# NWTF Regional Director indicted



## Hamilton Reef (Jan 20, 2000)

http://www.cleveland.com/outdoors/index.ssf/2008/12/young_deer_bottled_up_in_parma.html

NWTF's Ingram indicted: National Wild Turkey Federation regional director Walt Ingram, 48, of Washington Courthouse, was indicted by a Fayette County grand jury for taking $72,951 in NWTF funds between January, 2004 and May, 2008. According to a report in Ohio Outdoor News, Ingram plead not guilty at a Dec. 8 arraignment and will be in court for a pre-trial hearing March 18. The $72,951 has been returned to the NWTF. 

The NWTF has 14,500 members in Ohio. Ingram, who had been a regional director and regional field supervisor in southern Ohio for 17 years, resigning June 22.


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## Barry (Sep 19, 2001)

Sounds like he's a turkey and someone else is an ostrich.


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## Linda G. (Mar 28, 2002)

Hadn't seen him in many years, but I doubt he's changed. That "region" included all of Michigan. Ingram spent many hours of wasted effort trying to bring many of us feeding the turkeys here in northern Michigan "into the fold"...if we had, we wouldn't have a wild turkey left in northern Michigan.

Ya gotta wonder if this is part of the big national shake-up that took place last spring.


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## Linda G. (Mar 28, 2002)

"The charges against Ingram stemmed from a probe that began with the NWTF on the national level regarding the inappropriate handling of funds, Burcham said."

http://www.ohiooutdoornews.com/articles/2008/12/25/top_news/news03.txt


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## wyle_e_coyote (Aug 13, 2004)

Linda G. said:


> Hadn't seen him in many years, but I doubt he's changed. That "region" included all of Michigan. Ingram spent many hours of wasted effort trying to bring many of us feeding the turkeys here in northern Michigan "into the fold"...if we had, we wouldn't have a wild turkey left in northern Michigan.


 
Glad he got caught, and I'm glad for the entire shake up. All of the mojor National organizations need to have a little shake up, IMO. You can bet anytime you have that amount of money going through any group that there will be some sort of greedy dirt bag to try and pocket some. I'll bet it happens in DU, PF, NRA, SI...ect. Just in those groups no one has been caught yet. That being said, I refuse to believe that he had any intent on stopping the spread of wild turkey in Northen Michigan, Linda. 
I understand your hate for the NWTF, Linda, and I even argee with some of the things you've stated on these boards about them, but lets not forget they were a major force behind the repopulation of the wild turkey nation wide. Everyone needs to belong to atleast one national hunting oringization, becuase they are the ones lobbying in Washington. 
Local groups feed and build habitat...national groups fight for our rights in government. Nothing wrong with supporting both types.


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## Linda G. (Mar 28, 2002)

You completely misunderstood what I wrote. 

I do not hate the NWTF, or any of the people in it...many of whom I knew very well. Nor does anyone else I know in MWTHA think badly of the people we knew, and still know, in that organization. It's just sad that so much money, far more than we'll probably ever know about, has been wasted for someone's personal gain. 

The MWTHA was born of the NWTF, which we were an integral part of for many years. In fact, the Pere Marquette Chapter of MWTHA started out as the Pere Marquette Chapter of the NWTF...and the FIRST chapter of NWTF in the state of Michigan. 

So yes, we do owe the NWTF a great deal. But don't credit them for the initial stocking of wild turkeys in this state, that came several years before anyone had ever heard of the NWTF in this state, and it came solely through the Michigan DNR. The NWTF may like to take the credit for promoting the wild turkey stockings that brought us our current populations, but truth is the NWTF owes its start, even on a national basis, to the stockings, not the other way around. 

And if we, as a group of northern Michigan chapters, had caved in to their constant demands over many years that ALL of our income from our workshops and raffles, which were our ONLY fundraisers, go to the national coffers, we would not have a wild turkey in northern Michigan today. 

With the NWTF, it was never about the turkeys...it was about banquets, and fundraising, fundraising, fundraising. I attended hundreds of meetings all over the country over the years, as well as conventions, where turkeys were never even talked about. Just fundraising...which was elevated to an almost frightening sort of "religious" level. It was scary to see so many people sucked in by that kind of propaganda. I sure hope it's not like that any more, but as of last year, it still was. Just go to a convention and watch.

TRUTH. We remained a part of the group for as long as we could, we quit only when they said if we didn't, we would have our charter removed. We got tired of the attempted blackmail.


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