Leftover spring turkey permits for sale beginning Monday
The Department of Natural Resources will make 114,412 leftover turkey hunting authorizations available beginning Monday for the 2020 Wisconsin spring turkey hunting season.
At least some tags will be available in each of the state's seven turkey hunting zones.
Wisconsin turkey permits and tags were modified three years ago and are now officially called turkey harvest authorizations.
As in past years, the leftover authorizations will be first sold by zone, with each having a designated sales date. The permits will be available on a firstcome, first-served basis; hunters can purchase one per day until the zone and time period sells out or the season closes.
The permits are sold at license agents and through Go Wild, the DNR's licensing system, at gowild.wi.gov.
The leftover turkey permits cost $10 each for residents, $15 for nonresidents. Sales begin at 10 a.m. each day.
Scheduled sales dates for leftover permits are:
Zone 1: March 16
Zone 2: March 17
Zone 3: March 18
Zone 4: March 19
Zones 5, 6 and 7: March 20 After zone-specific sales dates, all remaining turkey harvest authorizations for all zones will be made available for purchase at 10 a.m. March 21.
During the sale of spring bonus harvest authorizations through Go Wild, the system will assign random positions in an online queue to customers who enter the site between 9:45 and 10 a.m. Customers who enter after 10 a.m. will be added to the queue in order of arrival.
There is no advantage to entering the site prior to 9:45 a.m., according to the DNR.
The department's customer service
staff recommends turkey hunters who are interested in purchasing a Conservation Patron license do so prior to March 16 to make the bonus harvest authorization process as quick and easy as possible.
Hunters registered 38,556 birds during the 2019 Wisconsin spring turkey hunting season, the second lowest in 20 years and 15% below the 15-year average, according to preliminary DNR data.
After the successful reintroduction of the native species in the 1970s, the turkey population increased dramatically and filled habitat statewide. Hunters killed more than 50,000 turkeys in the spring hunting seasons from 2007 to 2009, including a state record 52,880 in 2008.
With more than 100,000 individuals purchasing turkey hunting licenses each year in Wisconsin, turkey hunting
is second in popularity only to deer hunting in the Badger State.
State biologists believe the turkey population overshot its carrying capacity and has since stabilized at a lower number.
Over about the last decade, spring turkey harvests have ranged from 37,000 to 43,000 turkeys.
The agency made 244,218 kill authorizations available this year, identical to 2019. Slightly more than half (130,806) were issued in January during the annual application period and drawing.
State wildlife managers issued a positive pre-season forecast.
"In 2019, we experienced overall favorable conditions during nesting and brood-rearing, and winter has been relatively mild, so we are anticipating another great spring turkey season in Wisconsin," said DNR upland wildlife ecologist Mark Witecha in a statement.
The 2020 spring turkey season is April 15 to May 26, with six seven-day periods running Wednesday through the following Tuesday. A youth turkey hunt will also be held April 11 and 12.
As a result of a state law passed in 2017, hunters are no longer required to validate a physical carcass tag, attach a tag to their turkey or keep the tag with the meat. They are still required to purchase a harvest authorization and carry proof of it when hunting.
Conservation events canceled
Due to concerns over the spread of coronavirus, the Campaign to Save the Boundary Waters called off its planned Monday screening of “In Deep Water,” a mini-documentary about the threat of sulfide-ore copper mining on the edge of the Boundary Waters Canoe Wilderness.
The film had been planned for a 6 p.m. showing at Indeed Brewing Company and Taproom, 530 S. 2nd Street, Milwaukee.
To learn more about the campaign, visit www.savetheboundarywaters.org.
Also cancelled was the 2020 Fox River Summit, organizers announced Wednesday. The eigth annual event had been scheduled for March 26 at Veterans Terrace in Burlington.
One of the keynote speakers was already prohibited from traveling, UW schools will likely not be able to attend, and more speakers and attendees will likely be similarly affected or have individual health concerns, said Tom Slawski, president of the Southeast Fox River Partnership.