Thanksgiving Day — it’s all about that bird, right?
Editor’s note: This story originally appeared in the River Valley & Ozark Edition of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette on Thanksgiving Day in 2010.
The Native Americans of the Blackfoot referred to the creature as omahksipi’kssii. I’m not really sure how to pronounce that, but the meaning of that word is “big bird.” It’s also been said that one of our Founding Fathers, Benjamin Franklin, preferred this bird to the bald eagle as the country’s national symbol. Apparently, that belief grew out of a letter that Franklin wrote to his daughter. Of course, we’re talking about the wild turkey, in particular here, the Eastern wild turkey.
This bird has long been the centerpiece of Thanksgiving feasts in the United States, having been glorified as such since the time we are told that the Pilgrims and Native Americans shared their historic meal. Colonies, and later states, celebrated a festival around the autumnal harvest time for many years. It wasn’t until 1863, however, that then-President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national Thanksgiving Day to be held each November.
While much has been made of the turkey’s significance with regard to Thanksgiving, the bird has also stirred many comments among those who pursue the bird each spring during the hunting season that roughly coincides with the time when turkeys breed.
For instance, it’s been said that turkeys are instant cameras. The birds snap a photo, drop their heads to feed, process the scene they just saw, scan for irregularities and run — yes, like turkeys — if anything looks out of the ordinary. In other words, turkey hunters believe that turkeys are a formidable opponent, much like a Terminator cyborg with feathers. That thought is furthered by the statement that if turkeys could smell as well as deer, no hunter would ever tag a tom. (Duh! Of course it’s hard when you try to go against Mother Nature by pulling gobblers to hens. In the wild, the hens go to the gobblers.)
Anyway, the irony that now exists here in Arkansas, and in many other states, is that if you want a wild turkey for the Thanksgiving table, you can’t get a fresh one. That’s because fall turkey season was closed in The Natural State beginning in 2009.
The season closure came after the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission observed eight consecutive years of declining turkey populations across the state, evidenced by lessened harvest numbers and poor reproduction indices like poult-to-hen ratios.
When the closure decision was reached in September 2009, Commissioner Craig Campbell of Little Rock declared, “I’m convinced we have a heck of a problem, but I’m convinced we’re moving in the right direction. We’re going to mess around and not have a spring turkey season if we don’t do something.”
That decision meant the end of an archery turkey season that traditionally coincided with archery deer season, and a short firearms turkey season usually held in late October. But few turkey hunters actually targeted the birds in the fall, choosing instead to pursue the birds during the traditionally accepted spring season.
The move to protect Arkansas’ Eastern wild turkeys was only a continuation of the tenets set forth by Amendment 35 to the Arkansas Constitution. The amendment passed in 1944 was fashioned to make the AGFC a less-political organization and to provide for the increased authority of the commission and its staff to set and enforce laws regarding our state’s wildlife. The AGFC’s website, in fact, boasts that the passage of Amendment 35 was the true beginning of wildlife conservation in Arkansas.
Amendment 35 came at the turkey’s eleventh hour. The birds that were once abundant here and across much of the United States had dwindled in population. Early Arkansas settlers had hunted the birds year-round. Meanwhile, those settlers had also cleared acre after acre of land, taking away habitat the turkeys needed to survive.
A history of the Eastern wild turkey in Arkansas found on www.agfc.com reveals the following:
“By the early 1900s, turkeys had been eliminated from large areas of the state. … Turkeys probably reached their lowest point in history during the 1930s.
“The AGFC initiated many efforts to restore turkeys. Hen turkeys were made illegal to harvest in 1918, state game refuges were set up in the 1920s, and pen-raised wild turkeys (many raised at state game hatcheries) were released as early as the 1930s. None of these early efforts resulted in restoration of turkeys on a statewide basis.”
Then with the passage of Amendment 35 and the realization that pen-raised birds would not restore wild-turkey populations, the AGFC brought turkeys back from the brink of extirpation, or localized extinction.
The turkey’s success story in the state began with surveys in the mid-1940s revealing only around 7,000 birds still in Arkansas. Most of those were in southern and eastern Arkansas, in physiographic regions referred to as the Gulf Coastal Plain and the Delta (specifically along the Mississippi River). Two areas that today are revered turkey-hunting locations, the Ozark Plateaus and the Ouachita Mountains, held virtually no turkeys.
Efforts that included cannon-netting in the 1950s through 1970s restored the birds to most of their former range in Arkansas. The Eastern wild turkey is now estimated to have a population at or above 100,000 in the state.
Since the turkey’s restoration, though, the AGFC has noted a boom-and-bust cycle that has run its course several times. In recent years, we’ve experienced a low point in that cycle. That’s why the fall seasons were closed until further notice. Just 12 years ago, we were at a high point, with a record of 19,823 birds taken during the spring season.
All is not lost, though. There’s still some good turkey hunting to be had in Arkansas. Of course, you’ll have to wait for a few months to check it out. One of your best bets is to visit the AGFC’s website and look up the harvest report on turkeys. Data revealed therein will not only give you the top counties based on harvest, but also the top public areas to hunt.
For instance, the White River National Wildlife Refuge, the St. Francis National Forest Wildlife Management Area and the Cache River NWR are good choices if you want to bag a bird in the Delta region of Arkansas.
Other possible public-lands destinations by region include the following:
• The Ouachitas: Muddy Creek WMA, Mount Magazine WMA and Winona WMA;
• The Ozarks: Harold E. Alexander Spring River WMA, Shirey Bay Rainey Brake WMA, Piney Creeks WMA and Camp Robinson WMA; and
• The Gulf Coastal Plain: Felsenthal NWR, Cut-off Creek WMA and Poison Springs WMA.
So, you can definitely tag a tom for your Thanksgiving table. You’ll just have to plan ahead and figure on having it for next Thanksgiving. Until then, our wild birds will have another Thanksgiving for which to be thankful, and you’ll have to do your hunting at the grocery store.