horseshitt. Corn hasn't caused the decline in turkey numbers across the state, destruction of habitat by logging and increased predators like coyotes and coons has caused the decline.

I agree. People have been feeding corn for a long long time, It didn't magically just now have a hugely negative impact.

Agree. Had a long very specified response typed out and had to take a phone call and when I clicked iPad back on it was gone.

That whole "thoughts" page was fear-mongering. Period.

Wake up

No one is going to disagree with that. But how would you rank them. For my area I think it is:
1) Coons/possums
2) Bobcats
3) Coyotes
4) Others such as egg eating snakes.

I don't have hogs.

Habitat loss is above everything else.

Guess I'll take the minority view; I agreed with Corky.

I gotta believe all the hunters on here that say turkey numbers are down in north AL, but I don't see any decline where I live and hunt. I made a trip thru Coosa, Chilton, Perry, Dallas and Wilcox counties over the weekend and saw turkey's in every county along the road. The decline seems like a north AL problem to me, so somebody needs to figure out why. Maybe corn could have some impact? I dunno how much is fed up that way.

I sure agree with this statement:

>>>Habitat degradation is a serious problem around bait and feed sites. �People don�t know what happens to habitat around bait and feed sites. All the preferred forage is gone. It creates a habitat desert except for the bait pile,� Miller said.<<<

I used to feed wheat between deer and turkey seasons to try to keep the turkeys on my place. It worked well. But the turkeys not only ate the wheat, they ate everything else in the area. When I quit feeding, they mostly left. Wasn't as much food easily available, and they could make an easier living somewhere else. I quit feeding them wheat.

But that didn't reduce overall populations; just hurt my own property. This might hurt the overall population:

>>>Dr. Miller points out the detrimental effects of bait and feed placed for deer on other species. �If you�re putting out corn for deer, then you are adversely affecting non-target species, like turkey poults picking up moldy corn with aflatoxins and dying,� he said.<<<

Can anyone say for sure this isn't happening? I've no idea how much it happens, but I don't see any benefit to the turkeys from a corn pile. If feeding is done right it probably doesn't hurt them, but we all know that some are not gonna do it right.

I sure agree with this point:

>>>If Conservation officials are truly concerned with what is in the best interest of wildlife resources, sound science requires that they do all they can to discourage baiting and feeding, rather than all they can to encourage such practices.<<<

When I am appointed the Turkey Czar, putting out corn will be a hanging offense. I don't know how much that would really help turkey populations, but I think it would help a little, so I'll do it.

I'll implement a program that rebates landowners $500 for each acre planted in chufa - now that will really help the turkeys. Other parts of my platform will be $100 bounties on all the critters that eat turkeys, and a one-a-day limit on spring gobblers all over the country. And one special turkey license for $20 will cover the whole country. And killing a hen at any time is another hanging offense. Decoys will be illegal, but not a hanging offense; only a long prison term.

I'll pay for everything by outrageous taxes on Yankees.

We will have more turkeys than can be imagined. And its so simple.

What decade do you guys consider the largest percent increase in turkey numbers in this state? 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's, or 00's?

I have an example in my neck of the woods that I believe would show it ain't corn, nor is it habitat loss. I live near Cheaha Mountain in the Talladega Natl Forest. Essentially it's 100,000 acres of uninhabited, unmolested, and unbroken rolling mixed timber woods. If you throw Choccolocco Mgt Area in, that's another 56,000 acres of the same habitat. This is an area that comprises roughly 3 to 4 counties in East Central Alabama. Now I wouldn't say there's no corn anywhere in those woods, but I have personally never seen corn, plus it would be very unlikely for someone to carry corn in a place that rugged and remote. 20 years ago there were 20X the turkeys there that we have now (my estimation, but I'm not trying to exaggerate). Places where I once could hear as many as 15 birds gobble at daylight, you are very likely to hear 0 today, and NOTHING has changed with the locale. In the early 90's we'd call in 3/4 gobblers ganged up and they'd have 20/30 hens with them. Today you are lucky to call up 1 gobbler, and he often only has 1 (or 2 or 3) hens. What TWO things are noticeably different today than then???
1. 20X more hunters
2. 10,000X more coyotes
As a young boy I don't recall ever seeing but 1 coyote. Today it's unusual to not see one every time I go, not to mention the multiple packs that howl at dusk/dawn. And the same goes for armadillos, though most folks say they aren't nest raiders(?).
Me personally, I have all but quit turkey hunting because of the number of hunters today. You get to the woods 2 hours too early, and there are already 2 trucks parked on every road. It's just too much.

Back when we had farmers planting corn ,soy beans,and peanuts and the woods were full of mast producing hardwoods, we had plenty of turkeys. Now we have just about nothing except planted pines. It don' take a rocket scientist to figure this out.

Pssh have we not always had possums, coons, and pine logging? Turkeys are every where.

In my area we have not had the coon population and growing we have now. Not in my life time anyway. When you could sale hides for $15+ back in the '80's, the population was kept down. Possums, foxes, bobcats were all sold.

This is not true at all in areas of North AL, where the decrease is the most noticeable/debated. As a matter of fact, the ag dominated areas there generally have fewer birds. Are you a rocket scientist?

Yes, and that was my point about the Cheaha Mountain area. It has never been anything except large hardwods, and that's never changed. There has been virtually no logging, there has never been any agriculture. It is something besides food.

What about chicken sh!t? There's more chicken houses than ever before, in fact it's out state's #1 "Ag" industry.

Everywhere I hunted in central Al was awful this year. Absolutely the worst I can remember it. Little to no birds in places that always held a good population. Usually I could convince myself they just werent ready or gobbling good because I could always find gobbler tracks, strutting areas, etc. Little to any sign this year. They were just not there.

I can see the argument about the number of hunters in the woods today. However, I also wonder how many of those hunters are newbies. In general terms, newbies don't put a real hurting on the public population of birds. Clubs with little pressure maybe so. I don't know what happened this year, I am just hoping and praying next year will see a rebound.

PCP - I agree with you concerning the original post. Nothing good can come from all the feeding stations. But nobody wants to hear that. That can hurt a lot of peoples feelings. Most just think they are doing something right and good by the wildlife when they feed them, and it's hard to think otherwise.

where i hunt in the national forest in perry county plenty of hardwoods not much logging, if any on forest land, i beleive it is them dang yotes. the place i hunt was burnt the week after deer season. the woods was wide open and i didnt hear a bird in there all year. heard 2 across the road where it was burnt last year. nfhunter hunted a place where they didnt burn just to the south of "my" place and it had a few birds.
i heard plenty of yotes every time i was camping or right at daylight when i didnt camp.

scott

I'll vote for you, if there is an election.

PCP has let his evil avatar get ahold of the puter again......