PHOENIX, Az. — A longtime conservation leader in West Virginia has been recognized for his contributions to improving the outdoors in West Virginia by the Pope and Young Club of America.
Kenny Wilson of Chapmanville was recently awarded the organization’s coveted “Conservation Award” during the club’s Biennial Convention in Arizona.
“This award recognizes achievement by a person or organization in the promotion of the future of bowhunting and hunting, the image of bowhunting and hunting, and the conservation and wise use of our natural resources,” read a press release from Pope and Young about the award.
Wilson, a decorated veteran who served in Vietnam as a dog handler, first joined Pope and Young in 1990 and became a regular member in 2007.
Wilson helped the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources get the Hunters Helping the Hungry Program started in 1995. In 2003 he served on a committee to establish the National Archery in Schools Program in West Virginia. The program is now in 350 schools in the Mountain State and has reached 65,000 students with archery education.
During 2004 Wilson helped to restore Buffalo Creek in Logan County back into a viable trout stream. The creek is the site of the infamous 1972 coal dam collapse which killed 125 people. Today it’s annually stocked with trout to provide fishing opportunities to anglers living in southern West Virginia.
From 2014 to 2016, Wilson was instrumental in helping coordinate the acquisition of 44,000 acres of land for a pair of wildlife management areas in southern West Virginia to provide land for the West Virginia Elk Reintroduction program. He was part of the team which helped trap and transfer the first elk back into the Mountain State in 100 years in 2016 from the Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area near Cadiz, Ky.
“Anytime anyone gets an award they’ve always had a lot of outstanding help to get things done. Over the years, I’ve had a lot of DNR staff to help and mentor me,” Wilson said.
Wilson has been a leader in West Virginia’s outdoors for many years. He was elected President of the West Virginia Bowhunters Association and served in the role for four years in 1998. In 2002 he was elected President of the West Virginia Wildlife Federation. He served for a year before he was nominated to the West Virginia Natural Resources Commission in 2003 and served on the Commission for 18 years.
“I served with come great Commissioners over the years like Carl Gainer, Mr. Homan, Jeff Bowers, Byron Chambers, and Dave Milne. I can’t say enough about the DNR staff who are truly professionals and it’s been a wonderful journey with them,” Wilson added.
He also deflected credit for a lot of the projects to past DNR Directors like Ed Hamrick who helped bring Archery in Schools to West Virginia and Frank Jezioro, and Bob Fala.
“I’m really proud of that Archery in Schools program. I worked Frank Jezioro to create the Senior Lifetime License. On the elk reintroduction program and the acquisition of land for the Tomblin WMA. Bob Fala and I shared a journey together on that program and without him none of it would have happened,” said Wilson.
Wilson was awarded the Elk Country Partnership Award in 2017 by the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation for the work to bring back elk to the Mountain State.
Wilson is also a certified bowhunter education instructor and a member of the West Virginia Whitetail Hall of Fame and West Virginia Bowhunters Hall of Fame.
Pope and Young is the National Repository for recording 29 North American big game species taken by bow and arrow.