In 1972 there were an estimated 2,000 wild turkeys in North Carolina. Now there are about 130,000. That’s attributed to the efforts of the National Wild Turkey Federation (NWTF), which is a group of hunters who work with wildlife associations to bring wild turkeys back to North Carolina.

It’s also the group behind a curious event Saturday, when turkey callers from up and down the East Coast came to participate in the North Carolina Chapter of the NWTF Turkey Calling Contest on Saturday at the Andy Griffith Playhouse.

Perry Bryant, who is the vice president of the North Carolina chapter, and a resident of Pilot Mountain, got to decide where the competition would be held this year, which resulted in turkey calling experts flocking to the area for a chance to qualify to compete in the national championship competition in Nashville, Tenn. next month.

Martha Hope Smith, who served as a volunteer at the event, is a lifetime member of the NWTF. She is not a hunter, but her husband, Larry, is one.

“My whole family is involved in it (NWTF) because of the conservation aspect of it,” Smith said.

“This contest is extremely important — they are here from Pennsylvania to Florida — because it is one of the last opportunities for them to compete before the national competition. You have to win at a state level before you compete nationally. And if you win there, you get to be on the David Letterman show,” she laughed. “Every year after the convention you will see the winner on TV doing their turkey calling.”

The competition Saturday included a number of different categories.

“Some people use mouth calls. Some people use box calls. Some people use slate calls, which are made out of slate or glass. Some people only use their mouth and they can manage to sound like a turkey, but most people need a little extra help,” Smith said.

The wild turkey has been part of America, and important to Americans, almost since the first European settlers arrived on its shores. Benjamin Franklin wanted to make the wild turkey the national bird of the United States.

“It was because our country was founded with a lot of help from the wild turkey. It fed and took care of a lot of people who lived here. If you think about it, if the wild turkey can live here happily and thrive, then so can we. And when we benefit the wild turkey, we also benefit all other animals living in the same area. Conservation of the wild turkey is really conservation for all of us,” Smith said.

“The hunters realized that if there weren’t any turkeys to hunt, there would be no more wild turkeys period. So they invested many thousands of dollars bringing birds in from other states where there were in abundance.”

Smith explained that Wayne Bailey, who was a pioneer of wild turkey restoration in this country as well as one of the founding fathers of the National Wild Turkey Federation, developed a theory that wild turkeys should only be hunted in the spring after they had mated. And that only gobblers (the males) should only be hunted.

“That’s what brought it back to where we are today,” Smith said.

She said turkey calling, as a sport, or art form, came to be as a way to bring attention to the group because of the competition.

To an outsider, the turkey calling competition may seem a bit odd in that the men doing the calling either sit in a chair or stand facing the curtain on the stage, with their back to the audience. Smith said the callers do that for two reasons. First, the judges are on the other side of the curtain, hidden so they can’t see who is doing the calling. Second, when a hunter is in the woods calling for turkeys, he is all alone. An audience full of people is quite different from being alone in the woods.

“They make sounds like the hen, and the gobblers come,” Smith explained. “It is also illegal to hunt female turkeys.”

She said the NWTF is family oriented.

“Many of the youngsters get into this because someone in their family was already doing it. The young people can win scholarships to go to college. It really is a family operation, where all members of the family are welcome.”

The organization now includes groups such as Women in the Outdoors and Wheeling Sportsman, which is not only for those who are wheelchair bound, but for those who are handicapped that want to get outside to enjoy nature. The organization also has a group called the JAKES, which stands for Juniors Acquiring Knowledge, Ethics and Sportsmanship, and also named for the jake, or teenage turkey, Smith said. “So that is a fitting name for that youth program.”

The NWTF has chapters in every state in the United States, as well as in Canada, Mexico, and elsewhere.

“The big reason that everybody is here today is to give everyone the opportunity to be able to compete in Nashville,” Smith said.

Contact Mondee Tilley at mtilley@mtairynews.com or at 719-1930.