Photo by Ralph Hensley.

Officials with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources predict that the 2008 Iowa spring turkey hunting seasons will be strikingly “average.”

And make no mistake about it -- that’s good news.

There’s a reason that Iowa’s supply of non-resident turkey hunting licenses evaporates so quickly. Non-Iowans know a good thing when they see it and clamor for a chance to experience our “average” turkey hunting opportunities.

“Hunters who have never hunted turkeys anywhere but in Iowa don’t realize that our ‘average’ hunting is way above what hunters in most other states see,” said Todd Gosselink, an upland game research biologist for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. “I’ve hunted in other states and talked to a lot of hunters from other states who come here to hunt turkeys, and an average year here would be a banner year in most other places.”

“Average” is precisely what Gosselink and his coworkers forecast for this spring’s turkey hunting seasons in Iowa. Statewide turkey production was on par in 2007, with some specific areas reporting higher-than-normal poult sightings. Other regions suffered cool, wet weather during early June that worked hardship on newly hatched turkey chicks.

“Overall, combining the standing population with last year’s production, I’d say we’re about average, compared to the last five years,” remarked Doug Chafa, wildlife management biologist for the IDNR’s Sweet Marsh region in northeast Iowa. “Southern Iowa, (and) especially the south-central counties, are maybe a little below the long-term average. Northeast and southwest Iowa are doing great -- probably even better than past years. Southeast Iowa is about average, maybe a little better than recent years.”

Gosselink predicted that hunters in east-central, central and west-central Iowa will see turkey numbers similar to recent years’, but was hesitant to offer hunting predictions for Iowa’s northwest and north-central areas.

“We don’t get a lot of (turkey hunting) reports from northwest Iowa,” he said. “That doesn’t mean there aren’t good populations of turkeys up there in areas where there is adequate turkey habitat. In places where there is good habitat, there may be an excellent population of turkeys per square mile.”

HABITAT HUNTING
Gosselink’s reference to “adequate turkey habitat” is the key to finding turkeys anywhere in Iowa. He pointed to the “Little Switzerland” area of far northeast Iowa and the Loess Hills of southwest Iowa as examples of our best turkey habitat.

In an apparent departure from traditional turkey management theories, Iowa turkeys seem to thrive in areas marked with a mix of timber and agricultural fields, Gosselink said.

“We’ve found that huge, endless tracts of timber aren’t as attractive to turkeys as we thought,” he admitted. “Turkeys seem to thrive in areas where they have significant timber broken up with farm fields that provide weedy borders with lots of weed seeds and insects.”