Fall turkey harvest down 32 percent

A long-term decline in hunter interest may have contributed to a decline in the number of wild turkeys killed during Missouri’s fall firearms hunting season, but state officials say weather certainly played a role.
The total harvest for the season Oct. 1 through 31 was 7,385 turkeys. That is the lowest in the season’s 31-year history and 32 percent fewer than last year.
Resource Scientist Tom Dailey, who oversees wild turkey management for the Missouri Department of Conservation, said several years of difficult weather account for much of the decline.
Dailey said cold, wet conditions during the big birds’ nesting and early brood-rearing period from April through June have limited wild turkey reproduction in three out of the last four years. The 2006 hatch was relatively strong, but cool, wet weather in 2005, a freak freeze in...
Read the complete story in the November 20th edition.