State seeks volunteers to call wild turkeys for conservation study w/ link to learn more about wild turkeys

By Andy Ostmeyer

aostmeyer@joplinglobe.com

The Missouri Department of Conservation wants volunteers to call turkeys as part of a statewide study, but data gathered from volunteers in Newton and McDonald counties will be of particular interest because of an aggressive stocking effort that took place in those two counties several years ago.

Volunteers will choose a listening post and record the number of gobbles heard and the number of individual gobblers identified. They will need to be at their post for a 20-minute period before sunrise for two days per week during an eight-week study period. The study will run from Saturday, March 15, through May 9.

It’s hoped this study will not only provide biologists with baseline data in regard to overall turkey numbers, but will also provide insight into habitat practices, according to MDC officials.

The National Wild Turkey Federation recently awarded a $4,750 grant for habitat restoration in Newton and McDonald counties, said Frank Loncarich, wildlife management biologist with MDC. The money will be used in the Shoal Creek and Big Sugar Creek watersheds.

“We hope to do some prescribed burning with this, and fescue conversion to native grasses,” Loncarich said.

Chuck Dalbom, of Stella and a member of the Indian Creek chapter of the National Wild Turkey Federation, welcomed news of the study.

“What makes we feel real good about it is they realize there is a problem down there that has to be addressed. We do have the habitat, we don’t have the numbers,” he said.

McDonald County was first stocked in the 1960s, according to the department, and Newton County a decade or so later. That was followed by supplemental releases in the 1980s. Yet, the number of birds remained low.

In the spring of 2001, while hundreds of birds were shot in each of the surrounding counties — 275 in Barry County that year, and 318 in Jasper County — only 45 turkeys were killed in McDonald County and 14 in Newton County.

What followed was one of the most intensive stockings of wild turkeys in state history involving both the National Wild Turkey Federation and MDC. In the winter of 2001-02, 360 birds were released in the two counties as part of a saturation, or “block” stocking. As part of the effort, 100 of the birds were given radio collars so the survival rate of the adults, their fertility rates and the survival rates of their young could be tracked.

Five years later, the two-county area still reports some of the lowest harvest numbers in the state.

In the spring of 2007, 42 birds were taken in McDonald County and 68 in Newton County. In 2006, 67 birds were taken in each county. While the take has been up somewhat, the numbers are still low. All other counties in Southwest Missouri reported turkey harvests in the triple digits, with some rural counties in the region seeing as many as 500 and 600 wild turkeys killed each spring.

In recent years, only a handful of counties in the Missouri Bootheel reported lower spring turkey hunting totals, and experts say that region does not offer good turkey habitat. Even heavily urbanized counties, including Kansas City, St. Louis and Springfield, report larger turkey harvests.