Turkey Plan Revision Survey Results

[charlie elk]

The public input results are in regarding the potential changes of the WI turkey hunting management plan. You can find the complete survey here
I have been reviewing and trying to understand what the respondents meant in regards to the questions about limits in the fall and spring if the drawing scheme were to be eliminated. Then a large majority would like a 1 or2 bird limit and not the 1 per tag system we have now.

Unfortunately, here in WI we do not trust our trained biologists to make decisions. They're supervised by supposedly public selected boards whose members are selected more based on political considerations than any expertise in wildlife management.
I do not know how much credibility is going to be put on these survey results.

[Gopherlongbeards]

Strange, according to the survey people think the fall hunt has little impact on turkey populations (even less than the spring hunt!) but still seem to be in favor of limiting harvest to 1 bird per season. I wonder if they didn't understand the options correctly, and thought the option was for unlimited OTC tags, which in effect is the situation now. I was surprised that 66% of respondents said they hunted in the fall. Although the people who took the time to fill out the survey are probably the diehards...Personally I'd be just fine if they left things the way they are.

[turkey junky]

yes gopherlongbeards i do not understand why the WIDNR wants to mess with the system they have going now it is a great system & i dont think they had much complaints about the system or hunting oppertuneitys??? they just want to throw a rench in things???

[dewey]

Strange, according to the survey people think the fall hunt has little impact on turkey populations (even less than the spring hunt!) but still seem to be in favor of limiting harvest to 1 bird per season. I wonder if they didn't understand the options correctly, and thought the option was for unlimited OTC tags, which in effect is the situation now. I was surprised that 66% of respondents said they hunted in the fall. Although the people who took the time to fill out the survey are probably the diehards...Personally I'd be just fine if they left things the way they are.

I think WI has one of the best turkey regulations I have come across in my limited travels. It certainly does help that the population in WI is huge and they can have unlimited OTC tags. I wonder what the reasoning is behind people that only wanted a bag limit of 1 turkey?

Dewey

[WillowRidgeCalls]

Strange, according to the survey people think the fall hunt has little impact on turkey populations (even less than the spring hunt!) but still seem to be in favor of limiting harvest to 1 bird per season. I wonder if they didn't understand the options correctly, and thought the option was for unlimited OTC tags, which in effect is the situation now. I was surprised that 66% of respondents said they hunted in the fall. Although the people who took the time to fill out the survey are probably the diehards...Personally I'd be just fine if they left things the way they are.

I think WI has one of the best turkey regulations I have come across in my limited travels. It certainly does help that the population in WI is huge and they can have unlimited OTC tags. I wonder what the reasoning is behind people that only wanted a bag limit of 1 turkey?

Dewey

I think it has a lot to do with what's happened with the states deer population, people don't want to see that happen with the good turkey population that we have. Setting a limit on birds is good, but if there are too many other things become a problem, mother nature keeps all things thinned down. It's the same with pheasants, I love hunting them, but that season needs to be closed for a few years to help build the population back up, and then kept a close eye on it. You used to find birds in every field you walked through, now your lucky to find 2 birds in a week that aren't stocked birds. That's the differance between old hunters and young hunter, the older hunters have seen what too high of kill ratios have left you with and what it's done for the sport.

[dewey]

Does WI publish how many turkeys are harvested with a hunters first tag, second tag and so on? I would think that the number of hunters that harvest more than two turkeys is very small.

Dewey

[Gopherlongbeards]

seasons and bag limits are all a very tricky thing. Environmental factors almost always play a much bigger role in population levels, and the notion that one can "bank" game animals (i.e. save them for next season by not harvesting them this season) is often incorrect due to factors that game managers have little or no control over (weather, predation, etc.). This is speaking on the landscape scale of course. Basically there are going to be ebbs and flows in game populations regardless of harvest levels. On smaller scales (like on your typical 200-400 acre farm) the bird you shoot this morning will obviously not be out there gobbling tomorrow, but it really isn't the DNR's job to mange on this small of a scale. Harvesting male turkeys and pheasants have been shown to have no impact on game populations, mostly do to the biology of the species. A single male turkey or pheasant can service multiple females. Habitat availability and weather are the two primary factors driving pheasant and turkey populations. In these types of situations, the primary purpose of season and bag limit regulations is to equitably divide the opportunities and harvest among hunters. As harvest each year in WI is well below the conservative "safe" levels established by the DNR, and there are thousands of leftover tags available in both spring and fall seasons, there seems to be a surplus of both allowable harvest and opportunity. Hunters may be tempted to think that more conservative regulations may be able to "save" some of these birds for future lean times, but years of research and experience have led managers to conclude that this strategy is not effective in practice due to factors outside of human control. Game populations are resilient, and given proper conditions and habitat can quickly recover from the normal ebbs and flows in population dynamics. In my opinion, the best thing hunters can do for game populations is secure long term high quality habitat for game animals. Programs that work with the private landowner and encourage the management of working landscapes for benefits to wildlife are critical in this regard.

Sorry for the long winded response, but I get fired up about this sort of thing. I love how we are able to have these high quality discussions on this forum. I'll get off my soap box now

[Gopherlongbeards]

Does WI publish how many turkeys are harvested with a hunters first tag, second tag and so on? I would think that the number of hunters that harvest more than two turkeys is very small.

Dewey

I sure didn't harvest more than 2 this past spring, and it wasn't from lack of effort

[dewey]

seasons and bag limits are all a very tricky thing. Environmental factors almost always play a much bigger role in population levels, and the notion that one can "bank" game animals (i.e. save them for next season by not harvesting them this season) is often incorrect due to factors that game managers have little or no control over (weather, predation, etc.). This is speaking on the landscape scale of course. Basically there are going to be ebbs and flows in game populations regardless of harvest levels. On smaller scales (like on your typical 200-400 acre farm) the bird you shoot this morning will obviously not be out there gobbling tomorrow, but it really isn't the DNR's job to mange on this small of a scale. Harvesting male turkeys and pheasants have been shown to have no impact on game populations, mostly do to the biology of the species. A single male turkey or pheasant can service multiple females. Habitat availability and weather are the two primary factors driving pheasant and turkey populations. In these types of situations, the primary purpose of season and bag limit regulations is to equitably divide the opportunities and harvest among hunters. As harvest each year in WI is well below the conservative "safe" levels established by the DNR, and there are thousands of leftover tags available in both spring and fall seasons, there seems to be a surplus of both allowable harvest and opportunity. Hunters may be tempted to think that more conservative regulations may be able to "save" some of these birds for future lean times, but years of research and experience have led managers to conclude that this strategy is not effective in practice due to factors outside of human control. Game populations are resilient, and given proper conditions and habitat can quickly recover from the normal ebbs and flows in population dynamics. In my opinion, the best thing hunters can do for game populations is secure long term high quality habitat for game animals. Programs that work with the private landowner and encourage the management of working landscapes for benefits to wildlife are critical in this regard.

Sorry for the long winded response, but I get fired up about this sort of thing. I love how we are able to have these high quality discussions on this forum. I'll get off my soap box now

Great post Gopher!

Dewey

[charlie elk]

That is a great post gopher, you nailed it, the concept of carrying capacity seems to be getting lost in the debate these days.