And more quotas, shorter seasons, lower bag limits, and further nonresident/public land restrictions are being done to offset the flood of people brought to our local wmas/national forests by YouTube hunters loose lip policy. The data is clear as day. And game managers around the country go on far less information to make decisions I promise you. Many concerned hunters speaking out are either past or present dnr employees myself included. Your taking away my public hunting opportunity because you want to hunt for a living. You may be hunting and filming for no charge but their is a price to be paid. We are reaping what you’ve sown. And frankly the money being made vs the damage done to public turkeys/hunter opportunity isnt close to equal. Turkeys and Turkey hunters are being sold out for pennies on the dollar frankly. And it’s a shame. You dang well know it too.
If you're a DNR employee you should be familiar with the way conservation is funded. Hunters equal money. Money is needed to do everything. The habitat improvements that are necessary on a VERY large scale across the country as well as research that must be initiated to help us figure out why our production has been on an downhill slide for over a decade are a couple of those things. Has the increase in the popularity moved more hunters onto public land. I have never denied that fact. And again, I would like to request when I have ever "loose-lipped" a wma or national forest? Has it been done? I'm sure of it. You can find it by hoping over to your NWTF media platform now and sit down with a nice hunt where the national forest name is littered throughout. Their situation is entirely different than YouTubers admittedly but the exposure is out there none the less. I have and will continue to wholly agree hotspotting of specific locations is a big black eye. It shouldn't be done. But I hope we can agree that turkey hunters needed to be motivated in order to recognize and combat the issues the turkey populations are facing. They needed to be made aware of the severity if gone unattended to and the avenues they can use to assist. New NWTF chapters are popping up, new organizations are forming in TFT, fundraisers and raffles by agencies have become a thing- all of this made possible due to an increase in the amount of exposure given to turkeys and the amount of people that have willing to help.
