IMO, they are looking at statewide harvest "trend data" over last 20 years, which supports a stable "statewide" population, with that ONE metric. We as hunters want a more localized management tool for our county/regions that we live in, hunt in and have experienced these collapses in. I am all for data, graphs and charts, but without recent boots on the ground knowledge for localized areas, I just cannot accept some of the material being presented based purely on "harvest data" alone. I know we have more hunters and more efficient hunters today than ever before due to all the advancements in technology that requires minimal "hunting" per se. I am excited to see what, if any, useful information will come out of the studies that Roger Shields and team is currently pursuing. At the end of the day, the Agency, hunters, outdoorsmen, and conservationists should support and promote long term sustainability of the resource over anything else.What I don't get is how many still say there's not a problem with turkey populations.
MAV unit. It was in place last season.For Shelby, Tipton and some other counties along the Mississippi River the limit was cut to two and the season start date pushed by two weeks. I'm just hearing about this change.
100%No their pride gets in the way of that. I can say without a shadow of doubt we would be in the same place if these regs were never changed. Be interested in if the state had an incentive for trapping and had that going for 3 years where we would be then…
on a positive side, if things get as bad as expected then the turkey hunter population will begin to fall . In todays world of instant gratification there are going to be a lot of newer age hunters that ditch it if they are not seeing or hearing birds after a few hunts.
Well that's what duck hunters thought and its almost like the opposite is true...
If the populations continue to decline.to the point where current hunter harvests are unsustainable, state agencies will be forced to reduce hunter harvest even further to compensate for increased natural mortality and decreased reproduction.
I suspect we will eventually see a 1 or 2 bird limit in another decade and a half. It's possible we will go to a tag allocation/ drawing/ issuance of landowner tags before I die.
Want to kill a Goulds in AZ... you'll understand.
Back in the heyday of turkey population explosion, our TN state biologists expected harvest to plateau at 75,000 kills annually once reintroduction was completed....
Positive is right; fewer turkey hunters is better in the current climate.on a positive side, if things get as bad as expected then the turkey hunter population will begin to fall .
Nope... not until the population has been eradicated first.Do you really think that is going to happen?