Texas LAND•Spring 2017

TEXAS LAND / Roundup Issue
Springtime
THU NDER
WRITTEN BY GREG SIMONS
We were set up against the base of a couple
of big bull mesquite trees, overlooking a
dry creek wash that was lined in mature
hackberries which provided a perennial roosting site
for turkeys. As the dark of night was giving way to the
gray shades of morning, an ominous Texas spring-time
storm was easing our way. We had yet to hear the first
sign of confirmation that the roost was even occupied,
which already had me thinking about a quick move
to a Plan B, when the distant thunder of the storm let
out a loud rumble, followed by a resounding chorus
of some dozen gobbling turkeys. 20 minutes later,
five long-beards came strutting into our view and as
the third bird cleared the agarita 27 paces away, my
client folded that big old gobbler with a load of #6
heavy shot. As we admired the beautiful bird, while
still enjoying the distant sounds of the storm and the
gobblers, my client and business mentor Dick Laros
extolled, “I never grow tired of hunting turkeys during
the spring. In fact, out of all the game that I’ve hunted
over the far reaches of North America and on several
other continents, my favorite hunt is a toss-up between
Cape buffalo on the mopane flats of the Zambezi Valley
and calling gobblers in the cactus-laden country of
West Texas.”
THE BIRD
In Texas, and elsewhere, the history of the wild turkey
is one of the great wildlife conservation success
stories. Though their numbers were plentiful during
the first half of the 1800s, by the early 1900s these
birds were on the brink of extirpation from most of their
historic ranges, principally because of unregulated
killing of the birds, along with the loss of critical
habitat in certain locales. But, in the words of Aldo
Leopold, “Game can be restored by the creative use
of the same tools which have heretofore destroyed
it,” and that’s certainly the case with the success of
wild turkey restoration. Through a cooperative effort
between hunters, private landowners, and state wildlife
agencies, restoration programs were implemented
using translocation of turkeys, sound regulations, and
habitat management practices as the platforms for an
amazing comeback of our country’s largest gamebird.
Restoration funds were largely generated through
hunting-related sources including hunting license fees,
Pittman-Robertson funds (excise tax on sporting arms
and ammo), and through sportsman’s groups.
Today, Texas is home to more wild turkeys than any
state in the country, supporting an estimated 600,000-
plus birds, located in all but about 30 of Texas’ 254
counties. The Rio Grande strain is by far the most
numerous and widely distributed of the three strains
found in Texas, but there are a modest number of
Eastern birds in some East Texas counties, along with a
very limited number of Merriam’s birds in a small area
of the Tran-Pecos.
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