This episode of Turkey Call All Access is all about the Farm Bill and what it means for wild turkey conservation! Matt Lindler, Doug Little and Jared McJunkin dive into programs funded by this legislation and how it benefits both private landowners and the general public. 

Read more about the Farm Bill here.

On this episode, we're talking with Joe Bartozzi, President and CEO of the National Shooting Sports Foundation and Jared McJunkin, Director of Conservation Operations in the Central Region. Whether you're a new gun owner or firearms have been in your family for generations, firearms safety is one of the most important topics to stay fresh on. We cover tips on how to create safe habits for firearms both in the home and field, how to introduce children and new hunters to firearms, and more! 

Learn more about Project Childsafe and how you can prevent firearm accidents and suicides here: https://projectchildsafe.org/

The Rio Grande wild turkey, a distinct subspecies of North American wild turkey found primarily in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, New Mexico, and Nebraska, face many threats, such as habitat loss, urbanization, climate change, disease and parasites, and these factors play a significant role in impacting the overall health of Rio Grande wild turkey populations. Recognizing their importance, a new study emphasizes the critical need to closely monitor the health of these populations to ensure their long-term survival.

This project is one of 10 new research projects across nine states the NWTF is funding, with $582,374 invested among these vital projects. These research projects are part of a nearly $9 million investment into wild turkey research in 2023, supported by the NWTF and its partners.

A new study in Florida is trying to better understand the survival of hens, their choices in habitat selection, nesting chronology and nest site selection. It will look at survival rates of Osceola wild turkeys, including both adult birds and their poults, while closely examining the factors that are linked to their mortality.

It will also focus on quantifying the survival and behavior of adult male wild turkeys in hunted and non hunted populations. Researchers aim to gain insights into the impacts of harvest management strategies and season structure on wild turkey populations.

This project is one of 10 new research projects across nine states the NWTF is funding, with $582,374 invested among these vital projects. These research projects are part of a nearly $9 million investment into wild turkey research in 2023, supported by the NWTF and its partners.

Through our 2023 commitment to wild turkey research, the NWTF has granted funding to an ongoing research project in Oklahoma. It aims to understand the decline of wild turkey and brood survival in the state.Through monitoring hen survival, poult survival, habitat selection and exposure to disease, researchers are taking a comprehensive approach to understand these issues at a deeper level.

This project is one of 10 new research projects across nine states the NWTF is funding, with $582,374 invested among these vital projects. These projects are part of a nearly $9 million investment into wild turkey research in 2023, supported by the NWTF, its state chapters and its partners.

Wildlife managers in numerous Eastern U.S. states have observed decreasing patterns in yearly Eastern wild turkey offspring and have proposed that a diminished number of successful hatches could influence declines in local populations.

 In Wisconsin, a new research initiative intends to shed light on crucial aspects of turkey survival, recruitment (when new individuals are added to a population) and population dynamics (the factors that affect the increase, stability and decrease of populations over time) using innovative methods and technology. We talk with Christopher Pollentier about the project and wild turkey populations in Wisconsin.

Read more here: https://www.nwtf.org/content-hub/integrating-data-sources

As part of its 2023 investment in wild turkey research, the NWTF is helping fund a new project led by Kansas State University; the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks; and the U.S. Geological Survey, Kansas Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit.

To establish a poults-per-hen ratio of two or higher, the success of a hen raising a healthy brood and recruiting poults to juveniles is essential. The emerging research will examine the diets of poults and hens in their most critical stages for recruitment: the first two weeks for poults and nesting periods for hens.

This project is one of 10 new research projects across nine states the NWTF is funding, with $582,374 invested among these vital projects. These projects are part of a nearly $9 million investment into wild turkey research in 2023, supported by the NWTF and its partners.

In 2019, a report in Science made headlines worldwide, stating that North America’s bird population had decreased by 3 billion birds since the 1970s. Researchers deciphered this staggering number using advanced statistical methods integrating wide-ranging data sources, including multiple annual bird censuses, historical data and even weather radar data that can quantify migratory birds.

Now, researchers at the University of Florida want to take a similar approach with wild turkeys, painting a clearer picture of wild turkey abundance across the country. “Currently, there are few methods to reliably estimate wild turkey abundance, meaning that managers and practitioners often rely on indices, such as poults per hen and hunter harvest, to track trends in populations,” said Corey Callaghan, Ph.D., assistant professor of global ecology at the University of Florida. “Our approach will utilize these indices as well as multiple large-scale datasets to develop a method to estimate wild turkey abundance at multiple spatial scales, which will benefit state agencies in decision-making processes.”

Read more here: https://www.nwtf.org/content-hub/integrating-data-sources

State-of-the-Art Wild Turkey Research Continues for Second Year. Traditional methods of estimating turkey populations have proved difficult, but this study aims to improve population estimates by genetically analyzing fecal matter and feathers from an area to track individuals. This effectively allows researchers to create a database of individual wild turkeys on a specific project site by analyzing genetic material in the field.

Learn more about the project here: https://www.nwtf.org/content-hub/pioneering-wild-turkey-research-underway-in-mississippi

What is impacting the wild turkey population to a higher degree: increased predators or lack of sufficient habitat to avoid becoming prey? Or both?

This question is at the heart of a comprehensive wild turkey research study in southeastern Iowa – where there is no shortage of predators and the five-year poult-to-hen ratio averages 1.9, indicating the population is in decline. The ongoing project is being conducted by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, Luther College and the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. The NWTF Iowa State Chapter is providing funding for the project, and the NWTF also invested in this project as part of its 2023 investment in wild turkey research.

Learn more here: https://www.nwtf.org/content-hub/wild-turkey-research-to-receive-nearly-9-million-from-nwtf-and-partners #wildturkey #research #iowa #nestpredation #nestpredator #wildlifehabitat #hunt #hunting #nwtf #conservation