I don't agree with everything he says or leads people to believe, but he made a pretty good post on Facebook about turkey populations and thought I would share:

"There's a hen being bred the first week of March. So does delaying hunting season guarantee higher turkey numbers in the future? Absolutely not. Does the majority of your does being bred guarantee a high fawn recruitment? Absolutely not. What good is having hens bred early or more successfully if the nesting habitat is still low quality and nest predator numbers are sky high? What increases fawn recruitment numbers even though most does are bred? The quality of fawning habitat! Why do we have clients who have been hunting their properties hard during breeding season for years and still have high and/or increasing turkey numbers? Why do we have clients who see an increase in turkey numbers just prior to nesting season? They have great nesting habitat, great brood habitat and annually reduce nest predator numbers. I think state agencies are putting a band aid on a cut that needs stitches."

He would be correct on habitat and predator management being the two keys to turkeys. However, taking a shot at state agencies who can only control when and how many you harvest legally is a low blow. I’m with most folks against moving seasons back based on theory. That’s not the answer. I don’t understand why they feds don’t get involved and start encouraging grants and other incentives in regards to habitat. There’s a few out there, but the vast majority of the lands in Alabama continue to sit dormant year after year with no change. Make it worth folks while if you care about the wildlife as much as they say they do.

majority is leased timber land and when a timber co tells you they are for "wildlife habitat management" then they have lied to your face.

all they want is to cut timber and replace it with pines. spray the understory and rinse and repeat

Exactly, why not offer incentive.

I agree with his statement
Guys the only incentive we will ever see is knowing that trapping/predator elimination and habitat management are the only way we will see our deer and turkey thrive and that is solely on us
The state or fed will never offer anything except more regulations and more fees
When will we learn that the name of the game is not Conservation

This is so true. Trapping coons was the key to changing the turkey population in the club I was in until recently. One guy started trapping coons because they were eating all the deer corn and then some others joined in, and it made a world of difference. The turkey population there is booming and it’s just typical loblolly timber company habitat. You just have to out in the time and effort to get rid of them.

We are hammering them this year on our place as best as we can. Between a thinning on one piece of the property and a bare ground cutover on another end there are brush piles everywhere. Nothing but predator dens!!. I wish I could light fire to all of them and shoot whatever comes out.

If you ain’t trapping and killing predators you are backing up . I agree with him on that

Agree, what is the state supposed to do? Control burn private acres they don't have access to? Trap coons on land they don't have access to?

The state has access to tens of thousands of acres to trap and try different management methods rather than implement something state wide before they know the science is accurate

Correct but we are still talking about the same thing. Private lands managed for proper habitat and that are managed for predation more than likely have plenty of birds. The states access to public lands Is still a super small sample in the grand scheme of things. Not only is it small, from what I understand a large amount of the public lands to include some SOAs are long term leases, meaning they don’t have full rights to do as they please, such as burn. If the state offered incentives for timber companies and private landowners to burn and manage habitat I think we would see more people burning and not just harvesting timber and holding. I don’t know if what the incentive would be or how to go about it, but it makes since if the state is truly concerned about the resource.

Why not take a shot at the State agencies??? Not a low blow at all - they deserve it. They are the ones setting regulations based on weak science and theories. They are the ones that say there is nothing else they can do. They are the ones blaming the hunter. They wont do anything about feeding corn, decoys, or habitat management on their own lands. If they are serious about turkeys, they would make the State owned management areas a shining example of turkey management, burned and thinned - be able to take field tours to show off wildlife and habitat management, instead they are poorly managed ground with a few foodplots planted very little different than timber company lands. No regulation on harvest or pressure which they have FULL control over. And 90% of the turkey research that indicates turkey declines comes from State and Fed owned land not well managed or even managed private land. I can tell you that the private land we work with are NOT seeing a turkey decline. Their habitat and predator populations are well managed and the turkeys are doing fine.

If "Private lands managed for proper habitat and that are managed for predation more than likely have plenty of birds." then why are they subject to the lower limits and shortened seasons imposed by the State?

There are PLENTY of "incentive" programs for burning by the Feds but no reason for timber co''s to take advantage of them - too much liability. However, if you care about turkeys (like the State should), that should be incentive enough to burn and trap. Why do you need Momma government to pay for your turkey management.

Our State cares so much about turkeys that we are the only State of all the southeastern States that does not have any ongoing State funded turkey research - literally every State around us is actively involved in cutting edge turkey research funded by the State.

You'll make your biggest strides through increasing nesting and brooding cover. We are covered up with turkeys and haven't done any trapping in years.

If the state spent as much time on educating the public AND demonstrating proper habitat management on public lands, like gobbler said, they’d get a lot better results. All the information being concluded from these later starting dates is NOT supporting their theory. It’s refuting it. Meanwhile, they’re handing out awards for the state’s exemplary example of conservation leaders. It’s pathetic. I have to admit I was on the fence on some of these things years ago when the theories were first presented, but I’ve come full circle understanding they’re grasping at nonsense to correct a problem that is much more likely to resolve itself through gaining public trust again by properly educating the public on sound habitat management actions. They’ve already lost the public’s attention at this point. Gaining it back will be very difficult.

With the current admin they will never gain public trust again

Gobbler and MBrock said what I came here to say. What is the state supposed to do? Let’s start with not slashing season dates and hunter opportunity with no data or fact to back it up. Let’s take a note from Adam Butler and Mississippi, I think they’ve handled it well.

Somebody correct me, but isn’t there a study out there by Dr. Craig Harper in TN that showed that pushing start dates back to coincide with peak nesting had no positive impact on poult recruitment?

I've said it a thousand times I'll say it again if all u kill is longbeards you cannot kill em out. when season started on 15th the majority of the hens had been bred at least once so the gobbler is a surplus bird at that point. I think it ought to be against the law to shoot a jake he is your seed for next year.

look this up



"Occasionally, the eggs of female turkeys will — without any sperm involved — spontaneously develop into embryos and then into baby turkeys (which are always males). This process is called parthenogenesis ."

I don’t know but they didn’t listen. They pushed opening day back two more weeks this year. April 15-May 26. Insane

I've always said that the most important incentive the state can give to landowners is a stable season and limit. I hate that we have already lost a bird from the bag limit, along with the best 10 days of the season, but what is far worse is knowing they aren't done. The director has made it very clear that he wants both reduced a lot more; just looking for anything to justify it.

Turkey management isn't a short term deal, and the uncertainty keeps people from being willing to make a longer term commitment. The result is fewer turkeys.