Thank sportsmen for comeback of wild turkey

As thousands of Oklahoma families sit down to a Thanksgiving turkey dinner, few may realize that Oklahoma is home to a thriving population of wild turkeys. In fact, it's very likely that Oklahoma's current population of wild turkeys is higher than it's ever been. A hundred years ago, however, the plight of wild turkeys was in serious doubt. By 1925, most Oklahomans believed that wild turkeys were extinct.

While crossing the Oklahoma prairie in 1832, Washington Irving documented large populations of wild turkeys near present day Oklahoma City and Norman. In 1869, General Philip Sheridan wrote about a similar turkey roost "that was more than three miles long" along the North Canadian River.

In just a few short years, however, relentless pursuit by hungry pioneers and market hunters had decimated many local turkey flocks. A greater threat than overhunting, however, was massive changes in land use, which resulted in habitat loss. With settlement, forests were cleared to make way for small farms or logged to provide construction materials for in-state communities or commercial markets in the east.

In 1937, a piece of landmark federal legislation called the Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration (Pittman-Robertson) Act was passed which, in the years to come, would have a dramatic effect on the future of many American wildlife species, and particularly the wild turkey. The Wildlife Restoration Program, which provided much needed funding for state wildlife agencies to restore wildlife habitat and populations, is arguably the single most productive wildlife undertaking in the world, according to Harold Namminga, federal aid/research coordinator for The Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation. "What the Wildlife Restoration Program did was place an 11-percent manufacturer's excise tax on sporting rifles, shotguns, ammunition and archery equipment used in hunting, and a similar excise tax on handguns,"

Namminga said. "This money, ultimately paid by the consumer within the purchase price, is then redistributed to state wildlife agencies to match with their revenue from hunting licenses. This money was critical in bringing back the wild turkey and a host of other species from near extinction during the mid 1900s."

In 1948, the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation made good use of Wildlife Restoration funding to embark on a ambitious stocking program to reestablish the wild turkey to it's former range. The birds were absent from central and western Oklahoma and were barely hanging on in the east with probably less than 1000 birds. The first stocking occurred with 21 Rio Grande subspecies trapped from the Texas panhandle and released near Laverne, OK, in Harper County. The flock quickly grew quickly and provided a nucleus for additional trap-and-transplant efforts in the 1950s and 60s.

By 1960, the population had rebounded enough to allow for a limited fall hunting season. A few short years later, the same effort was repeated in the woodlands of eastern Oklahoma with the eastern subspecies of wild turkeys obtained from Arkansas and Missouri. In several cases eastern birds were "horse-traded" for walleye fry from Department fish hatcheries. By 1975, enough birds had replenished the forests of southeast Oklahoma to allow a spring hunting season. Today, huntable populations of turkeys exist in all 77 Oklahoma counties. In the year 2000, over 65,000 turkey hunters will pursue the birds in Oklahoma's fall and spring seasons. It's ultimately hunters who are responsible for the comeback of the wild turkey. All of the Department's trap and transplant efforts of the 50s, 60s and 70s were an expensive undertaking and probably couldn't have been done on license revenue alone, said Harold Namminga. "In this system, hunters not only paid for turkey restoration through their purchase of hunting licenses, but also by contributing to the Wildlife Restoration Program whenever they bought firearms and other hunting equipment," he said. "The North American system: Essentially that hunters and anglers pay for conservation, is without question the most successful in the world. The wild turkey is just one example. You can say the same thing about white-tailed deer, wood ducks, and a whole host of non-game species that have benefited from the same system."