With another lackluster spring turkey-hunting season in the books, the Ohio Division of Wildlife appears poised to at least consider touching the third rail of regulations: reducing the season bag limit and possibly lopping off a portion of the fall season as well.
Maintaining the status quo is becoming less and less likely an option.
The just concluded spring season saw a kill of 14,541 birds. That figure is a substantial drop from the 17,894 birds during the 2020 spring season, itself signifying a steady decline over the past several years. For statistical purposes, the kill during the two-day youth-only season is included in the statistics.
The top 10 counties for wild turkey harvest during the 2021 spring hunting season include: Columbiana (454), Belmont (444), Meigs (437), Tuscarawas (417), Jefferson (408), Monroe (408), Ashtabula (401), Washington (398), Guernsey (378), and Muskingum (373).
Only three of Ohio’s counties showed increases in 2021 verses their respective 2020 spring total.
Sliding also are the sale of spring turkey tags. Preliminary figures point to around 61,000-plus spring permits being sold this year. That is a steady erosion from the 76,665 permits sold in 2011. Sales began falling below the 70,000 permit mark in 2014 when 68,960 documents were issued.
Last year’s issuance of 68,148 permits is thought of being a COVID-19 anomaly; suspected of occurring with people either working from home or laid off, thus giving participants an opportunity to hunt who otherwise would not have experienced such a chance.
“We’ve seen two consecutive years of poor turkey poult production and I was a little surprised that we dipped a little below the (low end) of average,” said Mark Wiley, the Ohio Division of Wildlife’s lead turkey biologist. “About 22 percent of permit holders were successful.”
Wiley noted too that not only did more hunters fail to shoot one bird the number of sports taking the allowable two birds dropped also.
“By about 17 percent,” said Wiley who added he was “little surprised” that the number of participating hunters fell as well.
Not at all surprised by the suspected decline in the number of birds nor the fact that the woods also saw fewer participants are several individuals who live and breath turkey hunting.
“I think we are considerably down, and we we cannot blame harsh winters or bad springs, and I think raccoons and possums are big egg eaters, too,” said John Kempf of Ashtbaula County.
And even though Brown County’s Troy Conley said he considers himself very “fortunate to get into birds opening day and the following Saturday,” and thus filled both of his tags, he continued scouting for the rest of the season to help other hunters.
“We just don’t have the number of birds we used to,” Conley said.
Conley continued by stating he believes that “years and years” of allowing two birds in the spring along with a fall season “are showing a collective negative impact.”
“This much is certain: if the (Wildlife) Division thinks our numbers are healthy, their data is in error,” Conley says.
Echoing Conley’s impressions is outdoors writer Tom Cross whose several trips around his Adams County home produced the hearing of just four gobblers.
“Reminds me of the time the bottom dropped out of the grouse population during the mid-80s. Hopefully not, but eerily similar,” Cross said. “There may be pockets of good bird numbers but overall the population is down.”
Like other turkey hunters who have grown discouraged over what they contend is a declining turkey population, Kempf points a finger at two controllable metrics that could help: Delete the two-bird allowance in the spring and-or jettison the fall season.
Wiley says both points are being explored by the Wildlife Division.
“Yes, we are considering (eliminating) the second bird,” Wiley said.
Of somewhat equal discussion material then is modifying the fall season which now begins in early October and then runs to just before the start of the general firearms deer-hunting season.
“I’d like to see the fall season retained in some fashion since there are some hunters who really are into hunting turkeys in the fall,” Wiley said. “We could scale it back and still provide some opportunity.”
Wiley said that unlike the spring turkey-hunting season where the kill is “front-end” heavy when a large percentage of birds are taken, during the fall season “the harvest is pretty consistent week after week.”
Consequently, Wiley says, that should the Wildlife Division seek to alter the fall season in order to bolster the turkey flock the agency could lop off its ending date.
“The Wildlife Council members have all ready talked about it,” Wiley said. “So it’s possible we could carry forward the idea of a shortened (fall) season.”
Here is the county-by-county breakdown with each county’s 2020 spring turkey kill in parentheses: Adams: 358 (421); Allen: 65 (79); Ashland: 149 (170); Ashtabula 401 (449); Athens: 324 (380); Auglaize: 29 (54); Belmont: 444 (533); Brown: 345 (433); Butler: 173 (237); Carroll: 286 (368); Champaign: 56 (106); Clark: 12 (17); Clermont: 249 (367); Clinton: 51 (92); Columbiana: 454 (395); Coshocton: 331 (450); Crawford: 47 (59); Cuyahoga 10 (7); Darke: 48 (68); Defiance: 160 (244); Delaware: 85 (127); Erie: 47 (41); Fairfield: 82 (115); Fayette: 7 (17); Franklin: 17 (21); Fulton: 104 (118); Gallia: 359 (398); Geauga 163 (214); Greene: 17 (22); Guernsey: 378 (508); Hamilton: 83 (147); Hancock: 28 (48); Hardin: 84 (103); Harrison: 351 (458); Henry: 48 (56); Highland: 317 (412); Hocking: 217 (271); Holmes: 167 (241); Huron: 88 (112); Jackson: 293 (351); Jefferson: 408 (413); Knox: 271 (317); Lake 60 (70); Lawrence: 182 (228); Licking: 277 (319); Logan: 88 (116); Lorain: 107 (141); Lucas: 50 (54); Madison: 5 (11); Mahoning: 181 (198); Marion: 30 (46); Medina: 97 (118); Meigs: 437 (503); Mercer: 10 (30); Miami: 18 (29); Monroe: 408 (532); Montgomery: 23 (28); Morgan: 267 (322); Morrow: 107 (146); Muskingum: 373 (499); Noble: 347 (399); Ottawa: 1 (1); Paulding: 70 (75); Perry: 249 (283); Pickaway: 13 (33); Pike: 185 (197); Portage: 185 (248); Preble: 82 (125); Putnam: 40 (61); Richland: 209 (221); Ross: 262 (334); Sandusky: 23 (23); Scioto: 228 (272); Seneca: 123 (108); Shelby: 42 (39); Stark: 240 (270); Summit: 64 (79); Trumbull 307 (378); Tuscarawas: 417 (528); Union: 34 (48); Van Wert: 10 (22); Vinton: 233 (294); Warren: 67 (110); Washington: 398 (484); Wayne: 102 (123); Williams: 183 (192); Wood: 24 (31); Wyandot: 77 (87). 2021 total: 14,541. 2020 total: (17,894).
By Jeffrey L. Frischkorn
JFrischk@ameritech.net
JFrischk4@gmail.com
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