Why population plummeted?????

[HogBiologist]

I hunt zone 5 and zone 3 in arkansas every year. I haven't had any issues with turkey numbers being down in my area at all. My only problem this year was getting time to go. I have killed my 2 birds every year for the last 11 years I believe. Up until this year I was averaging only carrying a gun for about 5 hours to fill my 2 tags in the last 5 seasons. The 2 I killed this year both had buddies with them. 1st was in zone 3 it was the 5th bird killed on 400 acres and he came up with a buddy. Both were 3 years old or older. 2nd bird was in zone 5 and he was a big 2 year old with 2 more Tom's with him. I feel that some places are down and some are better than ever. I also believe that harvest number are a terrible way of determining the number of birds in a state. In arkansas you get your turkey tags when you buy your deer tags so there is no real way of knowing how successful the season was.  Say there was 15,000 turkey killed this year and 17,000 last year you would think last year was a better right. Now if they sold turkey tags separate of the deer tags and we knew that 50,000 hunters bought tags last year and only 30,000 hunters bought tags this year it would be obvious that this year was alot better of a harvest. AGFC only cares about Mallards and Rainbow Trout anyway and they are to dumb to get that. If they weren't idiots we could have the best turkey hunting in the US. And if not dam close to it.

I appreciate your vote of confidence. Lol.

[highwaygun]

I hunt zone 5 and zone 3 in arkansas every year. I haven't had any issues with turkey numbers being down in my area at all. My only problem this year was getting time to go. I have killed my 2 birds every year for the last 11 years I believe. Up until this year I was averaging only carrying a gun for about 5 hours to fill my 2 tags in the last 5 seasons. The 2 I killed this year both had buddies with them. 1st was in zone 3 it was the 5th bird killed on 400 acres and he came up with a buddy. Both were 3 years old or older. 2nd bird was in zone 5 and he was a big 2 year old with 2 more Tom's with him. I feel that some places are down and some are better than ever. I also believe that harvest number are a terrible way of determining the number of birds in a state. In arkansas you get your turkey tags when you buy your deer tags so there is no real way of knowing how successful the season was.  Say there was 15,000 turkey killed this year and 17,000 last year you would think last year was a better right. Now if they sold turkey tags separate of the deer tags and we knew that 50,000 hunters bought tags last year and only 30,000 hunters bought tags this year it would be obvious that this year was alot better of a harvest. AGFC only cares about Mallards and Rainbow Trout anyway and they are to dumb to get that. If they weren't idiots we could have the best turkey hunting in the US. And if not dam close to it.

I appreciate your vote of confidence. Lol.

No problem. I assume by you screen name you work for the agfc. Can you explain to me why the agfc doesn't sell the turkey tags separate of the deer tags. Doesn't that seem like a better way to determine the success rate of the harvest. I learned in 7th grade algebra it hard to solve an equation without all the variables. I would think knowing how many hunters are actually in the woods is one of the most important variable in this equation. Yet yall continue to throw a couple of turkey tags to the guy that buys his combination tags to go to the hills and pile up some deer with a 30.06 and could care less about turkey. I would be willing to pay 25 dollars for each turkey tag in the spring separate of the deer tags. That way you know if a guy buys 1 tag he's planning on turkey hunting and if he buys 2 tags he planning on killing 2 turkeys. Plus yall would get extra revenue that you could use to help the turkey population. As for the duck and trout statement I would love it if you could prove me wrong. Right now or in the future.

[HogBiologist]

well in the few years I've worked here, I have yet to do anything oriented toward ducks or trout. The specific division I work under deals with private lands and habitat restoration. Most of that is native habitat restoration (native grass and woodlands) and actually benefits both quail (target species) and turkeys. We have a DMAP program which is a big part of the commission. If anything, more wildlife time is spent on deer by far. There are limited area that deal with trout. Ducks are limited primarily to the southeast and eastern areas (Mississippi flyway). But most large areas are in the delta and that is a mostly private land holders.

As far as tags, that is not my area. There are ways that the hunter numbers are monitored. Various surveys are done to determine the trend in Hunter numbers. Believe me, having been a biologist for almost 12 years and with 2 different state agencies, there is a lot that goes on. People see what they want to see. As momma Oddie said in the Princess Frog; you gotta dig a little deeper. All the info you seek is available. Call little rock and ask. Turkey harvest summaries are available which look at harvest and reproduction amongst other factors. For the last 2 years, surveys have been done on proposed rule changes. People want to blame AGFC for the forest service burning later. They don't control the Feds and besides, the burns have benefits that outweigh the negatives. When you have 9 bad hatches in a row, the population suffers. We have had a few years with decent production. This year will probably have lower reproduction. Obviously we have had a wet/cold spring.

[drenalinld]

Poultry industry.  To many airborne disease for which wild fowl have no immunity.

This is true as well...I started to post this but it is just a theory that only a few people think is valid.

I've said this many times but have zero proof. Also, after these chicken farms have disease killing thousands of birds per day in a single house the litter from diseased houses is spread on pastures for fertilize. The same pastures turkeys catch bugs in.

The one thing that makes me doubt this theory is turkey populations have fell off in areas without chicken houses so there are other priblems as well.

I personally think gobbler hunting/poaching has little effect on population.

[drenalinld]

Another cause I suspect is the hardwood poison timber companies spray on tracts of timber they plan to clear cut and replant with pines. This kills everything but the evergreens. I suspect this harmful to wildlife.

[J. Adams]

Be careful what you wish for.  Several rule changes that OG mentioned have been put in place in AR, as well as other states.  These states are having a difficult time reversing these restrictions due to higher numbers of liberals that have slipped into power in the recent years. 

What needs to happen is less dependency on our government and more reliance on ourselves. 


Read and heed above, and then read it again, we are down to a two week season here...with no end in sight....The continued whining allowed the game commissions to make reg changes that give them and the whiners a warm and fuzzy feeling (REMEMBER? WE HAVE ALL HEARD IT, SOME MAY HAVE SAID IT, "THEY" HAVE TO DO SOMETHING...., it don't DO A DANG thing to make more turkeys.

improve the habitat where you can, prescribe fire as a whole is cheap
shoot all the predators you can
there are going to be years there are more and years there are less. It is what it is.