There’s the potential to lose a bunch of acres of habitat but there isnt the potential to add much……Again, show me these acres that we are going to convert over to turkey habitat. How many thousands are there?? At best it’s a minor drop in the bucket overall. You could make the season start on March 1 with an unlimited bag limit and the habitat would change very little. Its just wishful thinking that sounds good on paper.

stick to dog tracking and composting please

We could convert 335,488 acres of land over to turkey habitat over the next 10 years and we would be impacting a grand total of 1% of Alabama’s land area……….What 335,488 acres do we convert?? What about a million to get us up to impacting 3%.......Sure, there’s a little bit of additional land that is waiting to be burned but you’re not making any wholesale changes by adding a bird to the bag limit……You only have the real potential to negatively impact things by continuing to take them away…..Creating a trapping incentive actually has the potential to make changes in every county in the state next year.

True.




Too many damn rules as it is in most clubs. SSS. Social media is part of our existing problems.

>>>Thanks for the invite. But got to coach soccer tomorrow morning and evening.<<<

I understand, holler at me any time.

The only way I see that you could make any significant change to the habitat on a landscape level is to change the way we raise cattle……

CNC, I think you are underestimating the potential for turkey habitat improvement. The timber company land that is managed for nothing except timber production is never likely to produce a whole lot of turkeys, but the majority of the land in AL is still owned by private individuals, and very few of them are really managing for turkeys. I believe that it's enough land to make a real difference in the overall turkey population.

I've seen the results on our land in Perry county, but I've also seen it happen in other places. I have posted here before about how much the turkey population has increased the past few years around my house in Coosa, and it's not happening because of anything I've done. It's mostly due to a neighbor who bought 80 acres and has managed it well. He's burned it twice in 3 years and that one small practice made a drastic difference in the turkeys.

I could list you 25 names of aldeer members who own several hundred to several thousand acres and are interested in improving their turkey habitat. One of the biggest reasons I hang around here is to learn about new things to try. One thing I will mention is the Central Alabama Prescribed Burn Association. They just got started up and already have 70 members and want to get to 200 before August. Their primary goal is to help small landowners burn their land. Check them out:

https://alabamapba.org/

I'm afraid our entire discussion is a moot point. The dcnr is not going back to the old system, and I don't believe that they will be willing to pit coon hunters against turkey hunters with a coon bounty. You probably don't remember the CAB meetings from the early 80s with the trappers vs the coon hunters, but those were some contentious meetings.

Well, I will do my best to get my 20 coons if you get this done, but I would have to scramble for them. I don't feed corn and I don't think I have 20 coons on the place. The last time I trapped I only got 5 or 6. So I will be in the market to buy some coon tails.

Gotta make coon hunting cool again.

We had a trickle of a coolness factor a few years ago but the kids didn’t have anywhere to hunt. Thy were riding around with their dogs name on their back window representing and all. Big siganage and artwork.
Just like that it was gone. A few of them remain, very few.

Honestly I was surprised who some of those guys were. Never hunter anything in their lives till they got some coon dogs. But it was fleeting when they ran out of land to hunt.

Carter, do Coon hunters actually kill coons?

I doubt it will ever be formally acknowledged but lets not forget the fact that legalized baiting has very likely helped to inflate coon populations. If a trapping incentive were created, at least a portion of what would be taken out would simply be offsetting some of that population growth.

I think its probably worth pointing out as well that these things are not either/or choices when its comes to trapping and habitat management……There is nothing about creating a trapping incentive that prevents habitat creation from occurring just the same.

It would be nice if it was as simple as habitat and trapping, but it ain’t always that simple. I’ve talked to several folks that have been managing for turkeys for years and are seeing a decline in their population.

The obvious answer is to limit hunting enjoyment to a bare minimum with as many restrictions as governmentally possible. It’s worked so well in other places. Actually, most TRUE conservatives and hunters that LOVE wild turkey - should stop hunting them altogether. This is obviously a very fragile species with NO ability to adapt to changes around them. I fully expect them to be extinct at some point in my lifetime.

I imagine quail hunters thought the same 30 years ago.

One of our biggest issues is that we suck at adapting to change over time.......

Nah ,,,,, some busy some lazy . You wanna clean out a few coons and possums go squirrel hunting while they are out . Put a 22 thru ever nest you can find .

You hit one ,, give it a few if he sticks his over the side headshots him and he'll flop out of the nest

How many I don’t know of but yea they like to shootem out of the tree for the dogs to get. Keeps the dogs fired up. At least the videos I’ve seen from the guys

Most I ever hunted with didn’t shoot the coons.

How many coon hunters are there in Alabama???......How much of a "footprint" do they have when it comes to land use across the state??.......I dont know of many hunting clubs that allow coon hunting......It would have to be a fraction of the land that gets deer and turkey hunted.

[quote=CNC]The only way I see that you could make any significant change to the habitat on a landscape level is to change the way we raise cattle……

What do you think we should change when it comes to raising cattle? Just curious, I think these conversations are the right ones to be having. It’s all about having the best nesting ground from what I’ve ever seen. The gobblers are gonna be where the hens are at, like a revolving door for the most part. The big timber company tracts that never burn and only spray are the tracts are where I never see turkeys. If you’re stepping on a 10” deep mat of pine needles it isn’t where you wanna be from my experience. A lot has changed around here over the last decade or so, we don’t plant chufas here anymore because all it has done here recently is concentrate the hogs on a place. The key to killing/seeing/hearing turkeys is always have another place to hunt. You can never have too much turkey land. I have tracts that I used to limit on 15 years ago but they aren’t in the right cycle now, they will have birds again when it’s right though. I’ve hunted a tract before where I hadn’t seen a bird in 6 years have a tornado run through it and all of a sudden it’s an absolute zoo