Originally Posted By: Matt Brock

There is currently a model we are using that I am not smart enough to understand nor explain. It takes all causes of known mortality, poult production, season length and bag limits, and through some magic and chicken bone voodoo the statistical model will shoot out a projection, over time, of the consequences of certain changes. Example, if poult production and mortality are (x) at the current season length of 45 days, the projected consequence of lowering the season to 30 days under those mortality and production parameters will result in (y). Shifting seasons or shortening/lengthening them has far more consequence than you might think. Enough so, that poult production and recruitment can be impacted positively or negatively depending on the change in season structure. Bag limit changes don't seem to have as large a consequence. Not only is this model scientifically valid, but it can be supported by the changes a few states have taken to reverse the declining trend. Whether you like it or not, there are thousands upon thousands more turkey hunters in AL than there was a decade ago. And even more than two decades ago. Ya'll are basing your opinions on research that was conducted 35-50 years ago, when NOBODY hunted turkeys. Human related mortality is a huge contributing factor to declining turkey populations. Ignoring this is foolish. Not making a change is foolish. You may be fine in your neck of the woods, but in areas with increased urbanization and more turkey hunters status quo is no longer going to cut it.


Models.... This is what got us Global Warming Theory. It isn't that there has been any recorded warming in the last 18 years, there hasn't... it isn't that the seas are rising, they aren't, it isn't that the is caps are melting, they aren't. However, a computer model designed by some University pinheads, through some magic and chicken bone voodoo the statistical model will shoot out a projection, over time, of the consequences of certain changes. So now we are going to use it for turkey numbers. One of my Greatest beefs with the AU project, along with the fact that the research on Wildlife Management areas will generate the data imputed into the model and that will be extrapolated for the State as a whole. Bad idea, IMHO.

I swear by my life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine