NWTF Uses Innovative Approach to Conservation Fundraising

Driven by its new Save the Habitat. Save the Hunt. initiative, the NWTF is using crowdfunding — a fundraising approach that allows many individuals to make small donations towards a common project — to help fund a forester position dedicated to proactive management of forests in the Black Hills.

The NWTF, concerned by a mountain pine beetle epidemic plaguing the Black Hills forests, started the crowdfunding project because the region would benefit from a forester to oversee habitat management in a region that offers unique public hunting and outdoor opportunities for sportsmen across the nation.

Filling this position will help improve more than 2,000 acres of forest habitat. Much of the habitat work will be funded by cost share dollars, possibly as much as $800,000, available through the Natural Resource Conservation Service and a previously acquired federal grant. Beetle infestations create extremely dangerous conditions by killing trees across vast areas, exponentially increasing the chance for catastrophic wildfires.

NWTF chose the crowdfunding website CrowdTilt to help raise funds needed to hire fund the forester for the Black Hills region. CrowdTilt allows individuals to pledge a contribution towards the NWTF project without donors having to pay until the project meets its monetary goal of $10,000.

Interested individuals can review the full project description and donate to the NWTF Black Hills project on CrowdTilt by visiting https://www.crowdtilt.com/campaigns/improve-habitat-and-hunting-in-the-black-hills. The fundraising project will run until July 5, 2013.

This effort supports the NWTF’s new Save the Habitat. Save the Hunt. initiative, which will conserve and enhance four million acres of critical upland wildlife habitat to increase wild turkey populations, create 1.5 million new hunters and establish 500,000 additional acres of hunting access.

As a leading conservation organization, the NWTF created the initiative to tackle the challenges facing the sporting community: national turkey populations have declined 15 percent with much more dramatic declines in some historically important areas; 6,000 acres of upland wildlife habitat are lost every day; hunter numbers are not keeping pace with population growth, endangering the funding model for conservation in North America.

National Wild Turkey Federation

The National Wild Turkey Federation is the leader in upland wildlife habitat conservation in North America. The NWTF is a nonprofit organization dedicated to conserving the wild turkey and preserving our hunting heritage.

Through dynamic partnerships with state, federal and provincial wildlife agencies, the NWTF and its members have helped restore wild turkey populations throughout North America, spending more than $331 million to conserve nearly 16 million acres of habitat. Wild turkeys and hundreds of other species of upland wildlife, including quail, deer, grouse, pheasant and songbirds, benefit from this improved habitat.

The NWTF also brings new conservationists and hunters into the fold through outdoor education events and its Women in the Outdoors, Wheelin' Sportsmen, JAKES and Xtreme JAKES youth outreach programs. Our dedicated NWTF volunteers introduce about 100,000 people to the outdoors through these programs every year.

Founded in 1973, the NWTF is headquartered in Edgefield, S.C., and has local chapters in every state and Canada. According to many state and federal agencies, the restoration of the wild turkey is arguably the greatest conservation success story in North America's wildlife history.