Conservation BenefitsÂ
Mandatory harvest reporting of turkeys allows for more precise resource management. It would:
- Monitor populations and harvest data more effectively than an annual hunter survey. The details gathered will improve regulatory decisions and allow for adaptive approaches to management.
- More thoroughly evaluate the impact of season frameworks on turkeys, hunters, and hunting success.
- Provide - for the first time - timely and efficient county-level harvest data, allowing MDWFP to identify areas with low harvest rates that we could target as areas that need to be improved.
- Identify Mississippi's turkey hunters, which would allow for directed polls and surveys to understand the desires of this hunting group.
- Demonstrate to the hunting community that harvest management and bag limits are important and especially critical to those species that have a season limit.