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For its bang up 2012 year performance on behalf of the wild turkeys of West Virginia and elsewhere, the Logan Area (LA) Chapter brought home a bucket load of plaques last week. That is, from the State Chapter of the National Wild Turkey Federation’s (NWTF’s) annual awards banquet held at the centrally located Mountain State town of Flatwoods. Doyle Gore and Roger Wolfe, long-term mainstays of the LA Chapter brought home the bacon, I mean turkey…

The congratulations go to all however, from those that sponsored, attended a banquet to others that donated or helped out in some way toward the Chapter’s continuing events and success. Roger Wolfe summed it up nicely, “I am proud to say that the Logan Area Chapter did pretty well at the WV State NWTF Awards. We came home with five plaques, the favorite being first place in JAKES membership. We were second in regular membership and sponsor membership, and then we also got one for golden gobbler and holding a JAKES event.”

In turkey chapter lingo, JAKES stands for Juniors Acquiring Knowledge Ethics and Sportsmanship or more simply put, turkey related stuff for the youngsters. This included the annual cat-fishing day held at Chief Logan Boy Scout Camp Lake, plus special guided youth spring turkey hunting days as well as a host of banquet goodies just for the younger set. The program was named after the Jake or young gobbler of the wild turkey species.

The Chapter’s kingpin event is the annual Superfund banquet now traditionally held in late March at the Chief Logan Conference Center. The annual family event attracts several hundred with door and raffle prizes with both silent and live auctions of outdoor and wildlife related goods, artifacts and artwork. This year’s banquet will be the twentieth anniversary event for the award winning local chapter.

The Chapter also hosted its annual golf tournament at Riverview Country Club, a booth and sanctioned turkey calling contest at the Chief Logan Hunting and Fishing Expo as well as distributing turkey and hams to the less fortunate around the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, respectively. The Chapter was a key contributor to the development of the new Chief Logan Wildlife Management Area (WMA) as well as the even newer public shooting range housed within it.

Celebrating its 40th anniversary year, the NWTF and its State Chapter, which is comprised all of the chapters around West Virginia have contributed well in excess of a million dollars to WVDNR projects including major land acquisition, the now completed trap and transplant (re-stocking) program of the wild turkey, seminal research on the grand birds, various habitat improvement projects, educational and hunting safety materials and youth events to you name it.

The Logan Area and its coalfield based mining and related businesses as well as the outdoor community here have been an important mainstay to the chapter’s success. To them, many more years and a hearty gobble, gobble, gobble.