Missouri Wild Turkey Habitat Initiative
LAND MANAGEMENT PRACTICES COST PER ACRE
You control what you can and let go of what you can’t. We can manage habitat and predation to a degree. Research shows weather being a big factor in survival for quail chicks and turkey poults - Can’t control that, but we can manage other things. Just common sense.
Cost estimates are very site/project specific and have ranges of low to high in price. Price of fuel or equipment in any given year. But this will give insight into the cost.
Land Management is disposable income don't let anyone lie to you! It cost money for private landowners, hunters and trappers to manage for wildlife and they should be appreciated for what they do!
Cost of Timber Stand Improvement
Timber Stand Improvement cost an average of $75.00 per acre for our forest inclusive of all costs for labor and herbicide.
Source – Conservation Federation of Missouri – Dave Murphy
Cost of Prescribed Burning
The cost of burning can vary widely due to factors such as burn unit size, availability of prescribed fire crews (e.g. consultants), as well as terrain and vegetation types. Small burn units can be much more expensive due to fixed costs and other factors. In the southeastern U.S., where prescribed fire is a common management practice, the average cost is about $32/acre. In Pennsylvania, the per-acre cost of burning is highly variable and can be as high as $400/acre or more, particularly for small burn units.
Source: Pennsylvania State Extension
USDA Missouri state average cost list notes $22.00/ac for grassland habitat types and $65.00/ac for woodland habitat types. Assume these are the costs that factor in the time value of the crew members.
We unaware of an extensive data set for the actual cost of prescribed burning on private land in Missouri. Actual costs may vary in relation to who is prepping and/or conducting the burn. The landowner may do all the work themselves with a volunteer crew and could be a relatively low cost or they may hire a contractor which would elevate the cost
Source: Missouri Prescribed Fire Council
$26.00/ac to $28.00/ac for Grassland and $75.00/ac to $119.46/ac for Woodland
Source: USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service
Example: Originally the National Park Service had five prescribed burn units totaling 903 acres in the Thorny Creek area. Cooperation with the Missouri Department of Conservation consolidated these five units into one and increased the unit to 2,232 acres. This expansion greatly increased operational safety and efficiency by expanding the perimeter of the unit to the Current River and an existing road system. It also dramatically affected the financial efficiency of the project compared to previous years, reducing the average cost from $79.00 per acre to $5.00 per acre.
Cost of Food Plots
Establishing a food plot can cost up to $200 an acre in seed, herbicide, fertilizer and lime.
Source – University of Missouri Extensions
Cost of Trapping
Trapping is broken into two categories start up and annual cost. This cost was mostly determined by the cost of an individual trap and therefore varied based on trap type purchased. The average price range of box traps was $60–80 and footholds were between $10–30.
The annual average trapping cost on surveyed properties was $2.93 per acre.
The average start up cost $3.93 cost per acre.
Source – Tall Timbers Research Report
GROUND NEST PREDATORS
If you have 1 ounce care of the conservation about Wild Turkey or Quail then read the unbiased report.
Read the whole thing. Just highlighted parts that Missouri so called experts say is a lie.
Here some great information you won't read from Missouri Biologist or Missouri NWTF Biologist.
https://talltimbers.org/.../11/QC_2019_FINAL_Reduced.pdf
Missouri Wild Turkey Habitat Initiative coming in 2024
The ONLY solution the Missouri Department of Conservation has to offer the Missouri Landowners and Hunters for the Wild Turkey Decline.
Wild Turkey Habitat Initiative.
Missouri Conservation Commission May 2022 Meeting Tentative Agenda Items
Friday, May 20, 8 a.m. - REGULAR OPEN MEETING
Presentation: Wild Turkey -- Reina Tyl, Scientist
BS degree in 2015.
Masters in 2019.
MDC hired the Wild Turkey Biologist in 2019 after the previous Wild Turkey Biologist Jason Isabelle
Also in multiple other interviews.
The current wild turkey biologist did not grow up hunting, had never Turkey hunted till 2021 in Missouri and did not kill a bird.
I am told that the Wild Turkey Biologist did kill bird in 2022.
Both Missouri Wild Turkey Biologist have watched the largest wild turkey decline in Missouri history.
NOW a 3rd Missouri Wild Turkey Biologist is being looked for as the 2nd one is leaving.
Not asking you to spend you money to join a consevation group, the majority of conservation in groups in Missouri NO LONGER have your back, matter of fact save your money for habitat and traps for YOURSELF, not asking you to buy a t-shirt and I will donate money to a research project.
I am NO LONGER asking you the Missouri Citizens, Hunters, Landowners, Conservationist to take your time and write the Missouri Conservation Commission that is a waste of time and effort for the past 10 years on predators and 5 years on Wild Turkey I have found.
The only thing necessary for the triump of evil is for people to do nothing. That's exactly what has happened in Missouri. It has become explotation over conservation.
The Missouri Conservation Commission previous members and current members, have sat back and watched the largest wild turkey decline in Missouri history.
William L. (Barry) Orscheln is the Chairman, Mark L. McHenry, Dr. Steven D. Harrison and Margaret F. (Margy) Eckelkamp
Missouri Conservation Commission May 2022 Meeting Tentative Agenda Items
Friday, May 20, 8 a.m. - REGULAR OPEN MEETING
Presentation: Wild Turkey -- Reina Tyl, Scientist
MISSOURI WILD TURKEY TASK FORCE
Did you know that Missouri Department of Conservation NOW has a MISSOURI WILD TURKEY TASK FORCE?
Exacatly who sits on this MDC Missouri Wild Turkey Task Force?
This MDC - Missouri Wild Turkey Task Forces is also forming a MDC WORKING GROUP to come up with the Missouri Wild Turkey Habitat Initative or the public and private lands.
May 25, 2022
When was the Missouri Wild Turkey Task Force form?
Missouri Department of Conservation Reply: The Wild Turkey Task Force (TTF) has existed in some form since the late 1990s.
So let me get this straight, I am to believe that in 32 years of conservation magazines, radio and T.V. interviews, website information, press releases, seminars, webinars, Facebook post, conservation commission meetings, letters to the public, and conversation with mdc staff and MDC turkey research publications and the Missouri NWTF etc., etc., – Not one time in 22 years, till the May of 2022 has this ever been mentioned before!
I heard of the Missouri Feral Hogs Task in 2008 more times than I care to count, that’s only 14 years.
Since 2001 - Nothing has changed with turkey regulations - So the TTF just had coffee and donuts for past 21 years.
Ok I take your word for it. LMAO!
What is the Mission of the Wild Turkey Task Force?
Missouri Department of Conservation Reply: The TTF serves as an advisory committee to the Turkey Program, led by staff in the Science Branch, regarding turkey regulations and management issues. The TTF is guided by the Mission of the Turkey Program (outlined in the Wild Turkey Management Plan) which “uses science-based methods, including public engagement, to manage wild turkey populations throughout Missouri that will provide quality hunting and other recreational opportunities.”
How many people are on the Missouri Wild Turkey Task Force?
Missouri Department of Conservation Reply: There have been several iterations of the group structure and membership over the years, but currently the group has 9 core members. The TTF is Chaired by the Turkey Program Leader (MDC’s Turkey Biologist) and all Department Branches with a voting role on the Regulations Committee are represented on the TTF:
Communications (1 member),
Community and Private Lands Conservation (1 member),
Education (1 member), Protection (1 member),
Regional Resource Management (2 members – North Representative; NW, NE, KC, CE Regions & South Representative; SW, OZ, SE, STL Regions),
Relevancy (1 member),
Statewide Resource Management (1 member).
Is the entire Missouri Wild Turkey Task Force MDC staff?
Missouri Department of Conservation Reply: Yes
What titles do the members of the Missouri Wild Turkey Task Force hold with the department of conservation?
Missouri Department of Conservation Reply:
Wild Turkey and Ruffed Grouse Biologist,
Private Lands Programs Supervisor,
Hunter Education & Shooting Range Coordinator,
Protection Field Chief,
Regional Resource Management Supervisor,
Private Land Conservationist II,
Hunter & Angler Marketing Specialist,
Wildlife Section Chief,
Regulation Booklet Editor.
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Wild Turkeys have been research in Missouri since the 1950’s.
Reinventing the wheel. Wild Turkey Management information has been around a long time, 30 years of Wild Turkey Management in print, hate to dig anymore out.
1st Annual National Wild Turkey Symposium - 1959 - Missouri Research
2nd Annual National Wild Turkey Symposium - 1970 - Missouri Research
3rd Annual National Wild Turkey Symposium - 1975 - Missouri Research
4th Annual National Wild Turkey Symposium - 1980 - Missouri Research
6th Annual National Wild Turkey Symposium - 1990 - Missouri Research
7th Annual National Wild Turkey Symposium - 1995 - Missouri Research
8th Annual National Wild Turkey Symposium - 2000 - Missouri Research
9th Annual National Wild Turkey Symposium - 2005 - Missouri Research
That's all been preach by Game and Fish Departments and NWTF for past 30 years.
Heaven forbids anyone invents the internet!
So, in 2024. Government employee is going to come to your land and tell you how to improve your brood and nesting habitat and provide information online. WOW.
What has the Missouri Department of Conservation and the NWTF been doing for past 22 years.
In Missouri since the year 2000, the Missouri Department of Conservation started the Private Land Conservationist in which the job was to help the 300,000 landowners with wildlife management along with the National Wild Turkey Federation Employees in Missouri - District Biologist, Project Biologist, Project Forester, NFI Forester to help landowners with wild turkey management.
You can't make this up. The Commission is excited with this NEW Project.
Good luck to you Missouri Landowners you must be living under a rock for the past 30 years. The 2022 season was the first season in 32 years I did not turkey hunt because the population is so low in my area only 1 hen as appeared in the last 6 months.
But wait! What happened to the Missouri Wild Turkey Research Result coming in 2026!
MISSOURI WILD TURKEY RESEARCH
THE SOLUTION IN 2026 & BEYOND – MDC Wild Turkey Biologist “Once these questions are answered, we’ll be able to mitigate the challenges by MANIPULTAING HABITAT to improve nest success and poult survival. This information would inform habitat management efforts on public and private lands in Missouri to increase turkey recruitment and ultimately abundance.”
So the solution is Habitat ONLY and in 2026 guess we are not waiting and going to deploy in 2024 – They will be telling MISSOURI LANDOWNER how to manipulating habitat to improve nest success and poult survival. This information would inform habitat management efforts on public and private lands in Missouri to increase turkey recruitment and ultimately abundance.”
RECOMMENDATION BY THE MDC in 2021 in letters to public.
“Because turkey abundance is driven by production, the best way to increase turkey numbers in your area is by providing the habitat turkey needs to nest successfully and raise their young. Planting native warm-season grasses and wildflowers, prescribed burning, edge feathering, timber stand improvement, creating forest openings and woodland restoration, are some of the best ways to improve nesting and brood rearing habitat.”
For the year 2000 - Note from the past Father of Wild Turkey Restoration in Missouri – MDC Biologist Vangilder - MANAGEMENT IMPLICATIONS - Nowhere is there an area in north Missouri of (15,000 ac) that is 70% timbered. Corn and soybean fields more than make up for the lack of trees and turkey densities in the northern part of the state are much higher than in the more heavily forested parts of south Missouri.
Average reproductive rates were much lower in the eastern Ozarks than in northern Missouri and do not appear to be sufficient to maintain population levels observed at the beginning of the study.
Biologists are sometimes forced to use data obtained from short-term, localized studies to model populations on large geographic areas. Often, the results obtained during these modeling efforts do not reflect actual changes in the population.
These types of problems are evident when comparing similar research between northern and southern Missouri. Obviously, average reproductive potential differs substantially between the 2 regions. Southern Missouri has a lower reproductive rate.
Missouri Wild Turkey Habitat Initiative
DO NOT let them blame YOU! I know more people practicing Wild Management TODAY than I did 20 years ago and even 10 years ago. If they are the EXPERTS – Every property they manage – Public Lands in Missouri would be a Wild Turkey MECCA – It is NOT!
FREE TO ALL
LANDOWNERS / HUNTERS AND CONSERVATIONIST
Material by be dated but habitat management for Wild Turkey has existed for the past 30 plus years. DO NOT let them tell you they are just coming out with it.
WILD TURKEY BULLETIN use to be readily available for years.
These are the ones I had on hand.
Wild Turkey Bulletin No. 1
| easternwildturkey.pdf |
Wild Turkey Bulletin No. 9
| plantinglegumes.pdf |
Wild Turkey Bulletin No. 13
| bulletin_13.pdf |
Wild Turkey Bulletin No. 15
| managingfortimberandwildlifediversity.pdf |
Wild Turkey Bulletin No. 16
| predatorswildturkeys.pdf |
Wild Turkey Bulletin No. 17
| managingstreamsidezones.pdf |
Wild Turkey Bulletin No. 19
| rights-of-way.pdf |
Wild Turkey Bulletin No. 23
| roadswildlife.pdf |
Missouri Spring Season – History of totals for the 3 and 2 week regular season – 38 years of statewide season.
Youth Season not included due to the fact youth season didn’t always exist.
2022 - Turkeys 33,322 plus - ranks 30th
2021 – Turkeys 31,800 ranks 35th
2020 – Turkeys 38,737 ranks 20th
2019 – Turkeys 36,265 ranks 25th
2018 – Turkeys 34,082 ranks 29th
2017 – Turkeys 39,283 ranks 19th
2016 – Turkeys 44,207 ranks 11th
2015 – Turkeys 43,991 ranks 12th
2014 – Turkeys 43,273 ranks 14th
2013 – Turkeys 42,220 ranks 16th
2012 – Turkeys 40,447 ranks 18th
2011 – Turkeys 38,327 ranks 21st
2010 – Turkeys 42,254 ranks 15th
2009 – Turkeys 41,830 ranks 17th
2008 – Turkeys 43,416 ranks 13th
2007 – Turkeys 44,927 ranks 10th
2006 – Turkeys 51,018 ranks 7th
2005 – Turkeys 53,849 ranks 6th
2004 – Turkeys 57,486 ranks 1st (Most Turkeys ever killed)
2003 – Turkeys 54,761 ranks 4th
2002 - Turkeys 53,932 ranks 5th
2001 - Turkeys 55,302 ranks 3rd – First youth season started this year.
2000 - Turkeys 56,841 ranks 2nd
1999 - Turkeys 50,299 ranks 8th
1998 - Turkeys 48,462 ranks 9th
1997 - Turkeys 33,216 – ranks 31st - Last Two-Week Season
1996 - Turkeys 37,708 - ranks 23rd
1995 - Turkeys 37,472 – ranks 24th
1994 - Turkeys 37,721 – ranks 22nd
1993 - Turkeys 34,342 – ranks 28th
1992 - Turkeys 33,035 – ranks 33rd
1991 – Turkeys 32,237 – ranks 34th
1990 - Turkeys 30,056 – ranks 37th
1989 – Turkeys 35,618 – ranks 27nd
1988 - Turkeys 33,187 – ranks 32th
1987 - Turkeys 35,951 – ranks 26th
1986 - Turkeys 30,965 – ranks 36th
1985 – Turkeys 24,770 – ranks 38th - 114 Counties - Two Week Season - Spring season expanded to all 114 counties
Missouri Youth Turkey Season – History of totals. 22 season of 2 days season
2022 Youth Turkey Season Total 2,881 rank 17th
2021 - Youth Turkey Season Total 2,795 rank 18th
2020 – Youth Turkey Season Total – 2,724 rank 19th
2019 – Youth Turkey Season Total – 2,546 rank 20th
2018 – Youth Turkey Season Total – 1,729 – rank 22nd - Lowest Youth Harvest
2017 – Youth Turkey Season Total – 4,012 – rank 5th
2016 – Youth Turkey Season Total – 4,167 – rank 4th
2015 – Youth Turkey Season Total – 4,441 – rank 1st - Highest Youth Harvest
2014 – Youth Turkey Season Total – 4,332 – rank 2nd
2013 – Youth Turkey Season Total – 3,915 – rank 7th
2012 – Youth Turkey Season Total – 4,319 – rank 3rd
2011 – Youth Turkey Season Total – 3,898 – rank 9th
2010 – Youth Turkey Season Total - 3,945 – rank 6th
2009 – Youth Turkey Season Total - 2,884 – rank 16th
2008 – Youth Turkey Season Total - 2,898 – rank 15th
2007 – Youth Turkey Season Total - 3,545 – rank 12th
2006 – Youth Turkey Season Total - 3,694 – rank 10th
2005 – Youth Turkey Season Total - 3,894 – rank 8th
2004 – Youth Turkey Season Total - 3,258 – rank 13th
2003 – Youth Turkey Season Total - 3,660 – rank 11th
2002 – Youth Turkey Season Total - 3,102 – rank 14th
2001 – Youth Turkey Season Total - 2,530 – rank 21st – First Youth Season
2001 First spring youth season - Research dictated that if we are to guard against overharvest of mature gobblers, the spring season must begin after the peak in breeding activity in early April.
MISSOURI YOUTH SEASON GOES AGAINST THE VERY BIOLOGICAL REASON FOR THE DAY THE SEASON OPENS - The season opens Monday closest to April 21st. This corresponds to the historical records of the second peak Missouri Ozark Gobbling. This is the biological reason for the opening day.
Which may lead to the great successes in turkey population because the hens get to breed with the dominate birds with the first peak gobbling.
So Biological Reason no longer exist - Why not open the season the SATURDAY AND SUNDAY before the Monday closets to April 21st for Biological Reason! (Example too early: April 4 and 5 – 2020 Youth Season)
As the wild turkey population grows the season expanded, but as population decline nothing allowed to change in Missouri?
When the youth season was study – Only Hunter Recruitment and Hunter Retention was consider, the wild turkey population was never consider in research done in Missouri.
Nest success and poult survival are keys to turkey population trends.
Turkeys have a complex mating system. Toms begin gobbling and strutting in March to determine their pecking order before breeding begins in early April.
If the boss gobbler is killed, the others in his close group may not be able to breed hens immediately. Hens don’t just breed with the next gobbler available.
Letting dominant toms get most hens bred in late early April gives the local population its best chance at more successful nests and putting the greatest number of poults on the ground at the same time.
Jakes will try to breed, but their sperm isn’t viable.
A nest is less likely to contain any infertile eggs if the hen was bred multiple times, and by different toms, over the 10 to 12-day laying period. She will move around to visit different gobblers and breed with the most dominant ones.
Hens can store sperm for 30 days, but viability drops rapidly (which is one reason why the more she breeds, the better the odds of a successful nest). Eggs laid within a few days after breeding do better than those laid with stored sperm.
Most hens are laying at the end of April thru May. Competition to breed is most intense as hens are laying. Disturbance and disruption from hunters during this period has more impact on total poult production for the year than does hunting during the latter half of April and in May.
Reduced gobbling
As toms are harvested, gobbling activity decreases: Fewer birds to gobble, and remaining birds gobble less because of disruption to the pecking order, and disturbance from hunting.
Nesting behavior of hens stimulates gobbling to increase, but this effect is weaker than the impact of hunter disturbance, which causes birds to gobble less. Net effect is less gobbling once hunting season opens even though hens are nesting.
Hunters remove the most vocal birds. Domestic breeders do this purposefully, and it works.
Nesting issues
“Predator swamping” is when all the hens lay their nests within the same few weeks, so that predators can’t get them all before the poults hatch. Also, a shorter nesting period means most poults are equally vulnerable at the same time, “swamping” the ability of local predators to get them all before they’re able to fly.
Breeding season disruption (discussed above) causes many hens to start their nests later, and a few will not attempt to nest at all.
If a hen loses her 1st nest early, she may re-nest, but these, 2nd or even 3rd attempts usually fail to produce poults that survive to the next spring.
When hens are starting their 1st nests over the course of several weeks, the predator swamping effect is lost.
If there is a big size difference in the poults that do survive, hens are less likely to group up their poults in late summer, which also increases their vulnerability to predation
LETTERS TO THE PUBLIC
May 20, 2021 – Missouri Department of Conservation form letters sent to hundreds of Missourians in response to Missouri Wild Turkey decline.
“Because turkey abundance is driven by production, the best way to increase turkey numbers in your area is by providing the habitat turkey needs to nest successfully and raise their young. Planting native warm-season grasses and wildflowers, prescribed burning, edge feathering, timber stand improvement, creating forest openings and woodland restoration, are some of the best ways to improve nesting and brood rearing habitat.”
HABITAT
If habitat is the issue, In Missouri since the year 2000, the Missouri Department of Conservation started the Private Land Conservationist in which the job was to help the 300,000 landowners with wildlife management along with the National Wild Turkey Federation Employees in Missouri - District Biologist, Project Biologist, Project Forester, NFI Forester to help landowners with wild turkey management. So, have all these employees statewide for Missouri failed to improve habitat for landowners?
If habitat is the issue, Missouri has over 2 million acres of Mark Twain National Forest, MDC Conservation Areas, and Corp of Engineer public lands in which the federal and state agencies managed for wildlife. Are all those areas Wild Turkey oasis in the state of Missouri?
Published in the Missouri Conservationist in April 1974 - 1974 - Bag limit reduced to 1 bird due to poor hatch in 1973 – History shows 500-year flood in 73. - 1974 - The Department’s major objective is the management of the wild turkey resource is to provide maximum hunting opportunity commensurate with the TURKEY POPULATION’S ABILITY TO SUSTAIN HARVEST.
To maintain a balance approximately 2.5 poults per hen must be produce.
When this ratio drops below 2.5 a population is decline indicated and when it goes above 2.5 an increase occurs.
The Adult / Juvenile ratio dropped in 1973 to 1:1.9 and that is why two bird limit was dropped in 1974.
MISSOURI RESEARCH
For the year 2000 - Note from the past Father of Wild Turkey Restoration in Missouri – MDC Biologist Vangilder - MANAGEMENT IMPLICATIONS - Nowhere is there an area in north Missouri of (15,000 ac) that is 70% timbered. Corn and soybean fields more than make up for the lack of trees and turkey densities in the northern part of the state are much higher than in the more heavily forested parts of south Missouri.
Average reproductive rates were much lower in the eastern Ozarks than in northern Missouri and do not appear to be sufficient to maintain population levels observed at the beginning of the study.
Biologists are sometimes forced to use data obtained from short-term, localized studies to model populations on large geographic areas. Often, the results obtained during these modeling efforts do not reflect actual changes in the population.
These types of problems are evident when comparing similar research between northern and southern Missouri. Obviously, average reproductive potential differs substantially between the 2 regions. Southern Missouri has a lower reproductive rate.
Missouri Hope is coming in another 4 years - Wild Turkey Research for the past 6 years and the next 4 years are in Northern Missouri.
THE SOLUTION IN 2026 & BEYOND – MDC Biologist “Once these questions are answered, we’ll be able to mitigate the challenges by MANIPULATIONG HABITAT to improve nest success and poult survival. This information would inform habitat management efforts on public and private lands in Missouri to increase turkey recruitment and ultimately abundance.”
So the solution is Habitat ONLY and in 2026 – They will be telling MISSOURI LANDOWNER how to manipulating habitat to improve nest success and poult survival. This information would inform habitat management efforts on public and private lands in Missouri to increase turkey recruitment and ultimately abundance.”
Missouri does have the Wild Turkey Study in Missouri on the Iowa Border – Year 1 – Only one slight issue – The same wildlife and habitat does not exist in Southern Missouri – Feral Hogs, Black Bear, Elk, Armadillo’s, or even large area of timber.
Only 21% of nests successfully hatched! Only 23% of poults surviving! - The 80s, that was closer to 46%.”
Which lower than the previous 5-year study in Northern Missouri.
Wild Turkey Biologist - 78% nest initiation and 20% nest success. Not sustainable unless adult survival is incredibly high, which we know it isn’t. Those numbers parallel nearly all of the sites across the southeast."
Why did this happen in Missouri and information from MDC Biologist
"About 75% of nests failed due to predation of the actual nest, and 8% failed due to predation of the hen that was incubating the clutch"
Per Acre Raccoon Count
1.57 per acre
2.02 per acre
3.34 per acre
Opossum Count
.65 per acre
1.11 per acre
.93 per acre
PREDATORS
NEST PREDATION IS A LIMITING FACTOR IN WILD TURKEY POPULATIONS – Every Study done Raccoons are the primary nest predator.
1940 – 1941 – 834,935 pelts harvested (most pelts sold) (over 70% were opossum and skunk pelts) most pelts sold
1979 – 1980 – 634,338 (2nd highest pelts sold - when average raccoon pelt values were estimated at $27.50.
1997 – 1998 – Over 200,000 Raccoons trapped.
To maintain a balance approximately 2.5 poults per hen must be produce. When this ratio drops below 2.5 a population is decline indicated and when it goes above 2.5 an increase occurs.
Missouri – Just one Example of the primary egg eater of Wild Turkeys
Poult: Hen Ratio - Year -Raccoon Pelts Sold/Registered
2.6 1998 200,000
2.3 1999 107,267
2.3 2000 55,254
2.1 2001 50,254
1.7 2002 110,603
1.6 2003 103,550
1.6 2004 102,448
1.2 2005 116,396
1.6 2006 84,654
1.0 2007 122,155
1.1 2008 118,166
1.2 2009 122,155
1.1 2010 49,290
1.7 2011 109,586
1.7 2012 158,356
1.3 2013 138,865
1.7 2014 134,715
1.5 2015 85,497
0.8 2016 34,758
0.8 2017 32,106
0.9 2018 26,340
0.9 2019 22,562
1.0 2020 24,652
Now add in Bobcats, Coyotes, Opossum, Skunks, Foxes, and Crows, etc., etc. who population has only increased since the dismal fur markets relying on China and Russia.
2021 - The number of bald eagles in the lower 48 U.S. states — a population once on the brink of extinction, has quadrupled in the last dozen years to more than 316,000, federal wildlife officials – common sense tells you that Hawks and Owls must me at an all-time high. Multiple videos exist showing eagle and hawks attacking turkey decoys.
August 21, 2021 Wildlife biologist for the Missouri Department of Conservation “I’ve been doing this for 18 years now, and when I started, we were just starting to see armadillos around. We really were telling people, ‘We will get a couple harsh winters, and they’ll die off. They’re just not well equipped to survive our winter. They don’t store fat well.’ We were proven wrong about that, and I don’t say that anymore. Around 10 years ago, I stopped telling people that.”
What she does not say – NO study exist in Missouri with Wild Turkey hens are very susceptible to nest abandonment when flushed from the nest by a predator. Intentional flushes of known nests shows that upwards to 50% of all hens abandon their nests after only one contact.
Hens that don't abandon after the first event almost never, as high as 85%, suffer more than (2) flushes from the nest. Even the Tennessee Game Warden Video in 2021 shows Armadillo harassing hen on nest.
FAMED Tennessee biologist Jack Murray – “If you don’t have hens, you won’t have any gobblers and if you don’t have gobblers, you don’t have hunters.”
Missouri Department of Conservation Quail Biologist - if 6% of the quail are making thru the breeding season it just COMPOUNDS THE NUMBER OF NEST AND NEST SUCCESS. Waterfowl Hens and Pheasant Hens are limited in harvest, only Wild Turkey in Missouri does this not apply. Except for 1960 thru 1978 when Missouri as the wild turkey population was still growing and not able to sustain hen harvest.
Missouri as the wild turkey population grows the season expanded, but as population decline nothing allowed to change!
States Changes Turkey Regulations
Combating declining wild turkey numbers with new regulations – Per State
Not sure what other states have made changes.
1. Kansas – 2020 – Reduce Bag Limits, reduce fall season days.
2. Tennessee – 2021 – Reduce Bag Limits and season lengths
3. Mississippi – 2022 - Non-Resident Turkey Licenses went up and application required.
4. Oklahoma – 2022 – Reduce Bag Limits
5. Alabama – 2022 - Alabama: changed opening date, reduce bag limit, prohibit the use of decoys during the first 10 days of the spring season.
6. Georgia – 2022 – Reduce Bag Limits, change opening date
7. Arkansas - 2022 - regulations proposals Reduce the statewide bag limit on turkey to one bird (beginning in 2023);
8. Ohio - Reduce Bag limit and number of days in fall.
9. Kentucky – 2022 - Removed fall hens from harvest, reduced bag limit on public lands
Habitat, Seed Coatings, Logging, Pesticides, Feral Hogs, Black Bear, High Population of Whitetail, Over Harvest, Harvest of Hens, Predators land and air, Nest Predators, modern weapons, modern ammo, high wounding and lost, and equipment whatever the reason does not really matter in Missouri.
What is the Missouri Wild Turkey Solution – HOPE called Wild Turkey Habitat Initiative – Unfortunately HOPE is not a strategy or a good turkey management policy”
Hope that a gobbler breeds a hen,
Hope if the hen lives to lay eggs,
Hope if the hen hatches the eggs,
Hope if the poults live to become adults,
Hope that the population will increase.
Master Wildlifer
Biology and Management of Eastern Wild Turkey
Clemson University
Master Wildlifer 2003 - Managing Wildlife on Private Lands in the South - Session 3: Biology and Management of Eastern Wild Turkey (Part 1)
Biology and Management of Eastern Wild Turkey - James Earl Kennamer
http://forestryvideos.net/series/mw/2003/
Master Wildlifer 2003 - Managing Wildlife on Private Lands in the South - Session 3: Biology and Management of Eastern Wild Turkey (Part 2)
Biology and Management of Eastern Wild Turkey - Jim Miller
MISSOURI QUAILITY WILD TURKEY SYNOPSIS
The MDC Wild Turkey Task Force and the MDC Wild Turkey Working Group, will also be putting out a MISSOURI QUAILITY WILD TURKEY SYNOPSIS along with webinar, landowner workshops and videos online.
The Wild Turkey in Missouri published in 1988 revised in 1993
I wonder if it will be revised in 2024.
You should get a copy
SPOILER ALERT
The best way to increase turkey numbers in your area is by providing the habitat turkey needs to nest successfully and raise their young. Planting native warm-season grasses and wildflowers, prescribed burning, edge feathering, timber stand improvement, creating forest openings and woodland restoration, are some of the best ways to improve nesting and brood rearing habitat.
MISSOURI QUAIL - Online Videos
If your not a Quail Hunter - This all happened - Quail Decline - Research, Quail Task Force, Video's online, DVD's and tons and tons of print information and PLC would come out and help you with your land for quail.. If you said Quail as the first word to mention, you where king.
Enjoy videos
PRIVATE LAND CONSERVATIONIST - PLC
If habitat is the issue, In Missouri since the year 2000, the Missouri Department of Conservation started the Private Land Conservationist in which the job was to help the 300,000 landowners with wildlife management along with the National Wild Turkey Federation Employees in Missouri - District Biologist, Project Biologist, Project Forester, NFI Forester to help landowners with wild turkey management. So, have all these employees statewide for Missouri failed to improve habitat for landowners?
If habitat is the issue, Missouri has over 2 million acres of Mark Twain National Forest, MDC Conservation Areas, and Corp of Engineer public lands in which the federal and state agencies managed for wildlife. Are all those areas Wild Turkey oasis in the state of Missouri?
Quail Management - 101
You will have to ignore the invasive plants that a biologist included.
STOP THE DECLINE!
Two Down a lot more to go! MY LIST OF Things that need to be addressed for Wild Turkeys in Missouri!
First Missouri would go back to this.
1 - 1988 - The major objective in Missouri’s Turkey Season has been to provide maximum hunting opportunity commensurate with the population’s ability to sustain harvest.. Instead, we only focus on hunter recruitment and hunter retention, which is not working since Missouri fell out of the top 10.
MDC regulations move at a bureaucracy pace and will take over a year or two just to make a simple change. Right now it's a do nothing leadership.
Regulation Changes that CAN and WILL make a difference.
2. ALL hens are in every Season protected - No Archery, No Fall Hens, No Bearded Hens.
WILD TURKEY HENS Breakdown - STOP KILLING HEN IN MISSOURI – They keep saying number of hens killed do not matter to the population, I say – DEAD HENS DON’T LAY EGGS - If they cannot replace themselves in the short term or long term RIGHT NOW per MDC 5-year research - dead hen definably will not.
3. Accomplished - Furbearer Season Extend to February 29 - Stop letting 40 fur buyers, decide the season. Took 10 years.
4. Accomplished - Landowner’s furbearers are open longer WE own 93% of the land. Took 10 years.
5. Youth Season move to weekend before regular season opens.
6. Flexible Three to Two-Week Season – Flexible 1 to 2 Gobbler Limit per poult hatch like they did 1974!
7. ARMADILLO is not a Native or Non-Native
Take the Armadillo off the Native or Non-Native List and put them on Invasive Species list.
8. Wild Turkey Management per regions.
Missouri is divided by 8 Regions they are good enough for regional wildlife management. “Ability to adapt to regional rains, floods and droughts to be able to adapt as quickly as the world is changing around landowners in each of those regions.
Let me be perfectly clear – Lot more could be and should be done – This is the starter list – But NOT One by itself will matter this is going to be a complicated solution for a complicated problem – Doing nothing is not a solution – SEE past 5, 10, 20 years as proof of that!!!
Finally Missouri research is flawed. Has absolutely zero proof of what is happening with larger than 15,000 tracts of timber, hogs, armadillos, bears, and elk.
They should have done two projects as the original turkey Biologist proved in late 1990s
Generalization of results from a particular study need to be made with caution, especially when harvest management decisions are being made.
Missouri Department of Conservation Wild Turkey Banding 2022
The Missouri Department of Conservation tagged 72 Jakes and Gobblers in 7 counties during 2022 - Hunters killed 12 Jakes and Gobblers of those 72 in 5 counties during 2022.
“FLUSHING BAR PROJECT” = HENS AND FAWN
Had to go back to 4 computers and external hard drive to find this, goes back to 2004 outdoor column I provided. Updated for this post! Remember the design but couldn’t remember the name.
WILD TURKEY
Maybe you a food plotter or just a landowner and you’re looking for an option. If you want to try to save wild turkey hen or fawn, so why not put a flushing bar on your tractor, while you are bush hogging or cutting hay. You might even be able to improve on this design.
FLUSHING BARS
I read about this I guess many years ago. Flushing bars can be mounted on the front of a tractor to move wildlife from the path of dangerous cutters and wheels. This is not an new invention but an old one lost to modern times. They even had poster about them from the 1930’s and designs for 1950’s tractors.
They are made different in Europe and Canada, and they even have a electrified version that would shock the fawn and make it run.
I have never seen one in person and they might not even work that well, but with the wild turkey decline at historical highs, thought I knock the dust off. Have you ever seen one?
THE FLUSHING BAR PROJECT
Use to be a website just for Flushing Bars but it is dead and gone. – “The Flushing Bar Project”, back in the day, they had free designs, photos, videos; you could even talk with others also.
You can save a fawn, also hens, turkey poults, quail, and pheasant and even save your equipment and the time of getting your equipment going again.
With the power of the internet today for land management might be more design.
