Thanks for posting this. The Kansas turkey situation has always interested me because the decline was much sharper and substantial than in other areas. And the rebound has been slower.
A few thoughts I had:
1.) He mentioned the declines started in the east and are working their way to the midwest. Willing to bet its due to the later reintroductions in the midwest plain states. The "reintroduction booms" we commonly see hit the midwest later since they were reintroduced there later than in most eastern states. Then the decline starts. Unfortunately the Kansas decline has been more substantial than a lot of other states so there is obviously more factors at play. Habitat, including loss of CRP acres is a major factor in my opinion.
2.) I like their adaptive management approach when it comes to seasons/bag limit regulation setting. But for a unit to have to hit 60% resident success to gain an additional spring tag? I think that is a bit of a far fetched goal and they may be stuck at 1 tag forever. Glad someone else brought this up.
3.) I hate seeing non-resident harvest surpass resident harvest. Nebraska was in same situation and they knocked back NR tags more substantially than KS, but according to their latest turkey report in 2023 NR still killed more birds than residents. KS may consider tightening the reigns on NR even more. They'd still generate money from the sale of preference points.
4.) Glad to see the rebound in harvest rates for a few units. From reports I received this past spring, KS is on a bit of a rebound and the non-resident limitations helped hunting quality.
5.) THRILLED to hear the guy speak up about their decision to limit NR licenses being based on the RESOURCE and not the DOLLAR. Too many state agencies are only focused on the dollar.
