Little Switzerland Strutters Sponsors Kids Fishing Day April 24

Monterey, VA – The National Wild Turkey Federation is a national nonprofit conservation and hunting organization, founded in 1973, that works for conservation of the wild turkey and preservation of hunting heritage. When the organization was founded, there were only about 1.3 million wild turkeys. Today that number stands at more than 7 million birds throughout North America and hunting seasons have been established in 49 US states, Canada and Mexico.

The Federation’s Wild Turkey Center and Winchester museum, located in Edgefield, South Carolina, is the only museum in the world dedicated to the restoration, conservation and history of the wild turkey.

Since 1985, the National Wild Turkey Federation’s volunteers and partners have spent more than $279 million on projects to help wildlife agencies trap and relocate turkeys to areas of suitable habitat and to improve the health of our nation’s forests and woodlands.

The NWTF offers a full selection of land management tips and programs designed to help attract more wildlife to your property. They have a habitat conservation program designed to help private landowners, industry partners and wildlife agencies conserve wildlife habitat and improve hunting opportunities. The program helps private landowners protect property from development through conservation easements.

Highland county’s Little Switzerland Strutters, a chapter of the National Wild Turkey Federation, is helping the national organization by working to promote conservation of wild turkeys as well as development of improved turkey habitat on land in the county. One of their big events for the year, Kids Fishing Day, is coming up Saturday, April 24.

“We’ll have Parker Bows there, said Local NWTF member Ernie Hise. “They let them shoot bows.We’ll have a caving instructor, a BB shoot, a mock turkey hunt, fly fishing, survival, trapping, and hopefully the fire department.”

Saturday’s events for the kids are part of the federation’s JAKES program, which stands for Juniors Acquiring Knowledge, Ethics and Sportsmanship. The term jake refers to a younger non-dominant male in a turkey flock.

This free event is being put on for children 15 and under and is being held Saturday, April 24, at Rainbow Farm, on Halterman Hollow Road, just off route 220, north of Monterey. Registration starts at 9 a.m. and the events start at 10 a.m.