The number of U.S. hunters has decreased by 2 million from 2011-2016, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

This drop has an effect on the funding for habitat and wildlife management in U.S. wildlife conservation. The Washington County Conservation Board is partnering with the National Wild Turkey Federation (NWTF) to provide a yearlong program to encourage people to get outdoors. NWTF Washington Chapter committee member Michele Pegg is helping coordinate the program, “If you want to increase conservation and you want to increase that family connectedness again, then one of the ways to do that is to get people out of the house and actually back outside to the outdoors. And hunters and people who are in the outdoors, people who camp, people who hike, people who fish, those people are more involved and more engaged in protecting wildlife, and conserving wildlife, and conserving the habitats that they belong in.”

The Connecting Individuals to the Outdoors program will have a monthly event all during 2018 at the Washington County Conservation Education Center, and their first meeting is January 21 at 3 p.m.