https://www.outdooralabama.com/articles/turkey-harvest-debate-continues-population#:~:text=According%20to%20Game%20Check%20reports,is%20subject%20to%20significant%20debate.


Here's their latest article, and it reinforces what I've been saying for years is their line of reasoning - if the turkey harvest goes up that is proof that we are killing too many turkeys and the harvest must be restricted. If the harvest numbers go down, then that is proof that we are running out of turkeys and the harvest must be restricted.

Everything that Chuck Sykes writes indicates that he has an intense hatred of hunters. It may just be that he hates people period, but he usually focuses on us hunters. I got to admit that some of what he says is true, but does he have so little self awareness that he doesn't realize he is the primary person that caused many of these problems to exist? Someone else will have to answer that, but he is either incredibly dumb or he thinks that all of us are incredibly dumb.

Allow me to address a few of his jewels from the article:

>>>Chuck Sykes, WFF Director, also said this trend in turkey harvest cannot necessarily be construed as an increase in the turkey population.<<<

The article said this, and then Chuck wrote of how there were more successful hunters in the first 10 days of the season the past 2 years than in 2021. I would ask you to imagine how else it would be possible for the harvest to increase overall without an increase in the first 10 days? And how it could increase without more hunters being successful? He tries to make it sound alarming when it's the only way possible to get an increased harvest, and any other WFF director would present this as a good thing. It would seem that having more turkeys and more hunter success is not the goal of his department. The only thing he ever presents as a positive is any of his schemes that make more money for the department.

And then there is this one:

>>>But the biggest one was hunting over bait,” Sykes said. “We had more than 80 citations written for hunting by the aid of bait in the first 10 days. If we wrote that many, how many were doing it? I think people’s mindsets have changed to ‘I just want to kill turkey under any circumstance so I can post the picture or video on social media.’<<<

Does he really not understand that the increase in baiting turkeys is DIRECTLY rated to his very own deer baiting program that he has boasted about many times? Does he not understand that many people who buy his baiting license feel entitled to continue it year round?

They lament the fact that due to GC they no longer have a reliable way to estimate the true harvest, but never once look in the mirror to realize that they caused it. And they never seem to understand that all of their senseless restrictions are directly responsible for many deciding to just go rogue. If the department is nothing but a for profit corporation, many just ignore them. I don't believe Sykes has any grasp of this very obvious fact.

I could give several more examples, but most of the regular posters here will see them too.