teach some classes.
Bailey said there is no admission fee, no pre-registration and no age limit. However, it is recommended that children taking the course be age 10 or older.
“This course will be the only one we will offer this spring,” Bailey said.
Bailey said all those born on or after Jan. 1, 1972, must complete the hunter education course before purchasing a hunting license or deer tag. Students must attend all day and certification cards will be presented at the end of the class upon completion of the test.
Bailey said, “We are excited about having our local National Wild Turkey Federal chapter as a sponsor this year. They will be helping with instruction during the course and will provide the free lunch. This chapter is doing a lot for the wild turkeys in our county, and I hope all the sportsmen will help support them.”
Members of the local National Wild Turkey Federal chapter will hold their annual banquet on April 1 at the Sequoyah County Fairgrounds.
Also a member of the chapter, Bailey said the National Wild Turkey Federation is a grassroots, nonprofit organization with more than 500,000 members in 50 states, Canada and 15 foreign countries. It supports scientific wildlife management on public, private and corporate lands as well as wild turnkey hunting as a traditional North American sport.
The association was founded in 1973, when there were an estimated 1.3 million wild turkeys. Bailey said that, due to the work of federal, state and local wildlife agencies and the association’s volunteers and partners, there are now close to seven million wild turnkeys and nearly three million turkey hunters.
“Turkey hunting has become the fastest growing form of hunting and has the second highest number of participants of any type of hunting,” Bailey said.
Since 1985, more than $224 million has been spent on upholding turkey hunting traditions and conserving more than 9.6 million acres of wildlife habitat, Bailey said.
For more information on the turkey federation, visit their Web site at www.nwtf.org or call 1-800-THE-NWTF.