Turkey Season delayed 10 days on WMA's

Posted on the DCNR's Facebook page this morning...and not adding them to end of season, just shortening it by 22%...

Probably looking for justification to shorten or delay the season for the whole state.

I agree "delayed" 10 days to me means it should be the same length of season. Atleast have some balls and say the first 10'days are canceled.

That's old news.

Really? The post was from like 930 this morning.

I saw it several days ago. A buddy and I were joking about all the people who may get a surprise on “opening “ day. CD.

Yep. The maps have been out a long time. The rules are on the back of the map. That's why you're supposed to sign the map.

Post the link

http://www.aldeer.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=2403121#Post2403121

Given the serious issues with declining populations here and the Southeast, reducing the bag limit to three, mandatory tagging on the birds (create your own tag) and reporting via GameCheck, and shortening the season by 10 days wouldn't bother me a bit.

THREE BIRD LIMIT?? WTH ya talking bout boy?????

Clem, what are some of the factors you think are responsible for the decline?

Is this a factual research based biological plan? Can you post a link?

The percentage of hunters that shoot birds 4 and 5 has to be really low as is. If they were to lower the limit most would just take others hunting once they hit 3, making the drop pointless.

The ones that just shoot 3 are more than made up for by the killers who shoot 8 or 9. Just saying. Limits only apply to honest hunters anyway.

Honest turkey hunters. That got to be an oxymoron.

So what exactly are you trying to say here?

Lol

There's no such thing.

Some kind of avian disease.
Some kind of pesticide or combo of them.
Cyclical reproduction and recruitment (getting poults to age 2+)
Predation on poults in down cycle periods - partly due to a decline in trapping and predator hunting in general (raccoons, bobcats, possums, hogs, coyotes)
The people who kill 8 or 9 birds in a season in their state (over the limit)

Possibly a combination of all of those, or combo of some of them.

We've had posts/threads in this forum with good turkey hunters talking about how they're not seeing birds. Not that they're not having bad seasons, but legitimately not seeing and hearing as many birds as in the past. State biologists in the Southeast have been discussing and looking at this for several years and, to my knowledge, cannot pinpoint one specific problem as "Yep, that seems to be it."

Perhaps it's just a long-term cycle. Dunno. But something's going on.

I had lunch today with a friend from Arkansas who said they're seeing similar issues there. Still killing birds but a lot of hunters are puzzled at what they believe is a problem, and it's perplexing.

Additionally, doing what the DCNR is doing with this reduction on WMAs is better IMO than a blanket deal statewide. They control the WMAs and can use the data and info from them as a gauge of what's going on.

We say that about deer, right? "Do this on WMAs but not on my land." So, that's what they're doing.

Sucks for the public land guy, though, and I get that.

Do you think chicken litter has had an impact?

Uh yeah.

Preacher!!!! Hit him with the Chicken Mafia info

Forgot about the litter, but yeah, that might be a factor.

All the GMO CORN probably does, too.

So..........you bust the door open with - Limit to 3 and shorten the season!!

But now, you are not so sure. And nothing in that list, absolutely nothing, has any relation to a limit on male turkey for the honest man.

Yallcan blame litter but you're swinging to miss. Not saying there's not small cases of bad piles but not every pile of litter is bad. I'd say 95% are clean.

Perhaps that's why the 5-bird limit hasn't changed, turkey247.

But something's going on that is impacting the turkey populations in the Southeast.

Yea it's called the nwtf. Introduced too damn many Yahoo!'S to a secret society. That's the root of the problem.

Hahahaha. Probably right.

But then again I don't turkey hunt so really doesn't matter to me. Damn foolin things get in our way planting corn and peanuts. Told our tractor drivers to keep an unplugged 870 with bird shot on their tractors. They can stop in mid field and shoot 6 at a time and then keep on planting. Turn around at the end rows and do it all over again on the next pass. Damn seed eaters all they are.

Those 10 closed days gives me about 100,000 acres all to myself it looks like.

This is my first year in many that I did not see or hear a turkey during deer season! See where that have been and have some pics but have not laid eyes on one in last few months!

This is the best way to approach it. Silver linings.

Man you just need Whild_Bill to come show you the ropes

While it's very unpopular, most chicken houses are contaminated with blackhead and it really can't be helping anything with turkey populations.

http://www.thepoultrysite.com/articles/1285/control-of-blackhead-disease/

Found one thread and bumped it to the top

I’m all about helping the population in doing smart solutions to do so, but in the middle of April last year I came across areas where they did controlled burns. Some guys that I ran into said they came up on nests that were burnt up. They can say shorten the season or do whatever but one big problem is that they hurting the population more by burning the nests up. Controlled burns are a great thing and a lot of times that is some of the best hunting, but do it before the hen’s start laying.

I don’t know what’s going on, but the places I used to almost always be able to fool with a bird at Skyline, you’re lucky to hear one now. Something happened to ‘em. There are a few still there, but not like it was.

It's because of game check. Now everyone knows Jackson county is the best deer and turkey hunting in the state. Everybody is flocking to skyline including the dreaded OOSers because they're looking at the game check data. Any turkey hunter knows pressure will ruin a good turkey spot quick.

Pcp, thanks for resurrecting the threads. I was really asking a rhetorical question, I just wanted someone else to confirm what I already knew the answer was. It kind of reminds me of coyotes and deer. A few people realized in the mid 90s that we were going to have a problem, but it didn't become accepted in mainstream wildlife management circles until just a few years ago. I'm not trying to start unfounded rumors about the poultry industry. I have more than one very good friends that make their living with chicken houses and litter, but I think we would be foolish not to be realistic about the possible, and in my opinion, probable, negative effects on our environment. It's not just wildlife impacts either, I wonder what will happen to our groundwater quality after years of 2 ton to the acre per year, and sometimes more, of litter being applied, air quality, etc. There's literally thousands of poultry houses in southeast Alabama now and I fully understand, appreciate and have benefitted from the economic impact, but we've got to start asking some tough questions or I'm afraid wild turkeys will be the least of our worries in a few years.

Chicken litter is not your environmental worry.

Why's that 257?

Due to nature of its release. Many more problems arise from synthetic fertilizers esp nitrates. Only reason the public views litter as "bad" is the smell. It's mostly organic based so it breaks down differently. I said in an earlier post litter isn't the demise of turkeys. At least not solely.

257 I hope you're right and I'm 100% wrong, but, common sense and my gut feeling tells me otherwise. Let me give you a couple of examples that cause my concern. I grew up hunting a 2000 acre block of small farms, mostly cows, timber and a little row cropping. Up until about 10 years ago it was absolutely full of turkeys. About 15 years ago the first 4 chicken houses were built and the farmer started spreading his litter on his and other farms in the block. There are 37 chicken houses in this block now. Every acre of row crop and pasture has chicken litter spread on it at least once a year. There is not 1 turkey in that block now. The air quality and flies are terrible for the unfortunate people that live in the area. The chicken company is trying to build as many houses as possible within a certain radius of their feed mills and processing plants. This is understandable from an economic viewpoint to keep production costs down, but, how sound is the business model from a long term environmental viewpoint. This is a common theme throughout southeast Alabama. Another area I hunt is unbroken woodlands for miles and miles. There's not any poultry houses nearby and I assume the food plots in this area are fertilized with synthetic fertilizers. It is ate up with turkeys and has been for many years. Maybe it's just a coincidence, maybe not. I can tell you that I'm not the only one noticing it. Another thing that concerns me is the fact that most growers are limited as to what medications and chemicals they can use to treat diseases. After the birds are caught and the litter is cleaned out, the grower has to shut his houses up for a certain number of days before they get their next flock. This is supposed to suppress disease activity by raising the temp of the bedding material. The untreated, diseased litter is spread. Like I said, I hope I'm totally wrong.

It's an easy target like I said. Not saying it's 100% free of blame. But you also have unsound timber practices, poor hatches (weather), more hunting pressure etc. failures rarely lie squarely on one factor.

Sad day when the Chicken Mafia has made 257 an offer he can't refuse...