A free lifetime Alabama hunting license is up for grabs for deer hunters in Alabama’s Black Belt this season as they head into the woods for the opening of gun season on Saturday.

The prize for the winner of the Alabama Black Belt Adventures Association’s sixth Big Buck Photo Contest is a Lifetime Alabama Wildlife Heritage License, valued at more than $200.

The winner is selected based on the number of “likes” of photos shared with the ALBBAA and posted on its Facebook page.

This license allows the holder to hunt all small game – except waterfowl – on any of Alabama’s 35 Wildlife Management Areas, Waterfowl Refuges and Community Hunting Areas; shoot on any of the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources’ 13 public shooting ranges or archery parks; fish at any of the 20 state-owned public fishing lakes (with a daily permit); and freshwater fish with a hook-and-line from the bank in public waters in all 67 counties.

Wildlife Heritage Licenses are only available to Alabama residents and the money from the purchase is matched at a 3-to-1 level by the federal government with the funds going toward conservation efforts in the state.

For more information on the Wildlife Heritage License, visit outdooralabama.com/wildlife-heritage-license. “With the opening of gun season on Saturday, we can’t wait to see some of the excited faces of the hunters in the Black Belt in their trophy photos,” said Pam Swanner, executive director of the Alabama Black Belt Adventures Association. “We usually get a lot of entries from young people and it’s wonderful to see our great hunting tradition being carried forward and passed down from generation to generation. Teens have won our contest the past two seasons!”

To enter, photos must be emailed to photocontest@albbaa.org and the deer must be taken in one of the 23 Black Belt counties during the 2017-18 season. The contest ends on Feb. 14, 2018.

Winners of the 2015-16 and 2016-17 Big Buck Photo Contest are ineligible. The Black Belt includes the following counties: Barbour, Bullock, Butler, Choctaw, Clarke, Conecuh, Crenshaw, Dallas, Greene, Hale, Lee, Lowndes, Macon, Marengo, Monroe, Montgomery, Perry, Pickens, Pike, Russell, Sumter, Tuscaloosa and Wilcox.