Washington Tourism Development Authority Board of Directors voted last week to return to its former supportive role in the East Carolina Wildlife Festival.

For the past three years, WTDA has organized the weekend-long festival that draws crowds from across North Carolina and neighboring states.

“The board agreed that our leadership for the past three years had run its course for the East Carolina Wildlife Festival, due to time constraints. However, we are fully supportive of the event and are eager to work with the Wildlife Guild or any other group that wishes to continue the show for the future,” said Lynn Wingate, executive director of WTDA.

Wingate said the festival has become a signature Washington event over the past two decades, but one WTDA does not have the resources, in staff or time, to continue organizing.

“We were spending about a quarter of our time of the year on one weekend,” Wingate said. “Our mission is to market and promote Washington 365 days a year.

In looking at our mission, that’s how we determined that perhaps our leadership in the show was not the best use of our time and the best focus of our mission.”

Wingate said WTDA will gladly support another organization, or a community-based group of volunteers, taking up the reins should the East Carolina Wildlife Guild decide not to do so.

Ownership of the festival belongs to the Wildlife Guild, and for its first 17 years, Wildlife Guild members David and Sandra Gossett organized the event that features artists, vendors, demonstrations, waterfowl calling contests and the North Carolina Decoy Carving Championship and goes hand-in-hand with North Carolina Waterfowl Conservation Stamp contest — an art competition that draws submissions from across the U.S. The Wildlife Guild has always managed the decoy carving aspect of the weekend, and it assumed organization of the entire festival in 2013 before WTDA took it over in 2014.

“The Wildlife Festival is a wonderful event for many reasons,” Wingate said, adding that it’s a true celebration of the area’s wildlife heritage because of its broad scope. “It also brings people to Washington at a slow time of year, so our restaurants get a boost; we see people up and down Main Street; the (North Carolina) Estuarium gets a boost. … There are some wonderful elements to the show that we would certainly love to see continue because they’re good for the town.”

Wingate said WTDA chose to make their announcement now to ensure that next year’s organizers can get a head start. Prior to 2014, WTDA played a supportive role in the Wildlife Festival and it’s to that role that the agency hopes to return.