In 1987, after I shot my first spring gobbler, my photograph earned a prominent place on the bulletin board of our local sporting goods store, along with pictures of half a dozen or so other triumphant hunters. Nowadays, snapshots cover that board every spring, displaying row upon row of happy hunters in full camo posing with their gobblers.
The recent boom in turkeys and turkey hunters has hardly been confined to my home town. There are, no doubt, similar boards covered with similar photos in stores around the nation. From 1980 to 1992, turkey populations doubled from two to four million birds, the end result of 40 years of hard work by sportsmen, state agencies, and, more recently, the National Wild Turkey Federation.
Turkeys now live in 49 states and three Canadian provinces. Turkey hunters currently outnumber duck hunters and spend some $600 million in pursuit of their favorite bird each year.
While the comeback of the wild turkey from near extinction in 1900 is cause for wonder and celebration as we approach the century's close, there's more work to be done. Thirty-three states project that their restoration programs will be complete by 1995, but some 65 million acres of turkey range in the U.S. still remain to be stocked.
Target 2000, an ambitious cooperative campaign by the National Wild Turkey Federation and state and federal wildlife agencies, aims to fill those unoccupied acres with turkeys by the end of this century. As has been the case with all effective efforts to restore turkeys, live-trapping and transferring the birds form the cornerstone of the Target 2000 endeavor. Transplanting healthy wild birds to suitable habitat is the key to turkey restoration: a release of only 15 birds can result in a population of 400 within five years.
When transplanting is practiced on a large scale, the outcome can be astounding. East Texas, for example, began restoration work only seven years ago; yet already nearly all of its 23 million acres of turkey habitat support wild flocks.
The case of East Texas also illustrates the role of the National Wild Turkey Federation in many transfers. Often, states will trade wildlife with one another for restoration projects: otters, say, or pheasants for turkeys. East Texas, however, had nothing to offer in trade, and the sale of wildlife is strictly illegal. In such a case, the NWTF draws upon its Superfund to compensate states for the cost of trapping and transferring turkeys. Some of those monies can then be used by the donating states to purchase turkey habitat. Given continued cooperation among public and private agencies, Target 2000 is on track to reach its goal on or ahead of schedule.
And what of the next century? "Our work won't be done after the year 2000," says Dr. James Earl Kennamer of the NWTF. "There's some chance that coastal areas of Alaska could support turkey populations. Gould's turkeys from Mexico may prove adaptable to the southwestern United States and there's potential to help manage Mexican flocks. We've even had requests from Spain and England to help establish turkey populations there." While it's fascinating to contemplate turkeys as global residents in the next century, the well-being of turkeys and turkey hunting here at home is the overriding concern of most American sportsmen.
Dr. Kennamer urges all sportsmen to join the NWTF. "Our banquets raise money for a variety of programs besides restoration that benefit turkeys and turkey hunting," he emphasizes. The Federation's Project HELP (Habitat Land Enhancement Program), for instance, provides plant seedlings to landowners interested in improving forest openings for turkeys and other wildlife. The NWTF has also entered into cooperative agreements with private timber owners, including paper companies, and with federal agencies, lending technical assistance to improve turkey habitat on their lands. The Federation appreciates, too, that turkey hunting and scientific turkey management are under attack from anti-hunting groups, and it donates money to such pro-hunting organizations as the United Conservation Alliance, Wildlife Legislative Fund of America, and Putting People First.
Turkey hunters must also do their part as individuals to insure that the success story doesn't end in the year 2000. As Congress debates the Farm Bill, sportsmen and women must lend their active support to the continuation of programs like CRP, the long-term set-aside program that has enabled many landowners to convert cropland to timbered turkey wildlife habitat. Individuals need also remember that their actions in the field will come under increasing scrutiny as society weighs the hunting/anti-hunting debate. Ethical, safe hunting must be every sportsman and woman's priority if turkey hunting is to survive. Law-abiding hunters must also recognize that poaching harms wildlife populations and the hunter's image, and they must make use of the Turn in Poacher programs now in place in all 50 states.
The wild turkey has sustained a dramatic comeback in the 20th century. The next hundred years will present a quite different set of challenges. Yet it will still be the responsibility of dedicated sportsmen and women, through their hard work and their dollars, to see the bird safely from the 21st century into the 22nd and beyond.
Copyright (c) 1996 Philip Bourjaily. All rights reserved.
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