SCDNR Public Meetings on Turkey Management

[JimmyD714]

The South Carolina Department of Natural Resources (SCDNR) will host five public meetings around the state to discuss concerns about declines in wild turkey numbers and options to address these declines.

SCDNR has heard from turkey hunters, landowners and members of the General Assembly with concerns about decreasing turkey numbers, lower reproduction, and declining harvests across the state. These issues are not unique to South Carolina and are occurring across the Southeast and Midwest. SCDNR shares these concerns and summer brood surveys (turkey reproductive data), harvest data and numerous research projects in South Carolina and across the Country support these observations.

As part of the meeting, SCDNR will present available data, and receive comments and questions from hunters. This input from the public, combined with harvest data, brood survey data and university research findings will be used to develop recommendations for the S.C. General Assembly for possible legislative changes to seasons, bag limits and/or methods of take for wild turkeys. Any potential changes would occur no sooner than the 2024 legislative session and would not go into effect until the spring of 2025 at the earliest.

For individuals unable to attend one of the meetings, there will also be a video presentation and opportunity to submit comments on the SCDNR website from mid-July through early August.

Following the series of meetings and public input, SCDNR will conduct an online survey to assess public opinions and preferences for various management options.

Keep an eye on the SCDNR website and social media platforms for more information and links to submit comments.

Public meeting schedule

*All meetings begin at 6:30 p.m. and will end no later than 8:30 p.m.

July 11: Clemson Pee Dee Research and Education Center (REC), Pitner Center Auditorium; 2200 E Pocket Road; Florence, SC 29506.

July 13: Palmetto Electric Cooperative, New River Community Room; 1 Cooperative Way; Hardeeville, SC 29927.

July 25: Orangeburg-Calhoun Technical College, Roquemore Auditorium; 3250 St. Matthews Road; Orangeburg, SC 29118.

July 27: Greenville Technical College Barton Campus, University Transfer Auditorium; 506 S. Pleasantburg Drive; Greenville, SC 29607.

Aug. 1: Piedmont Technical College Newberry County Campus, Community Conference Center Auditorium, 1922 Wilson Road; Newberry, SC 29108.

[mudflat]

Sasquatches, they eating the turkey eggs. Scrambled. One even had it's way with a girl up around Lake Lure recently. Scientist are gonna do some DNA checks I'm sure when the baby is born.

[FOWL MOUTH]

Between long gunning with tss, fans/decoys, & cellular trail cameras, turkeys don't stand a chance. Oh, and social media.. can't leave that out. Dave Owens has made the entire country want to travel.

[JimmyD714]

Between long gunning with tss, fans/decoys, & cellular trail cameras, turkeys don't stand a chance. Oh, and social media.. can't leave that out. Dave Owens has made the entire country want to travel.

I agree the technology is making it way too easy to kill a bird in rapid population decline. And that social media is the worst thing to ever happen to hunting.

My buddy, who I consider a reputable source of info on these things, tells me the DNR is planning to shorten the season and cut off hunting mid-day. Do they have data proving success to back up these proposals? LOL... no, don't be silly. That's not the intent here.

Neither of those things will do anything positive in terms of increasing poult production and helping a population rebound. All it will do is put more limits on what we love to do.

If the DNR has to shorten our hunting season and cut it off at noon to save turkeys, then that shows just how incompetent they are. The goal is to have a huntable population of turkeys and give your state's hunters a good opportunity to hunt them, not just keep shortening the season as "management".

I'm very much against long range TSS shots and any decoy usage, but I also don't want anymore limitations on how we hunt. So I'm on the fence on whether I'd support some amount of restriction on those. There are wildlife biologists who have clearly stated their reasons for believing that TSS and decoys are making it way too easy to kill the boss Tom which leads to reproduction issues.

I dang sure won't support anymore regulation on shortening our season or hours per day we can hunt. Once it's gone we'll never get it back.

Show up and voice your opinion.

[Glenn]

Between long gunning with tss, fans/decoys, & cellular trail cameras, turkeys don't stand a chance. Oh, and social media.. can't leave that out. Dave Owens has made the entire country want to travel.

#NIMBYRestraint

[mudflat]

Id have to Google Dave Owens, he a turkey poet?

[JimmyD714]

Id have to Google Dave Owens, he a turkey poet?

He's one of the guys who can't even fart without making a YouTube video about it, much less go on a turkey hunt, much less do it without mentioning the state, part of the state, and in some cases even the actual WMA.

[2thDoc]

never heard of him.

if we keep blaming social media, does that make it more accurate?

[sc sportsman]

I agree the technology is making it way too easy to kill a bird in rapid population decline. And that social media is the worst thing to ever happen to hunting.

My buddy, who I consider a reputable source of info on these things, tells me the DNR is planning to shorten the season and cut off hunting mid-day. Do they have data proving success to back up these proposals? LOL... no, don't be silly. That's not the intent here.

Neither of those things will do anything positive in terms of increasing poult production and helping a population rebound. All it will do is put more limits on what we love to do.

If the DNR has to shorten our hunting season and cut it off at noon to save turkeys, then that shows just how incompetent they are. The goal is to have a huntable population of turkeys and give your state's hunters a good opportunity to hunt them, not just keep shortening the season as "management".

I'm very much against long range TSS shots and any decoy usage, but I also don't want anymore limitations on how we hunt. So I'm on the fence on whether I'd support some amount of restriction on those. There are wildlife biologists who have clearly stated their reasons for believing that TSS and decoys are making it way too easy to kill the boss Tom which leads to reproduction issues.

I dang sure won't support anymore regulation on shortening our season or hours per day we can hunt. Once it's gone we'll never get it back.

Show up and voice your opinion.

I sat through a presentation on the current state of the SC Wild Turkey population given by someone at DNR. They wouldn't/couldn't confirm any definitive changes that were coming but basically said they have two ways of controling the population decline. Season dates and bag limits. Male decoys were brought up and he said there is really no way to study their effect because you cant recreate a hunt using a male decoy vs. without and study the same turkey's reaction. He seemed to agree that anecdotal evidence shows their effectiveness and possible contribution to the problem, but he made it seem as if this is something that would be tough to pass. He also elluded to the slippery slope of banning one way of hunting and opening the door to banning others (TSS, ground blinds, camoflauge, etc.). Pushing the season back and shortening the season, along with a 2 turkey bag limit seemed to be where he was leaning but it's not necessarily up to him. They actually do have data backing up the afternoon hunting cut-off you mentioned. Reports from the telecheck system showed like 23-25% of reported turkeys in 2023 were killed in the afternoon and that's something they're monitoring. The legislature/General Assemby/whatever has had the data supporting a later start date since 2018 but there are some that dont want to lose the early hunting opportunity, it seems.

[Calibogue]

I would expect a push from SCDNR for two things that make the most BIOLOGICAL sense....
Later start dates
Reduced bag limit (2 birds)

[JimmyD714]

I sat through a presentation on the current state of the SC Wild Turkey population given by someone at DNR. They wouldn't/couldn't confirm any definitive changes that were coming but basically said they have two ways of controling the population decline. Season dates and bag limits. Male decoys were brought up and he said there is really no way to study their effect because you cant recreate a hunt using a male decoy vs. without and study the same turkey's reaction. He seemed to agree that anecdotal evidence shows their effectiveness and possible contribution to the problem, but he made it seem as if this is something that would be tough to pass. He also elluded to the slippery slope of banning one way of hunting and opening the door to banning others (TSS, ground blinds, camoflauge, etc.). Pushing the season back and shortening the season, along with a 2 turkey bag limit seemed to be where he was leaning but it's not necessarily up to him. They actually do have data backing up the afternoon hunting cut-off you mentioned. Reports from the telecheck system showed like 23-25% of reported turkeys in 2023 were killed in the afternoon and that's something they're monitoring. The legislature/General Assemby/whatever has had the data supporting a later start date since 2018 but there are some that dont want to lose the early hunting opportunity, it seems.

I think most of us are in agreement with a later start date. I certainly am.

As for the afternoon cutoff, the % of turkeys killed in the afternoon vs morning doesn't really draw any conclusion of whether it would help the population. The goal isn't to make it so we have less opportunity to kill turkeys, it's to help the population rebound. What good is it if we kill fewer turkeys, but still aren't replacing the ones we killed?

The entire issue should be centered around reproduction. We are killing more turkeys than we can produce. So the focus needs to be on what could help more poults survive.

That's where the argument against TSS and male decoys comes in. The argument is that TSS and male decoys make it way too easy to kill dominant Toms, and I agree. This messes up the breeding because that Tom does the majority of the breeding in the area. Younger, less dominant Toms have low testosterone so they often are infertile and fire blanks.

Furthermore, it is thought that hens don't just shack up with the next available Tom. The Toms in the area will fight it out again like they did in late Winter to establish who's on top. Then breeding can resume but this results in nests being laid much later in the Spring than they normally would.

My opinion is that banning TSS and male decoys, if not all decoys, would have a much more significant impact on poult production than shortening the season or the hours per day we can hunt.

[Glenn]

never heard of him.

if we keep blaming social media, does that make it more accurate?

Well yeah. Especially since it's an inanimate object and can't defend itself. It's akin to blaming guns for murders and forks for making folks chunky and givin' 'em the shuggah.

[trkykilr]

Well yeah. Especially since it's an inanimate object and can't defend itself. It's akin to blaming guns for murders and forks for making folks chunky and givin' 'em the shuggah.

I want to see you eat sugar with a fork

[Coastal Woodie]

IMG_1512.jpg

Speaking of turkeys, this was 15 minutes ago. Strutting with 3 hens.

[TXFowler]

Now let’s see if they can get all the low country politicians out of their pocket and push the season back. There’s no denying the above statement. The low country has always had more game privileges than the upstate for no apparent reason that I can come up with. Bait, dogs, 2 month longer gun season for deer, turkeys a week or 2 earlier. Somebody’s down there doing a helluva job lobbying or dick sucking, one…


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[joshua2]

Critter gone do what a critter gone do. If man weren’t in the way, the wild turkey would take care of its own. This is the answer to the question but most will scoff and stomp around yelling shells(fired by man) or decoys(placed in the ground by man) are the cause of the decline. Mfers killing them are the reason for the decline and the DNR only has a few options to slow the curve before total shutdown occurs.

[joshua2]

IMG_1512.jpg

Speaking of turkeys, this was 15 minutes ago. Strutting with 3 hens.

My recent post in photo form for the illiterates in the crowd.

[Model12]

It make get to the point some will say "hell with it" and quit...........Probably what they want.......In the 30's to the 60's. My dad and friends managed "their" quail population by killing EVERYTHING" that ate a quail or Quail eggs. Cats/hawks/owls/possums/coons etc..And it worked. Later herbicides/pine plantations/fire ants/coyote's and super cleaning farming lilled them off.

If the juice ain't worth the squeeze lots of hunters will probably quit.

[trkykilr]

We need to kill less and kill them later in the year. Bottom line. I was in a large club where we prohibited afternoon hunting, and it was good for the pressure aspect, but I’d hate to see folks that can’t hunt weekday mornings lose that, and also kids after school. No way to outlaw decoys and shells. I’ll be at the Orangeburg meeting.

[TXFowler]

We need to kill less and kill them later in the year. Bottom line. I was in a large club where we prohibited afternoon hunting, and it was good for the pressure aspect, but I’d hate to see folks that can’t hunt weekday mornings lose that, and also kids after school. No way to outlaw decoys and shells. I’ll be at the Orangeburg meeting.

People will load their own shells, have been forever. I wonder what the economic impact would be by banning decoys?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk