MOUNT VERNON — The Knox Soil & Water Conservation District is enlisting help from nearby groups to conserve the wildlife in our area.
Thursday’s open house at the Dan Emmett Conference Center gathered many of those groups together to help educate the population.
“We’re trying to promote wildlife conservation and other conservation practices,” said Knox SWCD wildlife specialist Jarrod Hittle. “There’s a lot of exhibitors out there that have good resources to offer to landowners and to hunters.”
The open house is the second of its kind. This year, the Knox SWCD worked in conjunction with other area groups, including the Ohio Division of Wildlife, the Ohio Division of Forestry, the Buckeye Big Buck Club and the Knox County Park District. Together, they invited the public to look at what they do to help preserve the outdoors.
It worked. The number of vendors and visitors nearly doubled from a year ago.
“We’re trying to reach the nontraditional population,” Hittle said. “We work mainly with farmers and landowners. There are a lot of good programs out there that not a lot of people know about. We’re trying to address their concerns.”
Among the biggest concerns among all groups is population control.
