In the April 25 edition of the Michigan Outdoor News an article appeared written by Dan Donarski called “0 PINE” that was entitled MWOTH: JOIN TODAY. He points out the this stands for My Way Or The Highway. He points out that “You only have to look at the attempts to change regulations to suit their preferred methods”. He rambles on and then on to the turkey.
He wrote, “In the feathered world, let’s take a quick look at the turkey. Years ago, a group from this state just about screamed that the sky was falling because the DNR was going to allow hunters to hunt until evening rather than leave the woods by noon. The same group also predicted a locust plague if the DNR went ahead with plans that everyone who wanted a spring turkey license would get one. Well the everyone-who-wants-one gets one rule has been in force for a few years and I haven’t seen fewer birds. Same goes for longer hours.”
Donarski is taking a swipe at us and this is not the first time that he has demeaned us. I can’t remember screaming or predicting a plague. The magic of spring gobbler hunting and what draws more people to it is actually calling a gobbling bird to the gun, not that there are not other ways to bag a gobbler.
Just as excessive hunting pressure will cause bucks to go nocturnal, pheasants to run instead of hiding and setting tight, geese and ducks change their feeding patterns, etc. We have found that the more pressure placed on gobblers the less gobbling that they do and they become call shy. We were not and are not in favor of hunting until late evening, preferring instead to allow some quiet time to feed and rest instead of being pressured from daylight to dark. It does appear that our gobblers are adapting throughout many areas of Michigan. Where once one could count on hearing gobblers during the morning hours this is no longer the case. The rule now is that they gobble a couple of times from the roost, fly down and you don’t hear them the rest of the day. This past April an article appeared in an outdoor publication titled “10 Year Old Bags Trophy Turkey” It seems that the girl and her father were hunting in a pop up blind sitting beside a roost tree, late in the evening. She passed up a Jake in favor of shooting the big gobbler they saw the night before. Just before he flew to roost she whacked him. Wonderful! The end always seems to justify the means.
When our organization began 25 years ago there were no Wild Turkeys in southern Michigan and many northern counties had none. Large areas were being split into smaller ones. Every time that a gobbler gobbled there were 4 or 5 hunters competing for the same bird. The turkey population appeared to be going nowhere fast. There was a lot bragging about eating white meat in deer camp and anytime one crossed a rural back yard. Poaching was rampant. We looked into our crystal ball, developed good relations with the DNR and the legislature. We were determined that there would be a future for our Wild Turkeys and a return to quality hunting. We were the first chapters of the NWTF and sailed into untested waters.
What would turkey hunting be today if Donarski had his way and we had not taken the action that we did? Turkey killers would be setting in their blinds waiting for the gobbler that they had been baiting for weeks to show up to their huge bait pile. There would be a segment that would refine the art of sky lighting a roosted gobbler and blowing him out of the tree before fly down. To make up for the lack of hunting skills the use of remote control mechanical decoys would be the norm. They could even move back to the killer bringing a gobbler in tow. Hunters would be using buckshot to shoot a gobbler in the body, only to knock him down and have him fly or run away, only to die later.
The few turkeys that we had were very precious and we established a uniform winter survival program which enabled us to monitor flocks during winter. We were aware of entire flocks disappearing from an area. The only explanation seemed to be that perhaps an avian disease was responsible. We once again approached the DNR and the Successful Turkey Hunter Patch began. This allowed random biological testing the health of our turkey flocks. With a change in administrations it was turned into sending a feather in to Lansing for a patch. It now has been thigh jacked by a national wild turkey organization as a fundraiser. So much for scientific management of our wildlife.
The penalty for poaching a turkey was a small fine. Poaching was rampant. One way to combat it was to make that white meat the most expensive a poacher would ever eat. We approached the legislature and had a bill introduced that would place the Wild Turkey with that of a deer or hear. As it worked it’s way through the legislature the fines were increased, jail time was added as was the loss of hunting privileges for the current year plus 3 more. We attending the signing ceremony with Governor Blanchard.
On the heels of this law came a game restitution bill that would collect $1,000 restitution for each poached Wild Turkey. We once again lobbied the bill through the legislature, especially when it was about to die in a senate committee. We were the only organization supporting it. When we got it passed it had a great deal to do protecting every game species. These are all but the tip of the iceberg.
Then there is outdoor writer Kenny Darwin. He is a self proclaimed turkey expert. This past April he had an article published in the Michigan Outdoor News on how to stalk a gobbler. In our seminars and classes we advise a hunter not to stalk a gobbler because it is a hunting accident just waiting to happen. On one of the hunting websites this past May a turkey hunter told of being shot. He was calling up a gobbler when a trespasser stalked the gobbler and shot it, peppering the hunter at the same time with bird shot. As a side note, he can thank us that the idiot wasn’t using 00 Buck. This past January Darwin had an article published titled “How Do Turkeys Survive The Winter?” Our organization has been in the winter survival business for the past quarter century. Darwin’s article would be humorous except for the fact that many unknowing people will take it for the gospel truth. A 2 page letter correcting Darwin’s article was sent to the paper’s editor but was never printed.
So in light of these two outdoor writers it is suggested that they be nominated for charter membership of the new organization AISI. This new organization has the potential to grow to one the largest in the United States.
As a side thought, would it not be nice if some time in the future the DNR would acknowledge the contributions that those pioneers made to the successful restoration of the Wild Turkey in Michigan?