Talkin’ Turkey via Wildlife Restoration
Turkey release.
This is Passport to Texas
In the 1930s, it became evident that certain game animals were in decline due, in part, to unregulated overharvest.
In 1937, the Federal Government passed the Pittman-Robertson Act, thus creating an excise tax on the purchase of ammunition and hunting equipment.
Today, millions of dollars of funds generated by these taxes are used to manage and restore both game and non-game species.
One of Texas’ ongoing restoration projects involves the eastern wild turkey. Historically, the species occupied nearly 30 million acres in eastern Texas, but unregulated overharvest of both turkeys and timber led to their near extinction from that region. In 1942 there were fewer than 100 eastern wild turkeys remaining.
From 1979 to 2003, Texas parks and Wildlife Department translocated an estimated 7,000 wild-captured birds into 58 counties in central and east Texas, eventually seeing the population climb to 10,000–which is slow progress.
In 2014 the agency began a “Super Stocking” initiative, translocating 80 eastern turkey at a time at selected sites. Production and survival of the birds has vastly improved with this method. Thus, creating a brighter future for this big bird in Texas.
The Wildlife Restoration Program supports our series and provides support for the translocation and surveying of eastern wild turkey.
For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti
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