T U R K E Y C O N S E R V A T I O N I N A R K A N S A SFall archery season is allowed statewide because of the limited success of archers pursuing the wild turkey. Photocourtesy of the NWTF.opening date was intended to let more hensbreed before hunters took to the woods. Thisrecommendation was released to the public byvarious media, <strong>and</strong> public comment was invited.After season recommendations were releasedto the public, 19 additional comments werereceived, including a letter of support from theNational Wild <strong>Turkey</strong> Federation’s <strong>Arkansas</strong>State Chapter Board of Directors. Sevencomments supported shorter, later turkeyseasons, five supported shorter seasons (but notlater), four were against shorter, later seasons<strong>and</strong> three commented on other topics. BryanHendricks also wrote an article in the <strong>Arkansas</strong>Democrat-Gazette <strong>and</strong> the editors of that paperwrote a short editorial in support of the conservativerecommendation.Meanwhile, the <strong>Commission</strong> requested twooptions to the season. The first option wouldmove the youth season earlier by one week(April 7-8), with the regular season startingthe following Saturday (April 14). The secondoption would change the bag limit to one legalturkey during the first week of the season inzones 1, 2, 6, 7 <strong>and</strong> 8.2007 spring season approval:October commission meetingThe <strong>Commission</strong> set the 2007 spring turkeyseason Oct. 19. Youth hunts were set for April7-8, with the regular season in most zones setfor April 14-May 4. Restricted zones had aseason from April 14-27. Youth hunts in zone 17were set for March 31-April 1, with the regularseason set for April 7-29. Bag limits remainedunchanged.2 4 2 0 0 6 - 0 7 T U R K E Y S E A S O N S U M M A R Y
2007-08 fall turkey regulationsFall turkey seasons <strong>and</strong> the turkey planThe Strategic Wild <strong>Turkey</strong> Management Planguides turkey management in <strong>Arkansas</strong>. Fallarchery/crossbow hunting is mentioned brieflyin this plan:“Because fall archery/crossbow seasons havehad minimal if any impact on populations in<strong>Arkansas</strong>, these seasons should be allowablestatewide, except under special circumstances tobe determined on a case-by-case basis.”123Three criteria are included in the plan for fallfirearms seasons:The previous year’s spring season harvestshould be used to determine openseasons. <strong>Turkey</strong> zones recommended foropen seasons should have maintaineda harvest more than 0.5 turkeys persquare mile of forest for the twoprevious spring turkey seasons.Combined fall harvests should notexceed one-third of the previous springharvest during any year in any giventurkey zone.A majority of hunters (greater than 50percent) should indicate that their fallturkey season satisfaction level wasexcellent or good <strong>and</strong> the majority ofspring <strong>and</strong>/or fall turkey hunters shouldsupport fall turkey seasons as determinedby hunter opinion surveys.Preliminary recommendationsInitially, only turkey zones 2, 3, 6 <strong>and</strong> 17 wererecommended for open fall gun turkey seasonbased on spring harvest. All turkey zones metcriterion two, with 2005-06 fall turkey harvestranging from 0 to 7 percent of 2006 springharvest. No hunter opinion surveys have beenmade since 1998, so no data were available todetermine if the third criterion above was beingmet.T U R K E Y C O N S E R V A T I O N I N A R K A N S A SPublic meetingsMeetings were held Jan. 9, 2007, at 11 sites in<strong>Arkansas</strong>, <strong>and</strong> had very poor attendance. Only ah<strong>and</strong>ful of comments on fall turkey seasons – afew for <strong>and</strong> a few against – were received at thismeeting, or later as season recommendationswere being made, distributed by the media <strong>and</strong>reviewed by the public.Final recommendations <strong>and</strong>season approvalWildlife Management Division staff met<strong>and</strong> reviewed public comments <strong>and</strong> preliminaryseason recommendations Jan. 11-12.Additionally, a meeting was held with U. S. <strong>Fish</strong><strong>and</strong> Wildlife Service refuge managers to coordinateseasons on national wildlife refuges.The final season recommendations weremade by the chief of the Wildlife ManagementDivision to the <strong>Commission</strong> at the Februarymeeting. A re-analysis of forested acreage byturkey zone was completed, <strong>and</strong> resulted in somecorrections to data that had been used previously.The new data resulted in turkey zones1, 2, 3, 5B, 6, 7 <strong>and</strong> 17 meeting the minimumspring harvest per forested acre criterion. A fallgun turkey season was proposed for Oct. 22-28,2007, in turkey zones 1, 2, 3, 6, 7 <strong>and</strong> 17. Thisseason was passed by the <strong>Commission</strong> at itsMarch meeting.Illegal kills <strong>and</strong> crippling losses around cornfeeders from archery season were discussed in anopen <strong>Commission</strong> meeting during fall 2006. Inthe final analysis, the recommendation for thisseason was left unchanged. The <strong>Commission</strong>approved a statewide season for Oct. 1, 2007-Feb. 29, 2008.2 0 0 6 - 0 7 T U R K E Y S E A S O N S U M M A R Y 2 5