Lemme voted against the motion to reduce from 5 to 4 last time this issue came up. What's changed? What new data do they have out there? In fact, last time, the motion had a only 3 or 4 supporters, I think.
One of the problems in Alabama is lack of solid scientific data regarding population and harvest rate. Most of the people who read this board won't use Game Check to report turkeys, but then complain that the government doesn't know how many turkeys are out there. Well, if folks reported their kill, we would have a better idea. Far more people use Snapper Check than Game Check. I don't know why. Almost 50 percent of fishermen/women use Snapper Check. Last time I looked, around 10 percent used Game Check to report turkey harvest. It may be better this year. I don't know.
My point is that if we don't want what we perceive to be arbitrary decisions, then (1) we must get more involved, and (2) we must give the CAB and the good, hard-working folks at DCNR the tools and data they need to make decisions. My experience with people at DCNR is that they want to make good decisions based on science, and they want to give hunters the most opportunities they can while ensuring that we have a solid population. We need to do our part to give them the data they need and then participate in the process.
I agree with you on most of what you said, but I don't know how you got the 10% number. If it's right, that would put the actual harvest numbers in the 100,000 to 160,000 range, and that would mean that AL sure doesn't have a problem with turkey numbers. I think that the number is more like 30 or 40%, but all anyone can do is guess. We had way better numbers in the days of the hunter survey. It seems like some folks here might have predicted this would happen.
I have reported every turkey I've killed since GC started, and I think most of the posters here do the same. I don't think harvest numbers in AL, or lack thereof, have anything to do with it. It started with a couple of biologists from other states who came up with the theory that gobblers being killed too early in the season was affecting reproduction. They post on FB and have gained a lot of followers. I've seen nothing to convince me that the theory is true, but it doesn't have to be true. It's PC to believe it, and no biologist who works for a state can afford to question it if he values his career.
Not only have they been unable to prove that an early season affects poult production, but they haven't proved that legal hunting of spring gobblers affects poult production period. I'm convinced that it doesn't, with the possible exception of areas with very few turkeys. Those places don't need a season at all, and that was exactly the way the previous state administration handled it. If hunting was hurting poult production, then areas that aren't hunted should have way more poults per hen. That would be easy to prove if it were a real effect of hunting, but find a study that shows this. I don't believe that one exists.
All the labor of man is for his mouth, and yet the appetite is not filled.
