What are your thoughts on TFT... Turkeys For Tomorrow.
No, I'm not member are affiliated in any way. There will be a banquet in my area this summer.
I'm not sure if I will attend but I am thinking about it.

I went to one of the local banquets met a few Buds there and we had a good time. It was a good format and I like what they are saying.

Ive heard good things about this organization but havent attended any meetings
The one thing I hear consistently is if they will keep their focus on turkeys they will do better than NWTF

I joined it to help pay for the unbiased research.

So, I'm guessing all research is total BS..?
Wildlife Biologist just want to shorten the seasons and reduce bag limits for the heck of it...? What do they have to gain...?
Maybe we wouldn't have to shorten season's and bag limits if it wasn't for the impact of technology and social media.
Who knows. Maybe all these wildlife Biologist are Liberal Democrats that want us to stop killing turkeys.

I can't figure out if you are Chuckles or Chamberlain

Neither, just someone with common sense.

If you want to do a little research. Check out Brett Collier. He is a wildlife biologist with no ties to any organization and has been involved with most studies having to do with the wild turkey. If you think he is bias...well please tell me why.

Are you affiliated with NWTF? I can't figure out where your agenda is coming from, but most certainly isnt from "common sense"

Something definitely doesn’t pass the smell test with this one.

😁 LOL.. I have no dealings with the nWTF.
Its not common sense because you don't agree with me and that's OK.
My agenda is based on what I see.

Something has to be done with the population across this country heading south. Like I have stated above. To ME it's due to more efficient killers because of technology and the social media attraction of our sport. Just my opinion. Do you have a opinion are you just putting the blame of our shorten season's and bag limits on Biologist...?

I don't purport to be a turkey expert, hell I'm not even close to that, but I have common sense.

If turkey numbers are down it's due to habitat loss, habitat mismanagement / different uses, and exploding predator populations since there's no demand for fur / fur is murder bulldoodoo from the 80s. I would say hunting season lengths play a very small roll in that, but it's the easiest to target since hunter sentiment is down and has been going down.

If you want to do a little research, check out the CAB meeting minutes from 2020 when Chamberlain made his remote presentation. Check out all the claims he made and then come back and tell us that was unbiased.

Then compare those remarks to these he made on Twitter:

I asked Chamberlain on one of his Twitter threads 3 years ago the following:

>>>Me: Interesting paper! I'd already heard most of those concerns. How much higher is the poult recruitment rate on unhunted land vs similar land that is hunted? I think that is the number you need to publicize.

Him: We are just beginning a large-scale study on a nonhunted population, and can hopefully answer that question.

Me:
Thanks for the reply. I would have thought that had been studied long ago. The SC study had lots of info about their nonhunted area, but I couldn't find any mention of the poult recruitment rate on it. I was surprised by that.

Him: Yes, we've been doing gobbling work there for several years, but only recently secured enough funding to do the reproductive work.<<<

Translation: We have no evidence that hunting has any effect on poult recruitment.

Or you can just continue to blindly believe everything you are told. You might wanna consider moving because I hear that all of Louisiana is gonna soon be under water.

Have a great day!

I guess that’s kinda why I’ve waded into these waters

I wonder if population swings are normal for turkeys
When I was chasing ruffed grouse and woodcock I was told by those that had chased them for decade that grouse have an 8 year swing cycle. Woodcock depended more on temperature during nesting. I know one guy that did research on woodcock in the 80s and nesting and how it relate to temperatures.

Now I wonder if turkey cycle like grouse or more like woodcock and are dependent on other factors.

I’m leaning towards that later

I’m assuming poor country preacher your properties have remained pretty steady due to abundant habitat management.

I would like to read about poult recruitment comparisons.

Did anyone see the preliminary study about nesting loss? I’m still trying to find it.

Some would say he is biased due to his ties with Chamberlain.

Yes. Mother nature plays a role in populations (weather, disease) and I don't know why we don't see that mentioned more??? I guess because it doesn't generate research funds.

Turkey are reintroduced, they normally undergo the reintroduction boom and hit a peak, populations start to fall, hit a baseline, then experience fluctuations. (This is pretty standardized for most populations).

BUT other variables such as habitat degradation can make those fluctuations more erratic (think lack of good brooding cover, conversion to commercial pine timberlands) and possibly reduce the magnitude of the peak.

TFT, at this point, is a great concept and doing a good job of generating research funds NOT TIED TO AN AGENCY. For instance, Gulsby was asked what research he would like to see in AL and TFT and AWF secured private funding for 3 years of research on the subjects they were interested in. This allowed research on private lands, something done rarely for turkeys. Nearly all the research done has been done on public lands with public funds. We don't know what differences there are in nesting success, poult recruitment, mortality, harvest or movement comparing heavily pressured turkey populations on public land that is poorly managed to light pressure, higher density populations on well managed private. I always have noted the large home ranges of gobblers in spring but that is also public land data and gobbler home ranges may be considerably smaller on low pressure private land - we don't know! So that is solid research bias, not anyone's agenda, just study design bias.
Painting "biologists" with a broad brush of bias is ridiculous. There are plenty of biologists like me as well as some that work for the State that disagree with the season changes and Chamberlains (and Collier's) speculation on dominant gobblers, harvest of them, timing, etc. Chamberlain is a good researcher, bright and has contributed greatly to what we know about turkeys.....on public land. He stepped out of his role as "scientist" when he started the dominant gobbler theory and started pushing moving season dates. He has no data to back it up - he may be right but he can't prove it. Initially, he stated it as fact and now he agrees it is a theory once people started calling him out on it. He is now chained to it and will have a hard time admitting it isn't true - if it proves to be unfounded. Think Fauchi and vaccines and school closures. I think he is somewhat an honest broker - he believes what he says is happening and has a hard time thinking he may be wrong. I think he believes season changes are in order and now he has a platform to get it out. He also has a HUGE ego and has become as much of a social media star as Dave Owens. I have had as hard a time as PCP getting Chamberlain to show his card on certain aspects of his proclamations. He will quote data but won't show the paper it came from so I can look for myself and see it I come to the same conclusions. The Savannah site "unhunted" data is a good example. He uses it but can't show the research.

Problem is we don't actually know if there is a problem beyond "normal fluctuations". Private land research will help a LOT.

I’ve been told about restocking population booms by numerous biologist.
Where I get lost, it’s just my little slice of the world. Lauderdale Co. was closed for 25ish years and Colbert Co. was closed for 10 years after opening the season in March. I know the guy that compiled the data and wrote on it. When he took the job at Thomas WMA he says the season opened April 8 and closed end of April. He said he fought opening April 1 but it was changed. Also during that time frame there was a 6 gobbler/bearded turkey limit. This was late 80s early 90s. I started in 92 I think it was. Im not aware of any restocking in late 70s or early 80s, it could’ve happened though.

In locations I hunted there was tons of birds and very little hunting pressure compared to today.


Old timers put out temik and shot at every hawk they saw.

That’s the gist of my viewpoint, simple and I’m not alone with similar experiences. Same for guys that owned private properties in NW AL and neighboring TN. I rarely hunted WMAs but hunt some TVA lands.

The good news is it appears there is more turkeys now than a few years ago but no where near where it was during the 90s