Natural Resources University

Join us in celebrating the 100th year of pheasant hunting in Nebraska! In this episode of the WildAg Podcast, we welcome Lonnie Shafer, hunter and author of Shafer's Nebraska Pheasant Hunting Almanac, to explore the history of the Ring-necked pheasant in Nebraska and across the United States. Schafer traces the bird's origins in Asia, its introduction to North America, and the events that led to its establishment as one of the nation's most iconic game birds. The conversation also examines the evolution of pheasant hunting in the U.S., highlighting how changing landscapes, wildlife management, and conservation efforts have shaped hunting and stocking over time.

Resources:

• Shafer's Nebraska Pheasant Hunting Almanac on Amazon

• Nebraska Pheasant Introduction 101 on Pheasants Forever

Lonnie Shafer [website]

Dr. Andrew Little [academic profile, @awesmlabdoc]

Nathan Pflueger [website]

AWESM Lab [website, @awesmlab]

Nebraska Pheasants Forever [website, @pheasants_quailforever_of_ne]

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If you enjoy this podcast, leave a rating and review so others can find us!

We are dedicated to bringing important information and new ideas to listeners just like you. Help us keep WildAg going by donating to the podcast: https://nufoundation.org/fund/01155570/

Or, learn more about how your organization can sponsor episodes: https://awesmlab.unl.edu/wildag-sponsorship/

Music by Humans Win

Produced and edited by Iris McFarlin

We're bringing back the episode where we dig into decades-old crop-content studies to quantify exactly how much of a turkey's diet is acorns, and what the trends in declining oak forests mean for the future of wild turkeys.

Resources:

• Alexander et al. (2021). Mesophication of oak landscapes: Evidence, knowledge gaps, and future research. BioScience, 71(5), 531-542.

• Burk et al. (1990). Wild turkey use of streamside management zones in loblolly pine plantations. In Proceedings of the National Wild Turkey Symposium (Vol. 6, pp. 84-89).

• Byrne, M. E. (2013). Nesting ecology of wild turkeys in a bottomland hardwood forest. The American Midland Naturalist, 170(1), 95-110.

• Davis et al. (2018). Landscape-abundance relationships of male Eastern Wild Turkeys Meleagris gallopavo silvestris in Mississippi, USA. Acta ornithologica, 52(2), 127-139.

• Marable et al. (2023). Seasonal Resource Selection and Use of Hardwood Regeneration by Translocated Wild Turkeys in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley. Diversity, 15(9), 1007.

• McShea et al. (2007). Forestry matters: decline of oaks will impact wildlife in hardwood forests. The Journal of Wildlife Management, 71(5), 1717-1728.

• Nelson et al. (2022). Fine‐scale resource selection and behavioral tradeoffs of eastern wild turkey broods. The Journal of Wildlife Management, 86(5), e22222.

• Nelson et al. (2023). Age‐based shifts in habitat selection of wild turkey broods. The Journal of Wildlife Management, e22494.

• Norman & Steffen (2003). Effects of recruitment, oak mast, and fall-season format on wild turkey harvest rates in Virginia. Wildlife Society Bulletin, 553-559.

• Norman et al. (2022). Hunting and environmental influences on survival of male wild turkeys in Virginia and West Virginia. Wildlife Society Bulletin, 46(2), e1284.

• Schemnitz, S. D. (1956). Wild turkey food habits in Florida. The Journal of Wildlife Management, 20(2), 132-137.

• Thogmartin, W. E. (2001). Home-range size and habitat selection of female wild turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo) in Arkansas. The American Midland Naturalist, 145(2), 247-260.

Get your tickets to our 2nd Annual UF Game Lab Banquet here: https://tinyurl.com/UFGameLabBanquet

Can't attend the banquet but still want to bid on our live auction items? Email [email protected] or send a DM to our UF Game Lab Instagram or Facebook.

Can't attend the banquet but still want to support us? Please donate here: http://UFgive.to/UFGameLab. Thank you in advance for your support!

Enter our raffle for a chance to win a Wild Turkey Science hunt with Dr. Will Gulsby and Dr. Marcus Lashley at the historic Westervelt Hunting Lodge: https://e.givesmart.com/events/Qam/

We've launched our second online wild turkey course ! Enroll in Wild Turkey Manager: Biology, History & Habitat to learn about the principal biology, mating, behavior, food selection, human dimensions, hunter interactions, and historical context of wild turkeys. This course is accredited by the Society of American Foresters as a Category 2 course worth 7 Continuing Forestry Education credits. Participants can also earn up to 5 CEUs in Category I of The Wildlife Society's Certified Wildlife Biologist Program. Enroll now: https://tinyurl.com/WildTurkeyManagerBio

Be sure to check out our first comprehensive online wild turkey course featuring experts across multiple institutions that specialize in habitat management and population management for wild turkeys. Earn up to 20.5 CFE hours! Enroll Now!

Dr. Marcus Lashley @DrDisturbance, Publications

Dr. Will Gulsby @dr_will_gulsby, Publications

Turkeys for Tomorrow @turkeysfortomorrow

UF Game Lab @ufgamelab, YouTube

Want to help wild turkey conservation? Please take our quick survey to take part in our research!

Do you have a topic you'd like us to cover? Leave us a review or send us an email at [email protected]!

Watch these podcasts on YouTube

Please help us by taking our (quick) listener survey - Thank you!

Check out the DrDisturbance YouTube channel! DrDisturbance YouTube

Want to help support the podcast? Our friends at Grounded Brand have an option to donate directly to Wild Turkey Science at checkout. Thank you in advance for your support!

Leave a podcast rating for a chance to win free gear!

This podcast is made possible by Turkeys for Tomorrow, a grassroots organization dedicated to the wild turkey. To learn more about TFT, go to turkeysfortomorrow.org.

Music by Artlist.io

Produced & edited by Charlotte Nowak

With information more accessible than ever, it can be hard to know what's actually good advice for your pond. In this episode, Joe and Drew talk through common sources of misinformation, examples of good spirited bad advice, and how to determine if the guidance you hear is worth listening to.

Dr. Joe Gerken and Dr. Drew Ricketts are extension specialists and faculty members in the Wildlife and Outdoor Enterprise Management Program at Kansas State University. Find out more about the program at http://hnr.k-state.edu/academics/undergraduate-programs/wildlife-outdoor-management.html

Watch the podcast on Youtube at https://www.youtube.com/@KSEWildlife

Will leads us through a deep dive of the scientific literature on the relative contribution of avian predators to wild turkey predation.

Resources:

• Hughes, T. W., et al. (2005). The impacts of predation on wild turkeys. Wildlife Society Bulletin, 2005, 117-126.

• Palmer, W. E., et al. (2005). Effect of field borders and nest‐predator reduction on abundance of northern bobwhites. Wildlife Society Bulletin, 33(4), 1398-1405.

• Speake, D. W., et al. (1985). Mortality of wild turkey poults in northern Alabama. The Journal of wildlife management, 49(2), 472-474.

• Wightman, P. H., et al. (2025). Investigating diel patterns of predation events in wild turkeys using tri‐axial accelerometer data. Wildlife Society Bulletin, 49, e1631.

• The Westervelt Lodge | #176

• When Predator Control Works | #194

• MSU Gamebird Program Instagram, Facebook

• Wildlife Investments Instagram, Facebook

Get your tickets to our 2nd Annual UF Game Lab Banquet here: https://tinyurl.com/UFGameLabBanquet

Can't attend the banquet but still want to bid on our live auction items? Email [email protected] or send a DM to our UF Game Lab Instagram or Facebook.

Can't attend the banquet but still want to support us? Please donate here: http://UFgive.to/UFGameLab. Thank you in advance for your support!

Enter our raffle for a chance to win a Wild Turkey Science hunt with Dr. Will Gulsby and Dr. Marcus Lashley at the historic Westervelt Hunting Lodge: https://e.givesmart.com/events/Qam/

We've launched our second online wild turkey course ! Enroll in Wild Turkey Manager: Biology, History & Habitat to learn about the principal biology, mating, behavior, food selection, human dimensions, hunter interactions, and historical context of wild turkeys. This course is accredited by the Society of American Foresters as a Category 2 course worth 7 Continuing Forestry Education credits. Participants can also earn up to 5 CEUs in Category I of The Wildlife Society's Certified Wildlife Biologist Program. Enroll now: https://tinyurl.com/WildTurkeyManagerBio

Be sure to check out our first comprehensive online wild turkey course featuring experts across multiple institutions that specialize in habitat management and population management for wild turkeys. Earn up to 20.5 CFE hours! Enroll Now!

Dr. Marcus Lashley @DrDisturbance, Publications

Dr. Will Gulsby @dr_will_gulsby, Publications

Turkeys for Tomorrow @turkeysfortomorrow

UF Game Lab @ufgamelab, YouTube

Want to help wild turkey conservation? Please take our quick survey to take part in our research!

Do you have a topic you'd like us to cover? Leave us a review or send us an email at [email protected]!

Watch these podcasts on YouTube

Please help us by taking our (quick) listener survey - Thank you!

Check out the DrDisturbance YouTube channel! DrDisturbance YouTube

Want to help support the podcast? Our friends at Grounded Brand have an option to donate directly to Wild Turkey Science at checkout. Thank you in advance for your support!

Leave a podcast rating for a chance to win free gear!

This podcast is made possible by Turkeys for Tomorrow, a grassroots organization dedicated to the wild turkey. To learn more about TFT, go to turkeysfortomorrow.org.

Music by Artlist.io

Produced & edited by Charlotte Nowak

Forest inventory and timber cruising provide the information landowners and foresters need to understand what is growing on a property, how much timber is present, and how that timber should be managed or valued. In this episode of Timber University, Dr. Josh Granger from Mississippi State University joins us to discuss the different methods used to measure forests and why a well-designed inventory can be one of the most important investments a forest landowner makes.

Dr. Granger is an Associate Professor in Mississippi State University's Department of Forestry, where he teaches dendrology, forest measurements, and forest description and analysis. His work helps students develop the practical skills needed to identify trees, measure forest resources, design timber cruises, and use inventory data to support forest management decisions.

In this conversation, we discuss why the purpose of an inventory should determine how it is designed. Dr. Granger explains the differences among fixed-area plots, prism or variable-radius sampling, strip cruises, nested plots, and 100-percent inventories. He also discusses why no single method is best for every situation and how foresters often combine methods to efficiently collect the information needed.

We also explain basal area, trees per acre, total height, merchantable height, and the level of precision needed for different types of forestry work. The conversation explores why a diameter measurement to the nearest tenth of an inch may be useful for research, growth monitoring, or carbon accounting, while broader diameter classes may be adequate for some operational timber cruises.

The episode also emphasizes the financial importance of obtaining a reliable inventory before buying or selling timber. Without an independent estimate of timber volume, quality, and product composition, landowners may have little basis for determining whether an offer reflects the true value of their timber. Forest inventories can also support property appraisals, timber-basis calculations, casualty-loss documentation, carbon projects, wildlife management, invasive-species monitoring, and long-term assessments of forest growth and condition.

This episode is a useful listen for forest landowners, consulting foresters, forestry students, timber buyers, land managers, appraisers, extension professionals, and anyone interested in understanding how forests are measured and valued.

Questions for Timber University can be sent to [email protected].

Dr. Mark Turner joins us to discuss his newly accepted, peer-reviewed study examining how vegetation around wild turkey nests impacts both nest success and hen survival during incubation.

Resources:

• Turner, M.A., et al. (2026). Vegetation composition and structure influences female wild turkey survival during incubation. Journal of Wildlife Management.

• Butler, N., et al. (2025). Vital rates and population trajectory of a declining eastern wild turkey population in southeastern Oklahoma. Wildlife Society Bulletin, 49, e70002.

• Lashley, M. A., et al. (2025). Decreased female survival may help explain wild turkey population decline. Wildlife Society Bulletin, e1642.

• Quehl, J. O., et al. (2024). Assessing wild turkey productivity before and after a 14-day delay in the start date of the spring hunting season in Tennessee. Ecology and Evolution, 14, e11390.

Dr. Mark Turner Publications, @extensionwildlifedoc

Check out Dr. Mark Turner's podcast Blazin' Grazin' & Other Wild Things

OSU Natural Resources Extension FB, OSU Natural Resources Extension IG

Get your tickets to our 2nd Annual UF Game Lab Banquet here: https://tinyurl.com/UFGameLabBanquet

Can't attend the banquet but still want to support us? Please donate here: http://UFgive.to/UFGameLab. Thank you in advance for your support!

Enter our raffle for a chance to win a Wild Turkey Science hunt with Dr. Will Gulsby and Dr. Marcus Lashley at the historic Westervelt Hunting Lodge: https://e.givesmart.com/events/Qam/

We've launched our second online wild turkey course ! Enroll in Wild Turkey Manager: Biology, History & Habitat to learn about the principal biology, mating, behavior, food selection, human dimensions, hunter interactions, and historical context of wild turkeys. This course is accredited by the Society of American Foresters as a Category 2 course worth 7 Continuing Forestry Education credits. Participants can also earn up to 5 CEUs in Category I of The Wildlife Society's Certified Wildlife Biologist Program. Enroll now: https://tinyurl.com/WildTurkeyManagerBio

Be sure to check out our first comprehensive online wild turkey course featuring experts across multiple institutions that specialize in habitat management and population management for wild turkeys. Earn up to 20.5 CFE hours! Enroll Now!

Dr. Marcus Lashley @DrDisturbance, Publications

Dr. Will Gulsby @dr_will_gulsby, Publications

Turkeys for Tomorrow @turkeysfortomorrow

UF Game Lab @ufgamelab, YouTube

Want to help wild turkey conservation? Please take our quick survey to take part in our research!

Do you have a topic you'd like us to cover? Leave us a review or send us an email at [email protected]!

Watch these podcasts on YouTube

Please help us by taking our (quick) listener survey - Thank you!

Check out the DrDisturbance YouTube channel! DrDisturbance YouTube

Want to help support the podcast? Our friends at Grounded Brand have an option to donate directly to Wild Turkey Science at checkout. Thank you in advance for your support!

Leave a podcast rating for a chance to win free gear!

This podcast is made possible by Turkeys for Tomorrow, a grassroots organization dedicated to the wild turkey. To learn more about TFT, go to turkeysfortomorrow.org.

Music by Artlist.io

Produced & edited by Charlotte Nowak

Raccoons are smart, adaptable omnivores that can be challenging to manage, because they are very resourceful. Drew and Joe share some insights into solving common problems with raccoons. Drew also shares some valuable insight into the kinds of traps that work best based on location, and why relocating raccoons isn't best for them.

Dr. Joe Gerken and Dr. Drew Ricketts are extension specialists and faculty members in the Wildlife and Outdoor Enterprise Management Program at Kansas State University. Find out more about the program at http://hnr.k-state.edu/academics/undergraduate-programs/wildlife-outdoor-management.html

Watch the podcast on Youtube at https://www.youtube.com/@KSEWildlife

Will walks us through a recent study assessing the effects of predator removal on a ground nesting bird - the Pigeon Gullimot - and how this translates to managing predators for wild turkey.

Resources:

• Cherry, M. J., et al. (2015). Effects of predation risk and group dynamics on white-tailed deer foraging behavior in a longleaf pine savanna. Behavioral Ecology, 26(4), 1091-1099.

• Conner, L. M., et al. (2016). Predator exclusion as a management option for increasing white‐tailed deer recruitment. The Journal of Wildlife Management, 80(1), 162-170.

• Stark, S. B., et al. (2026). Seabird population responses after the removal of an introduced predator. The Journal of Wildlife Management, e70242.

• The science on trapping | Ep 07

Get your tickets to our 2nd Annual UF Game Lab Banquet here: https://tinyurl.com/UFGameLabBanquet

Can't attend the banquet but still want to support us? Please donate here: http://UFgive.to/UFGameLab. Thank you in advance for your support!

Enter our raffle for a chance to win a Wild Turkey Science hunt with Dr. Will Gulsby and Dr. Marcus Lashley at the historic Westervelt Hunting Lodge: https://e.givesmart.com/events/Qam/

We've launched our second online wild turkey course ! Enroll in Wild Turkey Manager: Biology, History & Habitat to learn about the principal biology, mating, behavior, food selection, human dimensions, hunter interactions, and historical context of wild turkeys. This course is accredited by the Society of American Foresters as a Category 2 course worth 7 Continuing Forestry Education credits. Participants can also earn up to 5 CEUs in Category I of The Wildlife Society's Certified Wildlife Biologist Program. Enroll now: https://tinyurl.com/WildTurkeyManagerBio

Be sure to check out our first comprehensive online wild turkey course featuring experts across multiple institutions that specialize in habitat management and population management for wild turkeys. Earn up to 20.5 CFE hours! Enroll Now!

Dr. Marcus Lashley @DrDisturbance, Publications

Dr. Will Gulsby @dr_will_gulsby, Publications

Turkeys for Tomorrow @turkeysfortomorrow

UF Game Lab @ufgamelab, YouTube

Want to help wild turkey conservation? Please take our quick survey to take part in our research!

Do you have a topic you'd like us to cover? Leave us a review or send us an email at [email protected]!

Watch these podcasts on YouTube

Please help us by taking our (quick) listener survey - Thank you!

Check out the DrDisturbance YouTube channel! DrDisturbance YouTube

Want to help support the podcast? Our friends at Grounded Brand have an option to donate directly to Wild Turkey Science at checkout. Thank you in advance for your support!

Leave a podcast rating for a chance to win free gear!

This podcast is made possible by Turkeys for Tomorrow, a grassroots organization dedicated to the wild turkey. To learn more about TFT, go to turkeysfortomorrow.org.

Music by Artlist.io

Produced & edited by Charlotte Nowak

Grizzly bears are making a comeback – and their return is one of North America's greatest conservation success stories. But as bears expand into places they haven't occupied in generations, new questions emerge. Where do bears belong in the modern West? What does it actually take to share a landscape with a large carnivore? And who bears the costs and responsibilities of recovery? This season on Working Wild University, we're traveling from Wyoming ranches to Montana communities, talking with ranchers, wildlife managers, scientists, tribal leaders, conservationists, and the people living and working in bear country every day. The future of grizzly bears isn't just about bears. It's also about us. Working Wild University is a production of Western Landowners Alliance and Dr. Jared Beaver of Montana State University Extension, and a proud part of Natural Resources University podcast network.