State wildlife biologists, an Eagle Point ranching family and two local hunting organizations have teamed up to offer private, guided turkey-hunting trips next month for six lucky local kids who win free drawings, including a drawing tonight in Medford.

The Kuyper family is offering three kids ages 17 and under a chance to hunt toms on their Eagle Point-area ranch this spring, beginning with the annual Spring Youth Turkey Hunt, which runs April 11-12.

The hunts will continue through the start of the general season, which begins April 15 and runs through May.

Winners will be guided by Rusty Kuyper, the 46-year-old landowner whose donation of similar hunts last year resulted in four out of seven kids bagging birds.

"It was a lot of fun," says Kuyper, whose family won the Citizen Landowner of the Year from the Oregon Hunters Association because of that effort.

"Everybody had an opportunity and everybody saw birds, so I think it was pretty successful," Kuyper says.

Two of the spots were set Saturday during a drawing by the local National Wild Turkey Federation chapter in Medford. One more will go to a teenager tapped April 18 by the OHA's Lakeview Chapter, Kuyper says.

The remaining three spots will be drawn tonight at the regular meeting of the OHA's Rogue Valley Chapter in Medford.

To enter the drawing, telephone the ODFW's Denman Wildlife Area office at 826-8774 before the end of the business day today.

Vince Oredson, a wildlife biologist for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, will draw the winning names. Winners do not have to be present, and will be contacted by telephone with information to set up their hunts.

The donated hunts are part of a collage of new opportunities Oregonians are providing would-be hunting teens in an effort to draw them into the sport.

After decades of declining participation in Oregon, hunter numbers have stabilized, and slightly increased recently, statewide. Locally, more new faces are showing up in hunter-education courses and field days targeting teens, Oredson says.

"All these added opportunities out there, I think, are helping," Oredson says.

After the drawing, Oredson will offer a presentation on the history of wild-turkey hunting in Southern Oregon.

Tonight's meeting begins with a social hour at 6 p.m., with the general meeting and presentation scheduled to begin at 7 p.m.

The chapter meets the second Thursday of every month at Bud and Mary's, which is in the lower level of the Elk's Lodge near the intersection of Central Avenue and Fifth Street in downtown Medford.