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Game bird workshops slated By MARK FREEMAN CENTRAL POINT -- A state poultry expert will come to the Rogue Valley in late May to help interested people turn their rural backyards into havens for raising game birds and waterfowl. Jim Hermes, a poultry specialist for the Oregon State University Extension Service, will hold a series of workshops on raising game birds and waterfowl for food, release into the wild or just plain fun. The workshops are free and there is no cap on participants, but Extension Service employees would like people to pre-register. The workshops -- one in Jackson County and one in Josephine County -- will teach the basics on raising game birds and waterfowl on small farms. The course includes such game birds as pheasant, quail, chukar, partridge, guineas and pigeons. "Many people are interested in raising birds like pheasant and quail to release into the wild," Hermes says. "Others are interested in game birds for food." For instance, white Chinese geese have been used as weeders, and some farmers employ a flock of ducks to control slugs. Ducks and geese are also domesticated for egg production, while even some geese and guineas as placed on small farms for their "watch dog" characteristics, Hermes says. The workshops will he May 25 at the OSU Extension Auditorium, at 215 Ringuette St., Grants Pass. It will be repeated May 26 at the OSU Extension Auditorium, 569 Hanley Road, Central Point. Both workshops begin at 7 p.m. For more information and registration, telephone Diane Calvert at (541) 476-6613. Hunters wanting a shot at one of Oregon's premier bull elk or buck deer hunts have until Wednesday evening to buy raffle tickets that give them the chance. Wednesday is the deadline for buying tickets for the Oregon Access and Habitat Board's 1999 deer and elk raffle hunts. Ticket packages range from $3 apiece to $100 for 40 and are available through the point-of-sale computer-licensing outlets that sell licenses and tags for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. The Access and Habitat raffle tickets include chances to be one of two hunters to stalk mule deer with rifles in the Hart Mountain National Antelope Refuge in more than 30 years. The raffle winner will join a Santa Barbara, Calif., hunter who bought a similar tag at auction last winter for $28,000. Other raffle hunts include deer hunts in Western Oregon, Northeast Oregon, Southeast Oregon, and Central Oregon. For elk, raffle tags will go for Northeast Oregon, Southeast Oregon, Central Oregon, Western Oregon and statewide. In each case, raffle winners will have the opportunity to hunt over a three-month period in the regional hunting boundaries covered by their particular tag. Any legal weapon may be used to fill the raffle tags. Hunts will run Sept. 1 through Nov. 30. One bighorn sheep tag will also be raffled, with the winner receiving a tag valid for any authorized hunt area. The raffle tag, however, will allow hunting Aug. 16 through Oct. 25. The sheep raffle tickets are $10 apiece, six for $50 or 13 for $100. All winning tickets will be drawn during the 16th annual statewide convention of the Oregon Hunters Association, set for May 15 in Bend. Proceeds from the deer and elk raffle hunts will be used by the Access and Habitat Program to fund wildlife habitat and hunter-access projects throughout Oregon. Money raised from the bighorn sheep raffle will be used specifically for bighorn sheep management, including future trapping and transplanting, disease research, habitat improvement and monitoring of animals. For more information on the raffle tags, telephone Beth Waterbury at (503) 872-5260, Ext. 5349. A new group has formed in Oregon to help enhance the state's wild sheep populations. The new Oregon Chapter of the Foundation for North American Wild Sheep will continue efforts in Eastern Oregon to see the bighorn sheep populations re-establish here and expand to as much usable habitat as possible. The chapter will hold its next meeting May 15 in Bend in conjunction with the Oregon Hunters Association statewide convention. Anyone interested in joining the chapter should telephone Jane Hunts in Trail at 878-2374. Oregon's populations of California and Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep were decimated by hunting, habitat loss and disease during the first half of this century. But groups like FNAWS helped raise money and change policies that got the California bighorns reintroduced in Oregon in 1954. Reintroduction of the Rocky Mountain subspecies first occurred in 1971. The state currently estimates its California bighorn population at 2,500, and the Rocky Mountain bighorn population at 600. Chapter leaders hope to play a major role in fund-raising and assisting government agencies as well as private parties in the continued restoration. Outdoor Journal main page Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA