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Raleigh, N.C. (March 15, 2005) — Low hunter participation and low harvest numbers marked the first two years of the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission’s winter wild turkey season. Hunters reported harvesting 332 wild turkeys — 181 birds in 2004 and 151 birds in 2005 — during the six-day, either-sex seasons open in January of those years. Stokes County hunters reported harvesting the most wild turkeys this winter — 23 birds — while hunters in Person and Surry counties reported harvesting the fewest birds, seven each. Alleghany, Ashe and Wilkes counties each reported 19 wild turkeys harvested this winter, tying for second.
The harvest numbers reflect hunter participation in each county, rather than turkey populations in respective counties, according to Mike Seamster, the Wildlife Commission’s upland game bird biologist. “Wild turkeys are doing very well in Stokes County, but I wouldn’t read too much in Stokes reporting the most birds harvested this winter,” Seamster said. “As far as Person and Surry counties reporting only seven birds each, I think the difference has more to do with hunter effort. Also, Surry is a small, but more developed county than Stokes.” Seamster said that many hunters do not realize that turkey populations are driven primarily by reproductive success, not harvest regulations and predators. “If we get a couple of consecutive years of poor hatches, there can be a noticeable population decline. We had a poor hatch in 2003, for example, and the 2004 spring harvest declined by 10 percent,” Seamster said. “Conversely, a couple of years of excellent hatches can result in noticeable increases in turkey numbers.” More than 30 years had passed since hunters were allowed to harvest wild North Carolina turkeys in winter. The success of the Wildlife Commission’s turkey-restoration efforts coupled with hunter interest in a winter season prompted the Commission to re-establish the winter wild turkey season in 2004 on private land in Alleghany, Ashe, Caswell, Granville, Person, Rockingham, Stokes, Surry and Watauga counties. The Commission added Wilkes County to the winter turkey season in 2005. The only public winter turkey hunting for both years was held on Caswell Game Land in Caswell County through permit draws. “With hunter participation and harvest numbers this low, it shouldn’t have any detrimental effect on the turkey population in these counties,” Seamster said. The Wildlife Commission selected counties for the new turkey season based on turkey populations in respective counties and spring harvest levels per square mile of habitat. Turkey population surveys suggest that North Carolina now has more than 130,000 wild turkeys, and the number is still growing, Seamster said. “We planned to have a three-year period to evaluate the impact of the winter turkey season and hunter participation before making any more changes to the regulations,” Seamster said. “After the 2006 winter season, we’ll look at the data and discuss possible changes.” Feedback about the new winter turkey season has been mixed. Seamster said the number of hunters taking advantage of the new season has been lower than expected. “As best as I can determine from talking with wildlife enforcement officers working the winter season counties, hunting effort was relatively low in all counties,” Seamster said. “In some of the more western counties — Ashe, Alleghany, Wilkes and Watauga — hunting effort during the 2005 winter turkey season may have decreased from the 2004 winter season because of the severe cold and snowy weather that we had in the mountains.” Winter wild turkey harvest results are below. COMBINED 2004-05 REPORTED WINTER EITHER-SEX WILD TURKEY HARVEST
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