ESPN Hunting

If you're a turkey hunter, the good news is that you're likely to hear gobblers sounding off in the woods this spring. The bad news is that, depending on where you hunt, you probably won't hear as many, and you might not be able to get to them even if you do.

In the prime turkey-hunting states of the Midwest and upper South, for example, cleanup crews are still tidying up after the "ice storm of the century" in late January that not only devastated wildlife habitat, but sent trees and limbs crashing down over access roads and trails. The chainsaws are still cutting in many wildlife management areas and public hunting lands in Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia and southern Ohio, as well as in some isolated areas of the upper Midwest where March ice storms struck.

Here's the region-by-region forecast of what to expect when daylight comes to your opening day:

Midwest | South | West | East

Midwest

Given all the winter weather that afflicted the upper Midwest this spring, the April 15 opener in Minnesota isn't expected to set any records. Here again, the big question for hunters is not how many gobblers they might hear on opening morning, but whether they will be able to get to the roost trees.

Ice damage from the March storms was so severe in the North Shore region that most public access roads into the outback have been closed until further notice. Likewise, in Minnesota's southern "Agricultural Zone," access roads are barred to all vehicular traffic through the spring thaw, and nobody is predicting when that's going to occur.

Michigan hunters might also be put out, but not because of a lack of turkeys. The U.P. and northern counties of the L.P. stayed in the deep freeze through much of winter and spring, and access might be a problem here. Stick to the southern farm belt, where the habitat and the weather are more to the liking of Easterns, and where biologists forecast an exceptional season.

In Missouri, the upcoming season is characterized as being "very challenging" by Tom Dailey, a Department of Conservation resource biologist.

"Our turkey population is down," Dailey said. "The Easter freeze of 2007 hurt us, and then we had a lot of rain and flooding in the spring of 2008. Not only did the Easter freeze kill some eggs and poults, it froze a lot of oak buds that, in turn, didn't produce any acorns. That didn't help with the survival rate of other birds later on, and it's going to take a few normal springs for Missouri to recover."

As most turkey hunters know, it's the 2-year-old gobblers that respond best to calls, but that year class in Missouri, southern Iowa, eastern Kansas and northern Arkansas is largely absent this spring.

Depending on the severity of spring floods, Indiana hunters can anticipate decent results, especially in the woodlands along the Wasbash and Ohio River drainages. As is the case in neighboring Illinois, good hatches in scattered areas of the state have resulted in prime hunting conditions. The same goes for Ohio, where fair-to-good hatches have occurred the past couple of years in the wooded counties along the Ohio River and elsewhere in the southeastern part of the Buckeye State.

As an example of how small things can produce big results, the exceptional cicada hatch last spring meant plenty of forage for poults, which rely on insects for the first several days of their lives to survive. Ohio Department of Natural Resources biologist Mike Reynolds predicts that hunters are likely to call in plenty of jakes and two-year-old toms when the season opens April 20.

"Based on brood observations, hunters can expect statewide harvest numbers that are similar to last year," Reynolds said. "However, counties in southern Ohio that experienced a 17-year cicada emergence last summer may see a noticeable increase in jakes this spring due to the high survival rates."

Ohio hunters bagged 20,389 gobblers last spring.

South

While Midwestern hunters might be straining to hear gobblers, Kentucky hunters should have it a bit easier during the season that opens April 18, if recent brood surveys are any indication.

"Last year was the highest number of poults ever recorded in the 25 years we've conducted turkey brood surveys," said Steve Dobey, turkey program coordinator in the Bluegrass State. "There are probably more turkeys on the ground now than at any time in recent history — about 220,000 birds. A lot of them are jakes, but they're just a reminder of how good the season will be next year. There are a lot of older gobblers out there, too, and the patient hunter will have a good season."

As noted, the January ice storm might pose a bigger problem for hunters who can't reach their familiar hunting grounds for a while. Dobey says the storm's impact on wild turkeys was minimal, though the possible loss of acorn-bearing and other mast trees might hurt in future years.

Typically, public lands in western Kentucky such as Land Between the Lakes and the Pennyrile State Forest yield the best harvest numbers, as do public and private lands of the Green River drainage.

In the eastern part of Kentucky, the Daniel Boone National Forest is a recommended destination. A new WMA, Marrowbone State Forest in Cumberland and Metcalfe counties, also is promising.

In Maryland, the turkey population is growing in portions of the Eastern Shore and southern counties, but declining elsewhere. Still, the western counties yield the highest harvest and that isn't expected to change this spring.

A lengthy drought has taken its toll on wildlife and habitat in South Carolina, and spring turkey-hunting prospects are only fair. The poult count was down last year for the third spring in a row, as 49 percent of hens that were spotted by researchers did not have poults with them.

"We had a lot of spring thunderstorms last year and that probably resulted in the deaths of some poults in some locales, but it doesn't explain why our turkey population is down across the board," says Charles Ruth, South Carolina's deer and turkey project supervision. "The downward trend follows the duration of the drought, though, so it's reasonable to expect that the turkey population will start increasing again when the drought breaks."

Like South Carolina, lack of rainfall in much of Texas is taking a toll of wildlife, and turkey hunters there aren't anticipating a stellar season for Rios. Turkey populations in South Texas and the Hill Country have fallen as a result of the longstanding drought, and the northern counties of the Panhandle and along the Red River valley look like the best bets at this point.

According to Alan Cain, district wildlife biologist for the prime hunting lands of south Texas, the northern portion of region is currently experiencing the driest 18 months on record since rainfall data collection began in the area in1871.

"The last couple of years we've had a poor hatch in this area so there's going to be fewer gobblers and jakes," Cain says. "The best places to hunt are along the drainages where there might a few green weeds to attract birds. I would assume that as hens start dispersing they will be moving to areas with suitable nesting habitat. Overall, hunting will probably be tough as birds will be concentrated to the more desirable habitat areas this year. But there still are plenty of 2-year-old birds. That's about the only good news."

Tennessee woods should have been booming with the sounds of shotguns last Saturday when turkey season began, but it didn't happen. Cold and rainy weather, in the form of what Southerners might describe as "dogwood winter," visited the Volunteer State for the March 28 opener and no doubt dampened the enthusiasm of hunters and gobblers.

Still, with more than a month of hunting to go, what are a few gloomy days? Besides, the forecast calls for another great season.

"Our summer brood surveys in 2007 and 2008 were in line with our long-term average, which is good given the 2007 drought that we experienced," said Gray Anderson, turkey program coordinator for the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency. "So, given those recent good brood production counts, and the relatively mild winters that we've had lately, there's no reason to expect less than an excellent gobbler harvest."

Except for lousy weather on opening weekend in mid-March, Alabama hunters don't have much to grumble about. Nesting seasons in recent years have been exceptional, and there are plenty of two-year-old toms to go around.

It's more iffy in neighboring Mississippi, according to biologist Joe Koloski of the National Wild Turkey Federation (NWTF), and depends on hunting locales. Jake counts last year were down in the north, but up in the east-central woodlands. The Mississippi River delta and its feeders flooded last spring, but that will mean more mature gobblers available this go-around.

Georgia's coastal counties look like the best bets for mature birds, and hunters throughout the state should see a lot of jakes following the exceptional nesting season of 2008. Ditto for Virginia and West Virginia, where reasonably good spring weather during the past couple of years has sustained average nesting seasons.

Virginia's Tidewater counties, as usual, hold the best concentrations of toms. In West Virginia, prospects are considered good for clever callers who can deal with mature gobblers and steep climbs. With millions of acres of public hunting land such as the Monongahela National Forest to tread, mobile hunters will have plenty of roost trees to check.

West

It's a good thing that Merriam's have the constitution of a St. Bernard, because otherwise there wouldn't be anything except prairie grouse and magpies in the Rocky Mountain and Upper Plains states.

Nebraska's harvest of Rio Grandes and Merriam's has risen steadily during the last few years. In fact, this spring's take should exceed 20,000 birds for the first time. Last year, 19,896 gobblers were tagged (up from 18,001 in 2007) and a 2008 rural mail carrier survey revealed the turkey population has grown 500 percent since 2002. Small wonder the gun season has been extended by a couple of weeks to run from April 18 through May 31. In Nebraska, find a patch of trees, and you're apt to find some turkeys.

Though turkey populations in eastern Kansas have suffered through some miserable, wet springs lately, Unit 3 in the north-central area of the state is predicted to be a hotspot this year, according to NWTF biologist Brandon Houck.

"They've [Unit 3] had several consecutive years of explosive hatches and are sitting on a huge population of birds. This area happens to have some good public lands and quite a bit of private ground that's accessible through the Walk-in-Hunting-Access Areas program that NWTF supports in partnership with Kansas Wildlife and Parks," said Houck.

Elsewhere, spring 2009 is expected to be pretty much a repeat of last year — some good, some bad. The nesting season was so poor in the Badlands of North Dakota that the state reduced the number of tags available. Eastern portions of the state were inundated this spring, and the floods are sure to affect dispersal and the nesting season.

"Areas such as the Black Hills in South Dakota and Wyoming got plenty of moisture in the form of both snow and rain last spring," said Jared McJunkin, NWTF regional biologist. "That helped. In the Black Hills of South Dakota, Game, Fish & Parks field surveys indicated that poult/hen ratios looked to be about average. However, hunters in some areas of the Black Hills might notice a shortage of jakes, indicating either locally marginal production or poor poult survival."

McJunkin thinks that generally hunters will find more mature Merriam's in the northern Great Plains this spring, but that seasons in the near future might be impacted adversely by flooding and spring blizzards this year.

"Winter is far from over for this year, but it appears that spring turkey hunting opportunities should be good across the four-state area of Montana, Wyoming and the Dakotas," he said.

Colorado wildlife managers are expecting an average year for turkey hunters, which translates into a harvest of between 2,000 and 3,000 gobblers.

In the Far West, wet springs the last few years have taken a toll in Washington, Oregon and Idaho and population averages are down. That's not the case in California, where wildlife officials see the chance for a record season throughout the coastal ranges and central valleys north of San Francisco. California's top 10 gobbler-producing counties: 1. Sonoma, 2. Mendocino, 3. El Dorado, 4. Alameda, 5. Shasta, 6. Lake, 7. Stanislaus, 8. Amador, 9. Napa and 10. San Luis Obispo.

"The last two springs in California were great for turkey hatches, and that was coupled with great acorn years," Wildlife Biologist Ryan Mathis said. "Now we've got a turkey population of about 240,000 birds, and a lot of them live on public land in the top-producing counties. Mountain and Cache Creek managed by the Bureau of Land Management and the El Dorado National Forest are among the best."

The weather in much of New Mexico has been similar to that of southern Texas — bone-dry — and some public hunting land might be closed this spring due to the threat of fire. Otherwise, expect average hunting conditions. Ditto for Arizona, where at least there's some good news in the form of increased numbers of tags for Gould's: 20 (in the southwestern corner of the state). About 1,200 Merriam's and Rio Grandes were taken in Arizona last year, and the 2009 harvest is expected to be about average.

East

In 2008, 3,433 gobblers were tagged in New Jersey, the third highest harvest on record. New Jersey wildlife managers figure that there are about 22,000 wild turkeys in the state and, following a fairly routine winter, the outlook for the spring season is generally good. Though poult production appeared to be better in the northern and central parts of the state last spring, the southern end is still considered the best bet for a mature gobbler this year. Along the Delaware River valley and, for that matter, in adjoining Pennsylvania counties, a consistent downward trend in turkey populations has been noted, though perhaps owing more to urbanization than any other cause.

Elsewhere in the Keystone State, a hard winter with lots of snow and ice creates iffy prospects.

Frigid conditions, coupled with last fall's poor mast crop, will affect the spring season. Still, excellent hatches the last couple of years might offset the doom and gloom. Turkey numbers are rated as excellent in the north-central and northeastern counties where there are huge tracts of public land such as the Tioga State Forest.

Farther northeast, in the New England states, the winter of 2008-2009 was one for the record books. To a great extent, wildlife adapts to whatever the local weather is apt to produce, but it's hard to imagine anything being able to survive the brutal winter that visited Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine and parts of New York, Massachusetts and Connecticut.

Wild turkeys often migrate temporarily to areas where they can find forage, though record New England snows, even into late February, make state wildlife managers wonder how great the winterkill of wild turkeys will be. Across the region, brood surveys have reflected good nesting results for the past few years. It will be interesting to see if Vermont hunters, who set a record last spring with 5,461 toms tagged, will maintain that sort of harvest.

"The 2009 season has the potential to be about the same as 2008 and close to the five-year average spring harvest of about 29,500 birds," notes Mike Schiavone, a wildlife biologist with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. "An above-average 2007 hatch combined with a decent late-season hatch in 2008 should provide hunters with better-than-average opportunities to harvest two-year-old birds and jakes.

However, there is a lot of variation among regions of the state and even within a region. The northern counties, in particular, got hit pretty hard last year with spring rain, so production was much worse there than in other parts of the state. That's two straight seasons with poor production in Region 6, so spring take will likely be down there." New York's Regions 4 and 7 have experienced good nesting seasons the past couple of years, so harvest should be similar to or slightly better than last year with plenty of young birds and a fair number of adult birds available to hunters.

In fact, many of the toms that calls are likely to entice around the country this spring will be jakes, but that's OK. When a hunter hears a gobble, and it's moving toward his yelps, purrs and cutts, anything that shows up is a prize.