The 2009 spring turkey season kicked off last weekend in the Show Me State with the two-day youth season. While the final count was slightly lower than last year, more than 19,135 permit holders managed to take 2,883 birds during the two day season.

Officials at the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) have been watching turkey populations closely and are concerned about poor weather conditions during past nesting seasons. They feel this has led to some areas of the state seeing fewer birds.

The 2006 hatch was relatively strong according to MDC, but cold, wet weather in 2005, a late freeze in 2007 and prolonged flooding in 2008 resulted in several bad years for turkey production and their food sources.

“The 2009 spring turkey season is going to be very challenging. Our populations are down a bit, and so it’s going to take a little more effort on a hunter’s part to be successful.” said Tom Dailey, a resource scientist with MDC.

Dailey offered two suggestions to Missouri’s turkey hunters. The first was to be more mobile and look for places where birds are still actively gobbling. If birds aren’t gobbling at all, Dailey said hunters should sit down, be more patient and do some calling, even though they may not get a response from a gobbler. They may still be there but might not be gobbling as much.

What can Missouri’s sportsmen and landowners do to help wild turkeys and other ground nesting birds during this time? Quite a bit, according to MDC officials, as 93 percent of land in the state is privately owned.

Landowners and sportsmen can help the most by increasing nesting and brood-rearing habitat on their property. Improving habitat also helps other species such as quail, pheasants and deer.

To help accomplish this, MDC recommends landowners contact its field staff to help manage their land for optimal wildlife and hunting habitat while minimizing crop damage.

Despite challenging turkey seasons in recent years, hunter satisfaction and hunter success remain high. MDC officials said if significant enough declines occurred, they could respond with regulatory changes, but none appear to be in the works.

Officials at MDC noted that hunting regulations, such as a shorter spring season or one-bird limit, would have little to no effect on the turkey population.

MDC officials believe they have fine tuned the timing of the spring season to ensure that turkeys have ample time to breed. Following breeding, mature males are expendable, and 99 percent of the spring harvest is males.

Despite all the concerns, the conservation department contends Missouri still offers some of the best turkey hunting in the nation. With a few seasons of drier, warmer spring weather, the numbers should bounce back. In the meantime, MDC officials are warning hunters to expect a bit more challenging hunt.

The regular spring turkey season runs April 20 through May 10.

More information can be obtained at your nearest Missouri Department of Conservation office or online at www.mdc.mo.gov/793.

Outdoors correspondent Jeff Leonard can be reached at outdoors@npgco.com