Oklahoma’s Wildlife Expo has been Cancelled Indefinitely

As the seasons turn in Oklahoma, it's only natural that people make the effort to get out and enjoy our sportsmans paradise of a state. With more manmade lakes than anywhere else in the country stocked full of fierce fighting game fish, fishing is naturally the #1 outdoor activity here.

As such, this is the time of year that the annual events start popping up to get you back out on the water. Fish and tackle shows, outdoor leisure shows and the like, it all culminates to the last and best of the year, the Oklahoma Wildlife Expo which normally takes place in Fall.

After three years of covid-related caution, the decision has been made to permanently cancel this annual event indefinitely.

If you can remember 2020, seems longer ago than just three years, there was so much uncertainty in the air due to politics and the media. It shut down an entire country, and even though we tried time and time again to get back to normal, the list of casualties is still growing.

Since I'm a lover of our Oklahoma outdoors and fish and tackle shows, I make it a habit to check in on the events from time to time. When I visited the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservations Wildlife Expo page this time around, this is the message that was posted:

After months of thoughtful deliberation which included gathering input from across the organization and our stakeholders, reviewing budget constraints and numerous other factors, the Wildlife Department decided the Wildlife Expo is canceled indefinitely.

In due diligence, I reached out to the ODWC to get clarification on this... perhaps this was a pandemic-specific message and nobody has updated the site yet... but unfortunately it's true.

Time will tell if the state will reinvest in a similar event in the future, but for now, the annual Wildlife Expo will remain a thing of the past.