Hunters and landowners have less than one week to reserve a seat in the Covington County Extension System’s Wildlife Expo next Thursday.

Chuck Simon, coordinator of the Covington County Extension Office, said the program will be beneficial to all hunters, but especially beneficial to landowners.

“This will benefit a lot of landowners who would like to hunt on their own property,” Simon said. “Also wild ferrel hogs are becoming more and more prevalent in the area. We will have a guest speaker who will talk about all the information one needs to know about hunting wild ferrel hogs.”

Registration, which is $30, will open at 8 a.m., opening comments will take place at 8:45 a.m. and the first session will begin at 9 a.m.

Simon said that pre-registration ended Wed., Sept. 10, but interested individuals are still welcome to attend the expo.

“A lot of people would rather just wait until closer to the event to make sure they will be able to attend,” Simon said. “We will take people as long as we have room to seat them.

“If they are going to come, then I would like them to let us know so that we can have an idea of what to expect,” he added. “We have room enough to seat 80 people comfortably at the lecture room in the [Solon Dixon Forestry Education Center].”

Simon said an accurate head count will also allow him to ensure an adequate amount of snacks, which are sponsored by the Covington County Forestry Planning Committee, to be available for the attendees.

“We really look forward to have a good crowd for the program,” he said. “We have already received a good number of registrations and I look to seen even more the day of the event. We typically have between 60-80 people.”

Sessions scheduled for the Wildlife Expo include:

Food plot preparation and seed blends with Rick Williams at 9 a.m.

Field judging and how to score whitetail deer with Arlo Kane of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission at 9:30 a.m., followed by a small break at 10 a.m.

Chris Cook of Alabama Game and Fish will present a program at 10:30 a.m.

Results of quality deer management program will be presented at 11:15 a.m., followed by a lunch break at noon.

A representative from the Alabama Game Warden department will present a session on hunting regulations for the state at 1 p.m.

Mark Hainds will deliver a presentation on hog damage, hunting and trapping at 1:30 p.m.

Solon Dixon Forestry Center director Joel Martin will hold a session about managing native vegetation for wildlife at 2:15 p.m along with a presentation on food plot preparation at 3 p.m.

For more information, contact Chuck Simon at 222-1125 or Joel Martin at 222-7779.