KS Turkey Info Presentation

[nativeks]

Start watching about 2 hours 52 minutes in.
https://youtu.be/9gAmhEIsUqM

[deerhunt1988]

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.

[Neill_Prater]

As far as using resident's harvest compared to that of nonresident's as a basis for tag allocation, in any state, that removes all the incentives of the resident to legally report their kill. Kansas is late to the party as far as mandatory checking of turkeys harvested, so my guess is the compliance rate is already pretty low. My thinking? It won't get any higher.

Sent from my motorola edge 5G UW (2021) using Tapatalk

[nativeks]

Fwiw, we lost our turkey biologist to Nebraska fish and wildlife recently. And the biologist before him to PF.

[nativeks]

Some interesting thoughts on predators. Gentleman in the video lives down the road from me. On his 12 acres he caught I think the video said 13 bobcats, 40 something coons, skunks, etc.

A coworker of mine is taking advantage of the extended raccoon trapping season they gave us. He put out 12 dog proof traps. In 3 days he had caught 16 raccoons and a possum. When I talked to him he hadn't made it to all his traps on day 3, but he suspected he probably had some more raccoons. I'll have to message and see how many he is up to. People feed corn to deer, the coons go into winter in optimal condition, then the feeders quit getting filled and they go looking for something else to eat.

[Hooksfan]

Very interesting. I started hunting in Kansas in the late 90's and hunted pretty much every year till about 2020. I saw some radical changes in both the bird population and the hunting pressure, particularly from non-residents.
My onservation from way back was that very few residents in Kansas turkey hunted compared to other states i was familiar with. Landowners would respond to requests to hunt as if you were doing them a favor and most would ask you tp shoot every one you saw. Times have changed.
I haven't hunted there for three years now, but I am considering putting in for a tag this year just for old times sake.