The 2021 Georgia Turkey Hunting Special

Two decades have passed since poult counts began to shift downward and hunters begin to cry about worsening conditions in the turkey woods. Southeastern biologists, researchers and hunters have come to the same table to discuss the issue, and we now find ourselves on the cliff of what could be pretty drastic changes to Georgia’s turkey season beginning with the 2022 spring gobbler season. Whether those changes are good or bad for turkey hunting depends on who you ask, but many feel change is needed.

The Georgia Spring Turkey Harvest 2020 survey was done for WRD by Responsive Management, an internationally recognized survey research firm. The recent survey conducted 3,481 interviews with license holders who were eligible to hunt turkeys in Georgia. From those interviews, 822 actually hunted turkeys in the spring of 2020.

From the survey, the state estimates 45,205 turkey hunters hit the woods during the 2020 season. Those hunters harvested an estimated 17,048 turkeys, with 1,540 of those being jakes. WRD’s Game Check numbers were lower, coming in at 14,428 birds from 2020.

“I am definitely seeing improvement where Game Check harvest reports are concerned,” said Cpl. Bubba Stanford with DNR Law Enforcement. “I would say 75% of the hunters I checked last season who were in possession of harvested animals had reported their harvest before I ever checked them. That’s improvement over the first few seasons since Game Check was implemented, and I believe it will continue to get better.”

WRD’s survey asked questions regarding how hunters felt about regulation changes being implemented in the future as tools to offset struggling turkey numbers. Of those surveyed, 75% wanted regulation changes at some level, either by a simple bag limit reduction from three to two birds, to some hunters who preferred multiple new regulations. We can now fast forward to what’s actually being discussed as WRD comes off its January public meetings and begins to draft hunting regs for the 2022-23 turkey seasons.

“I’m really excited to see the responses from our turkey hunters who have shown that they are willing to do whatever is necessary to stop the decline of the turkey population in the state of Georgia. It’s encouraging to see that they are willing to forfeit some things now to gain a brighter future,” said Tina Johannsen, WRD’s assistant chief of Game Management.

Arguably the biggest change on the table centers around moving the season’s opening-day date two or three weeks after the normal mid to late March start date. This would mean a start date of approximately April 10.

In addition to a later start date, also being discussed is creating a daily bag limit of one bird, implementing a limit of one bird during the first 10 days of the season, and an overall season limit reduction from the current three-bird limit to two. So now it’s down to what WRD will be presenting to the Board of Natural Resources this spring.

“I think all the proposals are things that would be of benefit to our turkeys and the population, but if I had to pick just one, it would likely be pushing the opening of turkey season back some,” said Tina. “As far as whether any of the proposals will be put into place, I’d say there is a very strong chance that we will see some changes next year.”

Emily Rushton, WRD’s State Wild Turkey Coordinator, echoed the sentiments of Tina about a later start date.

“The pushing back of the season opener closer to peak incubation dates would certainly benefit turkeys in regards to allowing more breeding to take place, allow more hens to begin the critical nesting period of peak incubation, and delay hunter pressure until after these things have taken place,” said Emily.

So the big question is how will hunters feel about not starting their 2022 turkey season until roughly April 10? WRD’s hunter survey, which polled 822 hunters, showed that 51% of them said they strongly or moderately supported the change, while 39% either moderately or strongly opposed the change.

“I’m 100% in favor of moving the opening day of the season back to a later date,” said Troy Aeschlima, of Sharpsburg, who turkey hunts in Taylor County. “I think it will give a lot of these gobblers, particularly the dominant birds, a chance to do more breeding. That’s the proposal that I like the most out of all the ones I’ve seen.”

Above are the results from WRD’s hunter survey. The 822 turkey hunters were asked the following question: If science indicates that wild turkey reproduction can be improved by delaying the season opener to coincide with peak hen nest incubation, would you support or oppose delaying the season opener to coincide with this date, approximately April 10th?

Here’s the results from GON’s VOTES survey that asked hunters to select which turkey hunting regulation changes, if any, they would prefer. The 1,277 respondents were allowed to select multiple options.

Not all hunters agree with Troy. The results of GON’s VOTES survey from last month had 1,277 respondents participate and just 16.1% were in favor of starting the season later.

“I just haven’t personally seen enough research and data to support moving the season back,” said David Moore, of Midland, who hunts Harris and Talbot counties. “I have some property where the birds generally move off the property by the second week of the season, and I wouldn’t even get to hunt those birds if the season is delayed a couple of weeks.”

Other hunters say having a statewide start date that is later won’t work.

“The purpose of moving the season back would be to protect breeding toms so they can actually breed the hens,” said Jason Dockery, of Cleveland, who hunts in Lumpkin and White counties. “The timing of this breeding is not the same across the state. There would have to be zones with different start dates to benefit everyone based on region. I am more for one bird the first 10 days of the season with a reduced bag limit to twobirds rather than moving season dates.”

The question remains whether a later start date will come to fruition or we’ll see something else, or we’ll face a combination of changes.

“I don’t believe any single change to our current regulations will handle the problem all by itself,” said UGA’s Dr. Michael Chamberlain, one of the nation’s most respected wild turkey biologists.

In the January 2021 issue of GON, Dr. Chamberlain made his case for having a later start date to the season. He writes in that story, “If many dominant toms, and many toms in general, are removed early in the breeding season (March), it creates problems in the turkey world. That’s because hens have spent time selecting toms atop their pecking orders, and when those toms are removed early in breeding, she’s forced to go back through the process of selecting a tom to breed with—and all toms are not created equal. Earlier research has shown that not all toms are capable of breeding even as adults, because the presence of dominant toms can influence hormone levels in toms that hang around each other. In other words, some adult toms may not be able to produce viable clutches of eggs despite the fact that they’re displaying for hens. The bottom line is, we cannot assume that removing a dominant tom today means that another tom will step up and be a breeding tom tomorrow. It appears that things are not that simple in the turkey world.”

Dr. Chamberlain’s current concern is not only the current season start date but also the impact that COVID had on turkeys last spring.

“Timing of the harvest is a very big deal,” he said. “And the timing of COVID had a big impact on the 2020 season, as well. More people were in the woods, and they were there more often. The harvest rate was really high earlier than in seasons’ past. Overall, 36 to 40% more hunters killed the three-bird limit last year. That’s not a good thing. Obviously, if more birds are dying before they have the opportunity to breed, or at least breed more, then it affects the hatch, the brood numbers and poult recruitment.”

Jonathan Barber, of Pembroke, hunts in Liberty County and enjoyed his 2020 season, but he said he looks forward to a spring when he’s hearing more birds hammering from the roost.

“I did get more time in the woods due to COVID,” said Jonathan. “The current state of turkeys in my area is obviously not where we would want it to be. I’ve heard less gobbling every year for the past several years. We definitely need changes.”

John Browning, owner of Pistol Creek, hunts in Wilkes County. “We had a good season,” John said. “We had pockets of birds in our area that provided some really good hunting, but overall our numbers are down, and there is a real need for some changes in regulations. I think that moving the season opener back a couple of weeks would have the greatest impact on reproduction, nesting success and poult recruitment. More hens would be raising poults earlier.”

In last month’s VOTES comments, we heard from a number of readers who don’t think a regulation change is needed right now, or WRD needs to look at other avenues to correct lower turkey numbers. One VOTES respondent said, “Hunters are not the problem. Ten years ago I hunted turkeys every chance I got. Turkeys were plentiful around my house. Hunters didn’t kill them. Something else did but not sure what.”

Another hunter said, “Trapping and predator management would do more for the turkey population than the season and regulation adjustments in my opinion.”

A third says, “Timed feeders and legal baiting of deer is the No. 1 cause of the turkey decline in my opinion. Predators are following hen turkeys back to the nest by site or smell and destroying eggs. Look at pics from trail cams and see the coon numbers explode. Turkeys are also easy prey at the feeders themselves.”

Meanwhile, the 2021 turkey season will look about like it did in 2020.

“Based on last year’s forecast and poult production from 2019, I would predict an average harvest statewide,” said Emily. “I would also predict that overall harvest will not likely exceed 2020’s numbers, as reproduction has not rebounded in many areas.

“The Blue Ridge and Ridge and Valley will probably have a good year, though maybe not as high of a harvest as 2020. The Piedmont poult production in 2019 was below average, so it may not have as many 2-year old birds compared to other years. I would predict a fair harvest for this region. Both the Upper and Lower Coastal Plains had slightly above average poult production in 2019, so these areas should see a good to average harvest.”

Overall, the statewide poult/hen ratio was down from 1.5 in 2019 to 1.4 in 2020. The only two regions that saw an increase were the Piedmont and the Upper Coastal Plain.

So, is there hope for the mess we are in?

“We brought turkeys back before when they were nearly gone, and we can do it again,” said Dr. Chamberlain. “But we can’t bring them back using the methods we used before. Things are different now. The habitat is different, seasons are different and regulations are different. It will be a challenge, but we can do it. We just have to find a new way to do it.”

Turkeys For Tomorrow

In light of decreasing turkey numbers across the Southeast comes the formation of a new organization called Turkeys for Tomorrow, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization referred to as TFT. Ron Jolly is co-chairman of the board and a highly respected and renowned award-winning author and video and television producer who was recently inducted into NWTF’s Grand National Hall of Fame.

“We (at TFT) support and promote science, conservation, education and hunting traditions for America’s wild turkey resource while working alongside like-minded organizations, state wildlife agencies, hunters, landowners and universities to ensure we all have turkeys for tomorrow,” said Ron. “TFT will rely on agencies to determine where funding is most needed. Once a project is chosen and the funding amount has been determined, TFT will apply those funds to that project during the year in which the project was started and each subsequent year thereafter as needed when funds become available as determined by the TFT board.”

Ron said that agencies receiving TFT funds will be required to apply for three-to-one matching Pittman/Robertson federal funds. These PR funds come from money generated by taxes on guns, ammo, archery equipment and other hunting related items. It’s given to the Secretary of the Interior to distribute to the states. States are required to meet certain requirements for the money that is apportioned to them. Things such as research and wildlife management and habitat are among the options that are applicable reasons for Pittman-Robertson funding.

Ron is strong on accountability.

“Every entity that receives funds from TFT will be held accountable,” he said. “They will be required to provide a written, itemized account of how and where the funds were spent and report progress of the project to the TFT Board of Directors.

“You are hunters and only you can force the scientific, moral, ethical and political changes needed to accomplish the goal of reversing a perfect storm that is currently wreaking havoc on wild turkeys in some areas. If not you, if not hunters, then who?”

For more information, go to www.turkeysfortomorrow.org. Also find them Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

About The Author: Donald Devereaux Jarrett has been writing for GON since 2003 and is on these pro staffs: JEBS Chokes, Mossy Oak, South Dakota Hunting Service and Pistol Creek. If you’d like to talk turkey with Donald, you can reach him at
[email protected].