Bentonville-based SABO Outdoors has announced a conservation partnership with Turkeys for Tomorrow, a nonprofit dedicated to protecting wild turkey populations.
The partnership has produced an app that encourages landowners to collect data and record sightings of wild game being harvested on their property. According to a press release, SABO’s mission is to help rural landowners “keep their property wild” by helping them set up short-term leases with those looking to hunt, fish, hike, bike, camp and explore.
“A big piece of what we’re trying to do at SABO is provide an opportunity for landowners to generate revenue on their land without developing it,” said Taylor Cassat, SABO’s co-founder. He added that he founded the firm with Justin Neal, a fellow veteran of U.S. military special forces, as a way to continue their own lifetimes of service to their country.
“We’re providing an opportunity to generate income, cover your property taxes and more so as not to feel pressured by a developer’s offer,” Cassat said. “Once your land is developed, it’s developed, and you’re never getting it back. We’re helping landowners keep it raw and wild, helping both landowners and their customers preserve habitats, and doing wildlife data collection to aid conservation.”
Neal said that’s where the partnership with Turkeys For Tomorrow comes in.
“We’re working with wildlife biologists to make sure we don’t have a negative impact on wildlife populations on private land,” he said. “Part of that is encouraging customers and landowners to collect data and note sightings regardless of the game being harvested. When the app’s users report what was seen in any situation, it creates an opportunity to provide much better and more accurate data for science since the sightings will be tied to each geolocation. Having precise locations of animals, not just within a county, but within a precise radius, will supply data far more precise than what wildlife agencies are currently receiving.”
The SABO app is available at SABO Outdoors, the Apple store and Google Play.
“This partnership is about advancing our common mission,” said Jason Lupardus, director of business operations for TFT. “We’re working to save wild turkeys through sustainable, scientific solutions. The guys at SABO are striving for the same goal, so we were already on the same team.”
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