We invite the community to learn more about the wild turkeys of Connecticut on Saturday, March 15th at 3:00 pm in the Community Room at the Roxbury Town Hall.  This free, informative talk will be led by Master Wildlife Conservationist Ginny Apple. 

Wild Turkeys were abundant when settlers first came to America. It was said their numbers in the original 13 Colonies and much of the East Coast was in the millions. But their numbers rapidly dwindled through hunting, severe winters and habitat loss so that they were rare by the 1850s. Restoration efforts beginning in the 1970s with the capture of free-roaming Wild Turkeys from other areas of the U.S. helped re-establish Connecticut’s Wild Turkey population, as well as numbers in New England.

It is now not uncommon to see Wild Turkeys when driving around Connecticut. Their population is healthy and growing.

Master Wildlife Conservationist Ginny Apple will discuss Wild Turkeys, their role in early America, their habitats, eating habits, mating rituals and offspring. She will also explain and dispel the rumor that Ben Franklin insisted our National Symbol be the Wild Turkey. A native Texan, Ginny Apple was one of the first full-time women sportswriters in the country, who left the field mid-career to pursue a path in communications/public relations. Through the years she has hiked, climbed, kayaked, skied and poked her way through the outdoors and developed a passion for all things natural. A move to the middle of the woods in Barkhamsted 18 years ago brought her into an environment filled with bears and other wildlife. Living in a house surrounded by Peoples State Forest, she observes a large population of Black Bears and supplies field notes and photographs on them to DEEP bear biologists. Her affinity for this magnificent creature led her out west to participate in a Grizzly research mission in Montana and to become a Master Wildlife Conservationist with the State Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. Her focused expertise is on Bears, Bobcats, Bald Eagles, Beavers and Coyotes—even Wild Turkeys, although she volunteers on numerous wildlife projects, including helping with necropsies on road kill animals and gives talks on a variety of other animals and birds. She is Chairman of the Barkhamsted Conservation and on the Boards of the Barkhamsted Economic Development Commission, the Farmington River Watershed Association (FRWA), the Friends of American Legion and Peoples State Forests (FALPS), the Friends of Connecticut State Parks and volunteers regularly with the Barkhamsted Historical Society (BHS) and maintains the Town’s Facebook page as well as that of FALPS and BHS. Just to keep her creative juices percolating, she has a side business, Murder Without Pain, where she writes murder mystery games based on historical subjects and runs them at country inns, corporate parties and fundraisers.

Established in 1970, the Roxbury Land Trust preserves nearly 4,000 acres of farmland, woodlands, watercourses, wetlands and open space in Roxbury and neighboring communities. The Roxbury Land Trust maintains 32 preserves with more than 30 miles of hiking trails and three active farms, as well as offers a wide range of educational programs. RLT relies on donations, grants, member support, and gifts of land to pursue its mission and is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization.

Roxbury Town Hall is located at 29 North Street in Roxbury, CT. For more information, call the Roxbury Land Trust at 860-350-4148 or email [email protected].