ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, February 23, 1997 TAG: 9702250044
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-2 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: OUTDOORS
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN
Hunters often returned from outings during the past season saying the woods were full of turkeys.
When they looked for deer, there were turkeys. When they hunted squirrels, there were turkeys. When they went after turkeys, there were turkeys.
Maybe it's not too early to say you haven't see anything yet.
``I am comfortable in saying that I think we are headed on the right path to have more turkeys,'' said Gary Norman, upland game bird research biologist for the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.
The past two years, sportsmen have been subject to more restrictive fall turkey-hunting regulations. The season has been shortened to six weeks, a reduction of two to three weeks. Turkey hunting has been removed from the most intense periods of deer hunting, when the woods can be thick with hunters.
The sacrifices have been made wisely, Norman believes, because the long-term result will be a growing turkey population, thanks to more hens surviving into the reproductive season.
Under the more restrictive regulations, the fall kill the past two seasons has been about 25 percent less than the 14,681 kill of 1994, Norman said.
This season's take was up slightly from the pervious year, reaching - at last count - 11,870. It is significant that the modest increase came even though spring reproduction was down and good fall mast conditions made it more challenging for hunters to locate turkeys, Norman said.
``It is too early to say if the almost 6 percent increase we saw this fall marks the beginning of that upward swing,'' he said, ``but I believe over time - the next five to 10 years - we will be harvesting 20,000 birds in the fall and 20,000 in the spring if our [research] models bear out correctly.''
The past spring's kill was a record 12,895 toms, about a 10 percent increase over the previous year.
``I am expecting it to continue to grow,'' Norman said. ``I think we are comfortable in the range where we could predict another 5 to 10 percent increase this spring - weather permitting.''
There are seasoned hunters who believe Norman's outlook for the future is much too optimistic. They believe fall and winter days afield are being sacrificed unnecessarily.
``I don't think anybody wants to lose any hunting opportunity that is not necessary,'' Norman said, ``but I think people are seeing the rewards of what we are doing.''
Even with the reduced season, Virginians still have the most liberal fall season in the nation, he said.
``We are kind of in a league of our own,'' Norman said. ``Most states don't have fall hunting at all, and those who do are conservative. We have looked for ways to reduce the harvest, yet still allow for the longest fall season we could.''
The past season was a good one to have restraints in place, Norman said. Spring reproduction was below average, 2.9 juvenile birds per hen, rather than the 3.6 long-term average.
``That is the beauty of having a shorter fall season,'' Norman said. ``We are carrying a larger population. Hunters are seeing more birds. We have fewer juveniles, but we have more flocks. We are less dependent on having a good hatch.
``The bottom line on this [is] the rate of growth - the survival rate - is going to be higher, so that is going to continue to push populations higher.''
Virginia still has a long way to go to catch up with some states. The Old Dominion turkey population is estimated at 130,000 birds. In Texas, it is 600,000; Georgia, 420,000; and Mississippi, 225,000.
LENGTH: Medium: 69 linesby CNB