A new licensing system from the state Department of Natural Resources (DNR) will make fall turkey hunting more streamlined in Michigan. The new system will be in place for the fall turkey season, which begins on Sept. 15 and runs through Nov. 14. The goal is to make outdoor recreation more available while promoting a healthy turkey population, according to the DNR.
“The fall turkey season this year is going to look quite a bit different,” said Adam Bump. Bump is the Upland Game Bird Specialist at the Michigan DNR.
He said that the DNR reduced the number of turkey management units, which are zones that may have differing regulations across the state, down to two: the Upper and Lower Peninsula. This makes the regulations simpler and easier to understand, according to Bump.
Fall turkey licenses are available beginning August 15th at 10 a.m., on a first come first serve basis.
There is a one license limit statewide, so hunters can either become licensed in the Upper or Lower Peninsula, Bump added.
The Lower Peninsula will not have a license quota, so there will be no more drawing for fall turkey licenses. A drawing is where hunters apply for a limited number of licenses for an upcoming hunting season. For the Upper Peninsula, there is a quota but it has been raised by 500, making the total around 2,200 available licenses.
The DNR also has eliminated buying leftover licenses, which are licenses that were not initially purchased during the primary draw period. According to Bump, leftover licenses complicated regulations. “Very few people were buying two licenses,” he said.
“We’re really opening up that opportunity to move around the state, to be able to hunt anywhere you want to in one of the two peninsulas,” Bump continued.
In order to get a fall turkey license, you need a basic hunting license. Costs for licenses are $15 for resident adults and youth and $6 for seniors.
There will still be an application process for spring turkey, but for this fall there is no drawing and no application fee.
A shift in focus
Turkeys were reestablished in Michigan in the 1950s, and populations have grown dramatically since, particularly in the 70s and 90s, according to Bump. But over the past 10 years, the population has peaked and subsequently stabilized.
The greatest number of turkeys can be found in the southern third of the state. They prefer forestry and some agricultural spaces, as well as warmer areas where there is less risk of deep snow. But turkeys can be found in nearly every county in the state, according to Bump.
People typically hunt turkeys on the edges of forests or wide open areas such as grasslands, said Bump. According to Bump, fall turkey hunters are typically opportunistic, and are primarily hunting something else. For example, deer hunters in deer stands will shoot a turkey if they come across one.
The fall season in Michigan typically has been an opportunity to reduce turkey populations in areas where there is more than desired, and they become a nuisance.
But the DNR found that the fall turkey harvest is very low, and not enough turkey is being harvested to have an impact on the population. Additionally, most other states were using the season for recreational hunting purposes.
The changes to the licensing system came from a shift in focus. A recreationally focused fall season gave the DNR more flexibility with regulations. The DNR also looked at complaints they had received, which indicated frustration with the complexity of the application process and the DNR’s regulations, and did their best to address these concerns.
Monitoring the population
“This bird’s comeback is something to celebrate, and now we need the public’s help to keep tabs on our turkeys going forward,” said Bump in a statement from the DNR.
The DNR established a turkey brood survey that runs from July 1st to August 31st. Now in its third year, it is an initiative to monitor turkey populations. The survey invites the public to participate by reporting wild turkey sightings, especially baby turkeys.
The primary goal of the survey is to track how well turkey production went for the year by looking at how many babies the hens are producing. This helps the DNR get an idea of what the population will be like in the future.
Turkey broods are most visible in July and August. Turkeys nest in late spring, and by midsummer many hens and babies are out and about.
According to the DNR’s statement, participants are asked to indicate the number of hens (adult females), poults (juvenile turkeys) and gobblers or jakes (adult or young males) they saw, as well as the date and location of the sighting.
“Asking the public to collect that information gives us access to a lot of eyes in the field and helps us collect data we wouldn’t be able to get with just our own staff,” Bump said.
It’s a great way for the public to get involved and have a little fun trying to spot turkeys, he continued. “We have a great hunting and wildlife-watching community here in Michigan, and we’re excited to see everyone pitch in and share their turkey sightings.”
The DNR also uses data from turkey harvests to track trends in the population. They conduct a hunter survey that asks people how many turkeys they harvested.
