This weeks newspaper column... answers some face book friends who have
disagreed with the idea of reducing hunting pressure on wild turkey.
In
my column last week I wrote that in view of what has been happening to wild
turkey populations the last few years we need to ease off the hunting pressure
somewhat by re-arranging the youth season--- by setting it after the regular
season instead of before. We
should think about shortening the regular season somewhat, and, until we see an
increase in the 2 and 3 year old gobblers, cutting back to one tom per spring
instead of two.
Of
course that upset some readers, especially those who take young hunters that
special weekend. One fellow pointed out that it is the one time he gets to take
his son out into the woods and have special time with him. In a way, that really irks me. When I was a boy seven or eight years
old, and for many years to come, there was no turkey season. So I guess it follows to reason that
Dad and I never spent any time together. But on that weekend that is now the “youth turkey season” we were on the
river fishing for goggle-eye, bass and green sunfish. On weekends before and after, all year long, he taught me
how to set trotlines for catfish, how to shoot by taking me out to hunt
squirrels, rabbits, ducks and quail. Dad looked down on deer hunting because it was a time for the red-clad
crowd to descend on the Big Piney country from the city. On such times, he and I might build a
johnboat together. The point is,
when someone says that having a ‘youth season’ makes it a time for fathers to
spend time with their sons, I wonder what the heck is wrong with them. I will tell you a little about the
youth season… it is a time in many situations each spring, for a man to take
out a boy and shoot a turkey or deer illegally, while the kid watches, and in
some cases doesn’t even go. The
grown-up finds a field edge he can bait with corn all winter, set up a store-bought
camo blind and just about insure that gobblers will be there. Sure, I know it likely is a minority of
men who shoot deer and gobblers during the youth season, but it is darn sure
too many.
If
the special youth seasons for deer and turkey are the times you spend outdoors
with your son then you are not much of an outdoor dad. My father worked at a shoe factory 15
miles from our home, but often he would get home in the evening and we would go
down to the Piney and bait a trotline which I would run the next morning. Some evenings we would seine bait or
dig nightcrawlers, or prepare some traps with my grandpa for an upcoming
trapping season. We were together
outdoors constantly, with no deer or turkey in mind. If the youth season for turkey in the spring is all you have
for your son, you don’t have much.
Those
who do not want to see any turkey season restrictions often cite weather or
predation as a problem, and they are right. My old friend Darrel Hamby sent me a note that said the
biggest adverse effect is the fact that nesting turkeys ‘have no friends’
citing the crows as destroyers of so many nests. He is right. They are intelligent enough to watch hens and find nests. I think right now we have more
raccoons, skunks, possums and weasels than ever before in my lifetime. Add armadillos to that and you see why
the number of eggs per spring is declining. Then figure the growing numbers of
feral hogs. It is surprising how few turkey hunters know what feral hogs do to
turkey nests. But it isn’t only turkeys that all these critters affect. It surprises me when I talk to most of
today’s outdoorsmen, that so many never even hear whippoorwills in the world
where they live, but that bird, a woodland ground-nester, is ever decreasing in
number because of egg-eaters, number one and two among them being the armadillo
and feral hogs, which weren’t even found in the Ozarks when I hunted wild
gobblers with such success 20 or 30 years ago.
Hunter
numbers rise every spring and big trees are being leveled everywhere. Yes the big problem is weather and nest
predation…. But if you blame every thing else but hunting pressure, you aren’t
looking past your own nose. ALL OF THESE have contributed to what I see annually as a problem for
decreasing numbers of turkeys. We
can’t do anything about the weather, but we can indeed do something. We can take a good look at hunting
pressure, and accept the fact that it is indeed part of the problem and it
needs to be addressed somehow. And
we CAN do something about feral hogs…
I will talk about that in next week’s column.
In
the meantime if you are a father wanting to spend time with your son, instead
of taking him out to set at the edge of a green field in a blind, take him to
the Big Piney that week-end and fish for goggle-eye. You won’t have to buy a special tag, and of course that will
mean less money for the conservation department. But with their 200 million dollar budget, they can absorb
the loss.
I am
busy this month managing brown-headed cowbirds, the birds which destroy the
eggs of songbirds which have open nests, then lay their own eggs for robins,
cardinals, etc. to incubate and raise.
They are
more numerous here on Lightnin’ Ridge than ever before and my management tools
consist of a very accurate 22. rifle. But don’t get the idea that I am
killing them. Heavens no, I am
just frightening them away! It is
just as illegal to kill one as it is to kill a copperhead or a woodrat in your
shed or a crow in your garden. Because as that MDC agent recently kept
reminding us on a local radio station… “If we don’t say you can, YOU CAN’T!”
I will
relate in next weeks column what my get together with MDC director Sara Pauley
amounted to, to this point. I urge
you to find a copy of the summer Lightnin’ Ridge Outdoor Magazine, now on
news-stands, where you can read about things concerning the MDC that I have
discussed, which many newspapers are hesitant to print.
The summer issue of THE LIGHTNIN' RIDGE OUTDOOR JOURNAL is on the news stands. If you
can’t find the magazine, call our office to obtain one. The number is 417 777 5227. Email me at lightninridge47@gmail.com The post office address is Box 22, Bolivar, Mo. 65613
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