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Turkey hunting seminar set By MARK FREEMAN Turkey hunters looking to get a leg up on the upcoming spring season can start April 7 in the conference room of the Black Bird Shopping Center. The West Medford outdoor store is sponsoring a free turkey-hunting and turkey-calling seminar featuring one of Oregon's more successful wild turkey hunters. Jim Horn, a member of the Primos Hunting and Calling Team, will be conducting the seminar from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Horn, of LaPine, is also Primos' western promotions manager. Horn's seminar will focus on the different types of turkey calls on the market and how to use them. He will discuss what the calls are designed to imitate and under which hunting scenarios the calls work best. Imitating the sounds of a tom or hen turkey is considered one of the main keys to successful wild turkey hunting in spring. The wary birds typically are called from their roosts into shotgun range by hunters stealthy enough to hide in the woods. The season opens April 15 and runs through May. The proliferation of wild turkeys since their introduction into Oregon in the 1960s has made them Oregon's most popular game bird. While the woods of Douglas County sport the state's highest concentration of birds, the rural areas of Jackson County are also considered a hotbed for turkey hunting because of good bird populations and a bevy of public lands. The Rogue Valley Chapter of the Oregon Hunters Association netted about $46,000 in its Feb. 5 fund-raising banquet and auction in Medford. The banquet, which drew 375 guests, is the chapter's largest single fund-raiser for the year. The chapter is also the largest in the Medford-based OHA, which represents about 7,000 hunters throughout Oregon. The banquet's profits will be used for habitat and other projects in Oregon that benefit the state's wildlife as well as sportsmen, chapter members say. The vast majority of the money will go toward projects in Southern Oregon, members add. The OHA's statewide convention is scheduled for May 20 in Portland, and the group is currently selling ticket packages that cost $50, $100 or $200. Ticket packages must be ordered and prepaid by May 10, and those who order their packages by April 20 will qualify for tickets to the special "Early Bird" raffle. For more information on ticket packages for the statewide convention, telephone 772-7313. Rules governing deer and elk ranching in Oregon and approval of another round of Access and Habitat Program grants highlight Friday's agenda for the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission's trip to the mouth of the Umpqua River. The seven-member commission, which normally meets in Portland, will travel to Reedsport for Friday's meeting. The agency regularly travels away from its Portland headquarters to conduct its business in rural Oregon as a way to reach out to areas throughout the state. Friday's meeting will be at the Reedsport City Council Chambers, 451 Winchester Ave. It begins at 8 a.m. The commission is scheduled to review and adopt amendments to Oregon laws surrounding when, where and how ranchers can hold and breed cervids such as deer and elk. The new rule proposals involve fencing requirements, record-keeping and the marking of animals. The commission sets restrictions on private cervid holdings in an effort to keep them from intermingling with wild deer and elk populations. The penned animals are considered exotics. SCOTT BAR, Calif . -- Federal fishery biologists have installed a large fish trap in the middle of the Scott River this week to help researchers better understand the salmon and steelhead populations that call the river home. Biologists from the Klamath National Forest are warning kayakers, rafters and other river-users to keep an eye out for the 8-foot fish trap that is placed in the middle of the river near the mouth of Pat Ford Creek. The trap is considered highly visible from a distance, giving river users plenty of time to navigate around the device. Biologists and their technicians will use the trap to count and study the young steelhead, coho and chinook salmon in the Scott River. The trap will capture live migrating juveniles, which will be studied to determine their age, health and life-history characteristics before the fish are released unharmed. Oregon uses many similar traps, often called "screw traps," in spawning tributaries for the same types of inventory studies. The trap is held in the river by suspended cables. It is expected to remain in place into the early fall, when it likely will be removed before the high-water season. (Staff writer Mark Freeman covers the outdoors for the Mail Tribune. Call him at 776-4470 or e-mail him at [email protected] ) Outdoor Journal Today's Edition : News | Sports | Business | Weather | Tempo | Classifieds Mail Tribune Mail Tribune � 2000 -- Medford, Oregon USA