Wisconsin Wild Turkey Mgmt. Plan

Anyone else get this email? Someone over there is paying attention, as this is a brilliant way to include everyone and treat hunters with the respect they deserve. See this video that was with the email:

Wisconsin Wild Turkey Management Plan

Joel:

I think that one of the things that has happened with the new WDNR through what has happened in the Deer Mgmt. is that they are starting to listen to all of their hunter segments.

Thanks for posting!!!

Mark

Took the survey over lunch. Great questions, well written, and like you said Mark – they’re really turning their ears on to their “customers” – in their language. It’s a refreshing approach, to a difficult problem. Everyone has competing interests, and they seem to be asking the right questions to get at providing the highest quality hunt, satisfying the most people, while managing the wild turkey population to its fullest.

Joel

I hate to see it get micro managed like the deer estimates…but I do really think it is time to re-evaluate the zones, into more zones or sub-zones. All it takes is a couple of iced over winters to knock the population way back down. Thank God this winter was mild. The previous two winters at my farm were layers and layers of ice. Each spring I found a lot of carcasses

Randy:

Hopefully I’ll get to call you regarding your last call.

But I for one like the expanded size of the zones… When it was in the 45 zones prior, it always seemed like if you were trying to get on to private land (which is still easier turkey hunting), I was always in the wrong zone…

How long have we have the 7 zones, 5 years??? Now having said that I am all ears for why you are thinking we need to have more zones again and am assuming that you are thinking more, but not all the way back to the 45 we had prior…

Mark

Specifically, I’m looking at Zones 1,2, and 3. Just like the deer population, there are “hot spots” within the zones that have more turkeys than other properties.
But managing such a vast area and applying the same for all is not accurate enough. Looking at the two prior winters before this mild winter to Zone 1 had regions with multi-layers of ice that really hit the population pretty hard. Now within the same zone 1 (southern half) didn’t have nearly the ice issue we had in the central region. The nornern region of zone 1 had deeper snow and a heavy winter kill, but not as much as the middle region. Many guys that I fish/hunt with in zones 2 and 3 havbe had the same complaint/suggestion

Well-said Randy. I’m in favor of expanded zones for MN and WI, just not to the extent that they are now. Bigger is better to a point, but it’s much harder to manage the flock across such large spreads of diversity in terms of landscape. Climate effects will always be difficult to manage around, like last year’s winter. However, having the zones be a touch smaller, while still being able to roam a fair distance within-zone, will hopefully allow the best of both worlds. Birds and their populations follow physiographic boundaries, not political ones.

Joel