Recently I did something that I had planned on doing for a long time – I joined Kentucky Wild. It is a membership-based program that directly supports vulnerable non-game wildlife facing threats in Kentucky. Kentucky Wild funds conservation programs, sponsors research, conducts wildlife population studies, and protects and improves habitat for pollinators and migratory birds. These actions should help imperiled populations recover, improving wildlife viewing in Kentucky.
It turns out that I joined a thriving fraternity. Over its 5 years of existence, Kentucky Wild has gained 11,000 members, with representatives from all 50 states, as well as a couple of international members. That is impressive buy-in.
Kentucky Wild was started in 2018 by the highly successful Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources (KDFWR), and that gives me confidence that it will be well managed. KDFWR, which began in 1912, has over four hundred employees and functions without the benefit of tax dollars or money from the state’s general fund. It is funded by the state fees for licenses and permits for fishing, hunting, boating and trapping. In addition, they apply for federal grants that are derived from federal excise taxes that are collected on the sale of hunting equipment, fishing equipment, recreational shooting supplies, boat registration, and boating fuels. The Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources states that its mission “is to conserve, protect and enhance Kentucky’s fish and wildlife resources and provide outstanding opportunities for hunting, fishing, trapping, boating, shooting sports, wildlife viewing, and related activities.” With these funds KDFWR has established eighty-nine Wildlife Management Areas that total over five hundred thousand acres. The good news is that generally when you save space for game species, you are also saving habitat for non-game species like insects, reptiles, amphibians, birds of prey, and song birds.
Kentucky Wild utilizes the biologists within the KDFWR for its projects and gets some financial support from the department’s overall budget. On the other hand, Kentucky Wild membership funds are only used for conservation activities and not for salaries.
I am not a hunter, but I make a delicious venison chili (see the link to my recipe at the end of the article). Over the years patients and friends who were hunters have supplied me with venison. Most of the hunters and fishermen that I know are conservation minded and understand that their sports can not be solely exploitive of wildlife. They wholeheartedly support the work of both government and private programs that ensure healthy habitats for game species. And many outdoor sportspersons will just as likely tell me about an exciting non-game wildlife sighting as they will tell me about their fishing and hunting success. It is not just what they harvest that makes their day, but the whole of the outdoor experience. In fact, it was a friend of mine who is a hunting enthusiast and outdoor writer, that told me about Kentucky Wild several years ago. Despite good intentions, I never got around to joining until now.
The activities that Kentucky Wild supports are wide ranging. Currently they highlight their work on song bird banding, fish surveys, monarch butterfly monitoring, freshwater mollusk conservation, and helping, along with other states, to restore the Eastern Hellbender, America’s largest salamander. Kentucky Wild field work takes place on public, state-owned, federally-owned, and privately owned land.
Eastern Hellbender
As an amateur naturalist I have been following their work on mollusk (mussel) restoration for several years. Native mussels are some of the most endangered wildlife in many states and numerous species are already extinct in Kentucky and elsewhere. As states begin to dismantle antiquated low-head dams and return streams and rivers to their free flowing legacies, there is an opportunity to reintroduce these threatened species to their native habitats of clean, free flowing streams. With recovery of the mussel population being its primary mission, Kentucky’s Center for Mollusk Conservation, another KDFWR agency, is a leader in this field and frequently provides expertise, as well as mollusks, to other states. As a lover of stream ecosystems I embrace this effort. Since Kentucky Wild’s and the Center for Mollusk Conservation’s missions overlap, Kentucky Wild will provide supplemental funding for special projects involving mussel restoration.
So on a cold winter day I researched to see how Kentucky stacked up with its neighbor states (Tennessee, Missouri, Illinois, Inidiana, Ohio, West Virgina, and Virginia) with regards to support of non-game species. On an admittedly superficial review it appears that Kentucky, along with Indiana, Illinois, Virginia, and Tennessee, have devoted significant resources to support non-game wildlife. These states have specific agencies for non-game wildlife with goals and plans that are well defined. It does not surprise me that Kentucky has so thoroughly embraced the program, as it is frequently at the forefront of wildlife management. Kentucky’s Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources has the longest continuously-running outdoors television show in the nation, first airing in 1953, and on most weeks I try to find the time to watch it. They were also one of the first states to successfully reintroduce Elk, River Otter, and Wild Turkey back into their wild lands. Finally, they publish a quarterly journal, Kentucky Afield, that even a non-hunter like myself finds informative.
Why join now? As we slog through another winter I realize how much I miss all the little sightings that we experience when we are in the wilds, and I feel that at Footpaths we should do our part to help protect those species that bring us so much joy on our outings. As members of Kentucky Wild we get some swag like a Kentucky Wild T-shirt, a ball cap , and a bandana. In addition, we will have the opportunity to participate in some of the field studies and conservation projects that the program sponsors. But most importantly, we get to take pride in the fact that we have joined the brotherhood and sisterhood of nature lovers whose have financially backed the conservation of wildlife in Kentucky. In other words, I get to walk the walk.
Photo credits to Peggy Juengling Burns except for the Hellbender which is from the KDFWR.
Links:
Link to Venison Chili recipe
https://burnsfamilyrecipes.wordpress.com/2013/06/14/venison-chili-tim-farmerky-afieldpats-variation/
Link to Kentucky Wild YouTube video
Link to Kentucky Wild Website
It is a good idea to join such an organisation. We used to do some volunteering to fix the walking path in the Peak District it was very nice to enjoy the nature as well.
You saw some nice wildlife.
I agree. I need to branch out more. I have a habit of protecting my time relating to the time demands of my previous career.