Maintaining the status quo is the wrong direction for turkey management

By Don Heckman,

PA CHAPTER NWTF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

August 12, 2005

While attending sports shows, calling contests, and events this past winter, hunters asked me to comment on turkey management decisions and regulations. I explained the PA Chapter’s position and my personal opinions on the special additional spring tag, turkey hunting safety, turkey hunter ethics, and wild turkey management.

I discussed the need for funding the current wild turkey management plan; the need for better, more accurate turkey management data; and the need for a turkey hunting license to fund these strategies. I feel those I talked to walked away with a better understanding of wild turkey management.

Focusing on the positive impacts and turkey management successes as outlined in Pennsylvania Game Commission’s current wild turkey management plan, I feel it is important that turkey hunters know what has been done in the past to promote wild turkey management and what possibilities the future holds. Hopefully, this awareness will translate into more successful turkey management decisions in the future, made possible by improved data and indices when the Game Commission gets the opportunity to fund those strategies outlined in their  wild turkey management plan.

One comment I often repeat when discussing turkey management is: Turkey management is not deer management  Most of us are well aware of the ongoing controversy and widespread discontent associated with our current deer management program. We are fortunate that public opinion and surveys haven’t influenced  turkey management like they have deer management for the several decades. I respect hunter opinions, but when it comes to any type of wildlife management, however, opinions need to be based on facts and not just emotions.

Pennsylvania’s turkey management decisions have been very conservative as the population increased over the past 40 years. It was easy to make turkey management decisions when the population grew to 100,000, or 200,000, or even 300,000 birds. The statewide turkey population over the last 10 years has averaged around 344,000 birds. As the population moves towards 400,000, or even 500,000, however, management decisions will become harder to recommend and approve without research data to support those decisions.

I cannot believe any turkey hunter in Pennsylvania would support, or even suggest, managing wild turkey populations with a status quo attitude toward better data and research. Research data collected from radio telemetry and leg-band studies on hen, gobbler, and poult populations across multiple management units are needed to update and expand the research data collected from 1960s through the 1980s.

Not supporting additional wild turkey research, not supporting improved hunter safety principles, not supporting habitat improvement, or not supporting funding for the fundamental strategies of the wild turkey management plan simply means maintaining a status quo approach to turkey management.

What would the past 40 years been like if we had adopted a status quo approach to wild turkey management? Would there have been a spring gobbler season in 1968? Would turkey biologists Jerry Wunz and Arnie Hayden have received the funding to do their groundbreaking research during the 1960s to the 1980s? Would there have been a statewide trap-and-transfer program, probably the most successful program for Pennsylvania’s wild turkey restoration? Would the Game Commission have discontinued stocking turkeys and closed the turkey game farm in 1980? Would there have been special Turkey Management Areas established statewide, which were then redefined by the current Wildlife Management Unit system? Would the TMA 7B Wild Turkey Task Force Don Heckman put in place in 1996 in cooperation with the Game Commission, DCNR, and PA NWTF been done?

Without the progressive and enlightened approach to wild turkey management, would PA NWTF have put $3.5 million dollars into wild turkey management, habitat, land acquisition, and hunter education and outreach programs over the past 20 years? That $3.5 million has been spent throughout Pennsylvania in partnership with our local chapters, volunteers, and turkey hunters and state and federal agencies such as the Pennsylvania Game Commission, DCNR Bureau of Forestry, Allegheny National Forest, Army Corps of Engineers, Delaware River Water Gap, and various right-of-way partnerships. Many private landowners have also benefited through seed subsidy and conservation seed programs, such as Operation Appleseed and Wild Turkey Woodlands programs.

In spite of the many successes and accomplishments, there are still some concerns about the future of turkey management. During the past two decades, the Pennsylvania wild turkey population experienced the greatest increase in history, yet no research data were collected between 1989 and 2004. My question is why did we let the most prolific period of wild turkey growth and expansion go by with no research or data to document it? To me, that is unacceptable, but it happened over the wishes of several turkey hunters who saw the bigger picture. One notable exception is the 2 1/2-year TMA 7B wild turkey research project that was completed in 2002 as part of the TMA7B Wild Turkey Task Force. PA Chapter NWTF funded $84,400 as part of the cost of the project, however, not one dollar was spent on statewide wild turkey research data between 1989 and 2004.

All we can say about this dramatic population increase is the statewide wild turkey populations doubled in size. Today, I am now seeing wild turkeys in places unheard of in the 1960s or even the early 1980s. I believe in and trust the various indices that wild turkey biologists used to chart and measure wild turkey population, harvest, and hunter growth, however, I also believe updated and current research data are needed, now more than ever.

The Pennsylvania Game Commission’s “Management Plan For Wild Turkeys In Pennsylvania” was signed in April 1999. That management plan has 8 objectives and 35 strategies that need funding. A revised 10-year wild turkey management plan is due to be signed by the end of 2005. Without the answers to what happened from 1989 to 2004, how will the statewide wild turkey population be managed when the flocks start to exceed 500,000 birds? Do turkey hunters just accept the status quo? Or suggest populations be halted around 350,000, while using public opinions and surveys to manage this remarkable renewable resource?

For 20 years, I’ve questioned why is there no turkey hunting license to support funding wild turkey management in Pennsylvania? How will wild turkeys be managed in Pennsylvania in 2010 if factual data are not available to wildlife managers to make proper recommendations?

Wild turkey biologists have structured the wild turkey management policies that have been in place for many decades. This has worked, and the management results speak for themselves. Include the biologist’s continued recommendations for conservative seasons and bag limits and you have the equation for successful wild turkey management.

Our current turkey management strategy has given us a stable 350,000-bird population, but what will be needed to get Pennsylvania to a stable, statewide population of 500,000 birds?

In 40 years, our wild turkey biologists have never given turkey hunters bad information or incorrect recommendations to the commissioners for decision making. These past 40 years of turkey management history have paved the way to today’s wild turkey management success story. Now, the research data of the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s desperately need to be updated with more current, more accurate data.

One of the most useful tools for managing wild turkey populations is adjusting the length of the fall hunting seasons. The fall season in several western Pennsylvania WMUs has recently been reduced to two weeks instead of the traditional three weeks to allow the turkey populations there to recover from two recent hard winters and two bad spring hatches. While two consecutive good-to-excellent spring hatches might solve many regional population declines, there is no rush to get these areas back to three-week seasons. These recommendations and regulations are supported by PA Chapter NWTF.

The success of wild turkey management in Pennsylvania can be measured by the success of the many regulations that affect turkey management. If a regulation is not performing as needed, it should be changed. Wild turkey management has a history of keeping public opinion out of wild turkey management decision-making process, especially when popular opinion conflicts with what is in the best interest of the turkey resource. Based on success of recommendations from the wild turkey biologists and changes to hunting regulations so far, I would say it has been a very successful management plan. Thank you, Pennsylvania Game Commission and Pennsylvania’s turkey hunters.