National Wild Turkey Federation
Southwest Wisconsin Longbeards Chapter

About Us

The Southwest Wisconsin Longbeards, a local chapter of the National Wild Turkey Federation, was formed in 2000. The National Wild Turkey Federation (NWTF) is a grassroots, nonprofit organization with members in 50 states, Canada, and 11 foreign countries. It supports scientific wildlife management on public, private and corporate lands as well as wild turkey hunting as a traditional North American sport. The NWTF’s goals are to teach the importance of responsible wildlife management, natural resource management, increase participation in outdoor-related opportunities, and to preserve the hunting tradition. The NWTF offers many programs to accomplish these goals. The Southwest Wisconsin Longbeards chapter currently participates in the following programs:

Learn to Turkey Hunt Provides an opportunity for persons with less than 2-years’ turkey hunting experience to be paired with an experienced mentor for a real turkey hunt. The goals of the program and its mentors are to educate new hunters about conservation and the wild turkey, to have fun, and, most of all, to provide a safe hunting experience. Our event has grown nearly three-fold since 2002, increasing from nine to twenty-four youth, women and men participants. The chapter is proud of its quality program, which won the 2003 Wisconsin Best Learn to Hunt Event award. This year, the Southwest chapter was honored to host young people from the United Special Sportsmen Alliance Dream Hunts.

Women in the Outdoors The mission of the Women in the Outdoors program is to provide hands-on educational outdoor opportunities for women. The NWTF hopes that by introducing more women into outdoor activities that will help to involve the entire family into every aspect of conservation. Women in the Outdoors events give women from all walks of life the chance to experience the thrill of both hunting and non-hunting outdoor activities such as backpacking, rock climbing, turkey hunting, and recreational shooting.

Scholarship Program Each year, our chapter awards an area senior with a $250 scholarship. Each local winner is forwarded to the state chapter, where if wins there, has an opportunity for the national scholarship award.

Conservation & Habitat Programs Our chapter participates in seedling and seed programs, to improve habitat for the wild turkey and other wildlife.