Turkey Czar?

[quavers59]

   Sir- Diealot - 1 Turkey per year is not the right Choice for our Home State of New York. " 2" each Spring is just right.

[Sir-diealot]

   Sir- Diealot - 1 Turkey per year is not the right Choice for our Home State of New York. " 2" each Spring is just right.

We have discussed this and disagree at this time, I think it should be this blanket across all states until the turkey recover throughout the nation. I see people in states that can take 4 or more turkey and they wonder why it is getting bad in their area, well duh, back off the poor critters a bit and let them recover. I am not saying it is the best answer, but it is a good one in my mind, I want the kids to have a future with this sport as well. My time is almost done, my body is simply not going to take much more so I want to think of those coming after me.

[Greg Massey]

Bringing back manual checking stations in my area is just about impossible unless you want to try and bring them back at Dollar Store's State Wide ...

Our App Checking on Line is one of the best things to happen in our State. At least now you can check them in and not drive for a day or more trying to find a checking Station. Even then you had  problems with the people not being trained in how to do the paperwork with manual check Stations. IMO

[Tom007]

Bringing back manual checking stations in my area is just about impossible unless you want to try and bring them back at Dollar Store's State Wide ...

Our App Checking on Line is one of the best things to happen in our State. At least now you can check them in and no drive for a day or more trying to find a checking Station. Even then you had  problems with the people not being trained in how to do the paperwork with manual check Stations. IMO

Makes sense Greg with the shortage and distance of check stations in your area.....

[eggshell]

I thought pretty hard on this topic and I know my answer is biased, because I have actually been involved in management and policy making decisions at the agency level. Here is what is normally true; most sportsmen/women don't have complete data and only draw their opinions from small sample areas they are familiar with, Making policy and laws that fit every part of a state is really tough, Most biologist know what needs to be done but are shackled by lack of funding, public opinion and political pandering. I know this will upset many, but outdoors enthusiast think with their hearts and desires and in most cases are misinformed or just plain wrong.
Fixes in environmental issues don't happen fast, it usually takes years to see results. I grant that some issues are pretty obvious and I have spent many a day wondering what in the heck Agency policy makers were thinking. Here's a scenario that actually happened. A club stirred up a huge public outcry and even involved local politicians over how a lake was stocked and wanted a certain species moved to another lake. After public meetings and informing the masses that all the data said that this would not be a good management choice, the agency decided if the fishermen wanted it do it with the warning it was a mistake. In other words, let them learn their lesson. So the new management plans was adopted and implemented. Within five years both lakes had serious issues and fish populations were a wreck. It took 10 years to undo the damage. So be careful what you wish for. I think our Agencies have done very well. Sure they make mistakes, but I promise you most all of those managers are hunters and they care a lot. With that said, open discussion should be a part of every states plans. IN defense of outdoors-men I have seen some very good ideas come from them, and yes agencies do listen. Yes, I am a retired resource manager and I admit my bias, but I will also call a spade a spade and I was known for this when I worked. To keep on topic, I would outlaw all baiting. It's disease spreading and a predator trap with little benefit to game. People are predators and they use it as a predatory advantage. Go ahead and let me have it!

[NOmad]

- divide state in zones or units: treat each zone as its own unique area with its own bag limit and maybe even slightly altered season dates based off poult production, overall population health, and previous harvest data.
- eliminate the shooting of hens (bearded or not) and jakes in both fall and spring: one gobbler bag limit for fall and spring should be based off population data but I feel should never exceed 3 gobblers anywhere. 2 is probably a great number for the mass majority of states but there are definitely places where a single gobbler limit is warranted
- get rid of blanket licenses: all gobblers harvested should be tagged with a physical leg tag and called in (even if they dont get called in we at least know how many people are really hunting them)
- mandatory $10 turkey stamp purchase: funds earmarked specifically for turkey habitat projects on public land (imagine instead of the "NWTF Project" signs on public land it said "Turkey Habitat Improvement Project Funded by YOUR Turkey Stamp Dollars"
- extended SMZ's out to 100 yards either direction
- burn incentives
- trapping incentives
- if multiple tags available: cannot purchase second tag until first on is filled (i.e. called in and reported)
- film permit: if you are filming on public land with the intent to publish said film you need a "film permit" which is $100 and all funds are earmarked for use on public land improvement projects. If caught publishing film (i.e. your video is on youtube) and you did not purchase a permit, loss of hunting and filming privileges for a year in that state and $1000 fine

I know I sound like a money grabbing politician but in this day and age, money talks and if people are not financially incentivized (or just as importantly de-incentivized) we are going to see very little actual progress. This was a fun exercise, thanks for posting!

[Marc]

   Sir- Diealot - 1 Turkey per year is not the right Choice for our Home State of New York. " 2" each Spring is just right.

We have discussed this and disagree at this time, I think it should be this blanket across all states until the turkey recover throughout the nation. I see people in states that can take 4 or more turkey and they wonder why it is getting bad in their area, well duh, back off the poor critters a bit and let them recover. I am not saying it is the best answer, but it is a good one in my mind, I want the kids to have a future with this sport as well. My time is almost done, my body is simply not going to take much more so I want to think of those coming after me.

Blanket regulations are a terrible idea for almost all game...  Especially non-migratory game that can vary drastically in population across the nation.

In California, the turkey populations are growing on private property, and in urban areas, becoming a nuisance in some areas.  In popular public areas, birds simply move out to less pressured adjacent private property.  I know of a 2000 acre public area that has a lot of hunting pressure with maybe 2-3 birds killed in total per season on it...  And driving down the dirt road to the property past houses, there are turkeys in every yard.

A blanket limit across the nation is "feel-good" regulation made with good intentions and poor outcomes.  Harvest limits should be based on the science and needs of the area or regions being hunted...

What I would honestly like to see in California, is regulated access and harvest on public areas, with private areas having far less regulation.

And I would like to see actual turkey tags implimented in California.  Limit is 3 birds, but tags are not purchased or utilized (we simply have to have an upland stamp on our license).  I have never run across a warden turkey hunting, and on any of the private property I hunt, I could kill as many birds as I want if I were of a mind to ignor regulations (and many people do).

I would also like to see all revenues from license, stamp, and tag sales in California go towards wildlife management (in California any extra monies go to the general state fund).

Only regulations I would like to see regulated on a national level would be no rifles, and no roost shooting.  Harvest regulations should be based on bird populations and hunter activity per given area.

[deathfoot]

Some excellent ideas being thrown around. I'm gonna keep mine very simple:

1. No baiting nationwide
2. Every state should have a separate turkey tag or tags(a few people here have mentioned that). That way states know exactly how many turkey hunters they have as opposed to the tags being included in some other license way such as Virginia in their big game license.

I certainly wouldn't be opposed to states having a limited number of tags. Each state could come up with their own limit based on population. Residents would have first choice at tags. Or like Iowa and Nebraska and several other states...just limit how many non resident tags you'll hand out and let the draw begin. I do believe it's coming to that in many other states.

[Prospector]

Bringing back manual checking stations in my area is just about impossible unless you want to try and bring them back at Dollar Store's State Wide ...

Our App Checking on Line is one of the best things to happen in our State. At least now you can check them in and not drive for a day or more trying to find a checking Station. Even then you had  problems with the people not being trained in how to do the paperwork with manual check Stations. IMO

Tele- check in MS is a joke/waste of resources imo. I see the problems with check stations though. Perhaps a manual tag system coupled with tele-check? Penalty for noncompliance would have to be severe but since it's my (our) world , we can make it happen, lol. Thankyou

[Greg Massey]

Bringing back manual checking stations in my area is just about impossible unless you want to try and bring them back at Dollar Store's State Wide ...

Our App Checking on Line is one of the best things to happen in our State. At least now you can check them in and not drive for a day or more trying to find a checking Station. Even then you had  problems with the people not being trained in how to do the paperwork with manual check Stations. IMO

Tele- check in MS is a joke/waste of resources imo. I see the problems with check stations though. Perhaps a manual tag system coupled with tele-check? Penalty for noncompliance would have to be severe but since it's my (our) world , we can make it happen, lol. Thankyou

Without the checking App, we would not have a way of checking kills in my area... No places left anymore to manually check the game. It's working fine in our state...

[Prospector]

Mr. Gregg; please don't misinterpret my meaning here bc of text. I ask this with the utmost respect. What does Tele- check do besides hint at what counties the most turkeys are being killed in? Remember, the state of MS itself believes only roughly 1/3 of actual harvest was reported ( NWTF Turkey reports). While I'm tolerant of OS hunters ( being one myself on occasion) that is not info I would want having readily available. Saw a YouTube hunt just the other day where OS hunters were using county by county harvest reports as part of the hunt plan....While I may agree with the peak gobbling graphs etc, that's not gonna really sway me to hunt that day or not. Again, no challenge here- I am genuinely interested in the answer for my own personal knowledge.

[Greg Massey]

Mr. Gregg; please don't misinterpret my meaning here bc of text. I ask this with the utmost respect. What does Tele- check do besides hint at what counties the most turkeys are being killed in? Remember, the state of MS itself believes only roughly 1/3 of actual harvest was reported ( NWTF Turkey reports). While I'm tolerant of OS hunters ( being one myself on occasion) that is not info I would want having readily available. Saw a YouTube hunt just the other day where OS hunters were using county by county harvest reports as part of the hunt plan....While I may agree with the peak gobbling graphs etc, that's not gonna really sway me to hunt that day or not. Again, no challenge here- I am genuinely interested in the answer for my own personal knowledge.

In my state it's against the law to move that animal / bird until you have checked it in by Tele - check or manual check. Regardless if you don't have cell phone service, you go ahead and fill out the required information in the app or the manual paperwork.  Without the proper check-in you are in violation... regardless



Also in our App Tele check you have the option of location of kill...


I can't judge what others do with regards to checking game. I know what i do and that's check my game.

[ScottTaulbee]

Mr. Gregg; please don't misinterpret my meaning here bc of text. I ask this with the utmost respect. What does Tele- check do besides hint at what counties the most turkeys are being killed in? Remember, the state of MS itself believes only roughly 1/3 of actual harvest was reported ( NWTF Turkey reports). While I'm tolerant of OS hunters ( being one myself on occasion) that is not info I would want having readily available. Saw a YouTube hunt just the other day where OS hunters were using county by county harvest reports as part of the hunt plan....While I may agree with the peak gobbling graphs etc, that's not gonna really sway me to hunt that day or not. Again, no challenge here- I am genuinely interested in the answer for my own personal knowledge.

I'm not Greg but I'll give you my take on it. We have tele check here in Ky and I absolutely believe a driving factor is the numbers that are accessible as far as where to go from a traveling hunter perspective. A local WMA numbers have doubled the past two years and the pressure each year is worse and worse. My state also goes as far as telling exactly which counties have the highest take and you can also look up a person based on name and see where they killed their turkey at. And on top of that, if you kill it on public you have to list which public it was taken at. But my head scratcher is certainly like yours, our agency isn't doing anything?. The numbers of take are increasing across the state and across each WMA each year but our regulations haven't changed since they opened the spring season in 96. The only change they have done, is to take two birds from the fall hunters, which is a 100% political move to appease the masses considering, including our archery season, the fall season spans 6 months and around 1,200 turkeys are taken in that 6 months total, mostly from incidental deer hunter sightings. But in the spring season we are killing over 34,000 turkeys in 3 weeks. From a biology standpoint, in the fall you have 35 to 45% more turkeys on the landscape than during spring (predation, weather, etc), yet they would rather us kill less in the fall, (because it's not the money grabber) than kill less in the spring during breeding season/ while hens are nesting.

As far as my state, that's about the only thing I've ever seen the department use telecheck numbers for. Political/ economical gain. 


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[Paulmyr]

Mr. Gregg; please don't misinterpret my meaning here bc of text. I ask this with the utmost respect. What does Tele- check do besides hint at what counties the most turkeys are being killed in? Remember, the state of MS itself believes only roughly 1/3 of actual harvest was reported ( NWTF Turkey reports). While I'm tolerant of OS hunters ( being one myself on occasion) that is not info I would want having readily available. Saw a YouTube hunt just the other day where OS hunters were using county by county harvest reports as part of the hunt plan....While I may agree with the peak gobbling graphs etc, that's not gonna really sway me to hunt that day or not. Again, no challenge here- I am genuinely interested in the answer for my own personal knowledge.

I'm not Greg but I'll give you my take on it. We have tele check here in Ky and I absolutely believe a driving factor is the numbers that are accessible as far as where to go from a traveling hunter perspective. A local WMA numbers have doubled the past two years and the pressure each year is worse and worse. My state also goes as far as telling exactly which counties have the highest take and you can also look up a person based on name and see where they killed their turkey at. And on top of that, if you kill it on public you have to list which public it was taken at. But my head scratcher is certainly like yours, our agency isn't doing anything?. The numbers of take are increasing across the state and across each WMA each year but our regulations haven't changed since they opened the spring season in 96. The only change they have done, is to take two birds from the fall hunters, which is a 100% political move to appease the masses considering, including our archery season, the fall season spans 6 months and around 1,200 turkeys are taken in that 6 months total, mostly from incidental deer hunter sightings. But in the spring season we are killing over 34,000 turkeys in 3 weeks. From a biology standpoint, in the fall you have 35 to 45% more turkeys on the landscape than during spring (predation, weather, etc), yet they would rather us kill less in the fall, (because it's not the money grabber) than kill less in the spring during breeding season/ while hens are nesting.

As far as my state, that's about the only thing I've ever seen the department use telecheck numbers for. Political/ economical gain. 


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Wouldn't check station data be available to the public as well?

[jhoward11]

First things first, I would appoint myself as the all powerful OZ for life, so some of you others don't get in there before me. I would give all of you on this sight with big HEARTS, positions on my cabinet and we could fix this whole ordeal in 1 season!!! I would give the government a new BRAIN to actually think with. I would then give you all COURAGE to vote people in who care about this subject and not just vote the way you always have, because that's what your parents told you to do. Then just click your boots together, go home, and shoot him in the snood!
I like a lot of the ideas mentioned. Especially in person check in's!