NWTF At-A-Glance: Conservation Programs
The NWTF supports scientific wildlife management on public, private and corporate lands. NWTF founders established a technical committee consisting of wild turkey biologists from state and provincial wildlife agencies, which makes recommendations on research, management, restoration and educational programs. Nearly 80 members from 50 states and one Canadian province are represented on the committee.
North American Wild Turkey Management Plan
North American Wild Turkey Management Plan is designed to identify wild turkey habitat and potential habitat projects throughout North America using Global Information Systems technology. The plan has helped establish wild turkey populations on approximately 2 million acres in North America. The future focus of the plan will be identifying key habitat projects and important areas for wild turkeys on a state-by-state basis. So far, strategic plans for more than half of the states have been formulated and approved. The plan has received national and international endorsement from the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies and the Trilateral Committee for Wildlife and Ecosystem Management.
Wild Turkey Partnership Agreements
Wild Turkey Partnership Agreements provide a framework for cooperative wildlife management, research and educational activities between the NWTF and its 119 government and corporate partners. These partnerships improve millions of acres of wildlife habitat on private, corporate and public land. Federation wildlife professionals provide information to help these partners use cutting-edge wildlife management strategies in their forest and open land management programs.
Making Tracks
This cooperative program between the NWTF and state, federal, and provincial wildlife agencies restores wild turkeys to all suitable habitat in North America. The NWTF works with wildlife agencies, coordinating the trap and transfer of wild turkeys. Wild turkey populations have more than doubled since 1990.
- In areas where they are abundant, wild turkeys usually are trapped via nets propelled or dropped over a feeding flock. Trapped birds are individually placed in specialized transport boxes, and then released in areas of suitable habitat with few or no wild turkeys. The NWTF routinely provides trapping equipment, transfer boxes and help in coordinating wild turkey transfers between states, provinces and nations.
- Since the 1950s, state and provincial wildlife agencies have moved more than 195,000 wild turkeys into suitable habitat across North America. The NWTF, which was founded in 1973, has helped accelerate those efforts through the purchase of trapping equipment, transfer boxes, funding and the help of its volunteers. Currently, there are more than 7 million wild turkeys throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico.
- The NWTF worked with state wildlife agencies to help coordinate the relocation of 3,238 birds throughout North America during the 2008 trap and transfer season. This project is supported by NWTF Hunting Heritage Super Fund dollars and corporate partners.
The NWTF has partnered with the USDA Forest Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Land Management and the Department of Defense to conduct Hunting Heritage Super Fund Projects.
The NWTF is one of the only conservation organizations with employees from the Natural Resources Conservation Service and the USDA Forest Service on staff. Having them as part of the NWTF team allows the NWTF to help more people effectively manage more acres for wildlife habitat.
Hunting Heritage Super Fund projects include establishing walk-in hunting areas, planting wildlife openings, developing water resources, conducting prescribed burns, co-hosting outdoor learning events for women, children and people with disabilities through the NWTF's 2,350 chapters across the country and supporting the reintroduction of the Gould's wild turkey in Arizona.
Go for the Gould's
Since 2003, the Arizona Game and Fish Department and the NWTF have transferred 370 Gould's wild turkeys from Mexico and Arizona to the Chiricahua, Huachuca and Pinaleno mountains of southern Arizona, an area where the Gould's once thrived but was extirpated, mainly due to unregulated hunting. Since 2002, more than $90,000 has been raised for the restoration through Gould's hunting permit auctions. Future efforts will focus on improving and protecting critical wild turkey habitat.
Go for the Gould's U.S. project partners include:
• NWTF-Arizona State Chapter
• El Coronado Ranch
• USDA Forest Service
• Coronado National Forest
• U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
• USDA-Animal Plant Health Inspection Service
• National Fish and Wildlife Foundation
Mexican project partners include:
• SEMARNAT (Secretary of Natural Resources)
• AMAVISI (Association of Wildlife Managers)
• ENDESU (Natural Spaces and Sustainable Development)
• ASOCIES (Senoran Outfitters Association)
• Wingshooters Lodge
• Monte Escobedo Ranch
• Rancho Antrialgo
Research
Since 1977, the NWTF has provided more than $4.4 million in national project research grants to many state agencies and universities. While these grants fund different projects, they all share the
common goal of "working for the wild turkey." Past projects have addressed many areas of turkey research, including varied topics such as population dynamics, habitat suitability, disease, predation, nesting success and more.
National Wild Turkey Symposia
Held every five years, the National Wild Turkey Symposium plays an integral role in wild turkey research and management. The NWTF helps coordinate the symposia program and provides financial support. A book of the proceedings from the latest symposium, held in 2005, is available through the Turkey Shoppe. This must-read for well-informed turkey hunters and conservationists offers details of the most recent research and advances in wild turkey management. Visit the Turkey Shoppe for more information.
NWTF Hunting Heritage Club Program
This membership program focuses on bringing all types of hunters into the fight to maintain the freedom to hunt and manage lands for wildlife. Members receive Get in the Game magazine, a "how to" land management, hunting and hunting advocacy publication, as well as the option to have a free management plan for their property developed by their state's forestry agency (in participating states). Members also be will notified about landowner field days that are being conducted in their area.
Wild Turkey Woodlands is part of the HHC, and is a recognition program delivered by local chapters. Chapters nominate and recognize landowners who have a management plan for their property and are currently managing for wildlife. Selected landowners will receive a Woodland's sign for their property and recognition at the local NWTF chapter banquet. In addition, recipients of the Woodland's sign are eligible for the Wild Turkey Woodlands Award, which is presented at the NWTF National Convention and Sport Show.
Project HELP
Project HELP (Habitat Enhancement Land Program) is an NWTF program developed to help landowners manage and enhance their land by providing guidance and offering seeds and seedlings at competitive prices.
- The Get in the Game manual is a 54-page management guide full of up-to-date information on everything from timber management to planting and managing wildlife openings for all landowners, including corporations, timber growers, small landowners and hunt club members.
- The interactive land management CD, Get in the Game: Attracting Wildlife to Your Land, includes an electronic planting guide, mapping program, landowner journal, turkey quiz, resource material and more. The CD is a reference guide produced by the NWTF that helps landowners manage land for wild turkeys, deer, quail and a variety of other birds and animals.
- Since 1992, Project HELP sales have resulted in more than 3.2 million pounds of seed and 2.7 million seedlings, equaling a total of 173,000 acres being planted for wild turkeys and other wildlife.
- The Project HELP catalog, which lists the seed, seedlings and habitat management products available through the program, is free to members and the public.
Conservation Seed Program
Since 1977, NWTF chapters have planted more than 34 million pounds of seed for wildlife through this program. The year-old grain seed is available for the cost of shipping and handling in tractor trailer loads.
Regional Habitat Programs
The NWTF's regional habitat programs provide seedlings and other habitat improvement products to NWTF chapters and private landowners across North America. There are eight programs including:
• Operation Appleseed (Northeast)
• Operation Oak (Southeast)
• Operation Heartland (Midwest)
• Operation SOS (Upper Midwest)
• Operation Big Sky (Great Plains)
• Guzzlers for Gobblers (West)
• Southern Great Plains Riparian Initiative
• Northern Plains Riparian Restoration Initiative
Since 1997, more than 1.9 million seedlings have been planted through the regional habitat programs, more than 886 water development projects, more than 2,250 tons of oats and hay, 40,000 sqare feet of netting and 3,000 acres of standing grain have been left to assist landowners with large wintering populations of wild turkeys. Through the Guzzlers for Gobblers program alone, the NWTF and its partners have put more than $4 million toward habitat improvement projects in the West. The regional habitat programs have improved more than 6.1 million acres for wildlife.
Northern Plains Riparian Restoration Initiative
The Northern Plains Riparian Restoration Initiative is the NWTF's program to improve habitat along rivers and streams, and around roost areas for the benefit of numerous species of wildlife. The project also educates landowners on how they can improve their properties for wildlife. Wildlife habitat along flowing waterways is dwindling in western South Dakota and North Dakota, and eastern Montana and Wyoming. With active work through this program, riparian forests can be restored, which will benefit numerous wildlife species including wild turkeys.
Southern Great Plains Riparian Initiative
Southern Great Plains Riparian Initiative is one of the largest habitat improvement efforts ever initiated by the NWTF. The riparian initiative is improving wildlife habitat all across the Southern Great Plains, where certain land use practices and plants such as salt cedar and Russian olive are a threat. The initiative is a partnership to improve wildlife habitat on thousands of miles of rivers and streams in six states including Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas. More than 30 million acres could be improved through this project. To date, more than $1.5 million has been spent to improve wildlife habitat on 23,665 acres through the Southern Great Plains Riparian Initiative.
Seed Subsidy Program
Seed Subsidy Program is designed to help NWTF members purchase seed to benefit wildlife through habitat planting, especially on private lands. This help comes from the Hunting Heritage Super Fund of participating NWTF state chapters. Since 2002, NWTF members have purchased more than 1.6 million pounds of seed and improved more than 81,000 acres of habitat through the program.
Energy for Wildlife
Energy for Wildlife is a conservation program for energy companies with 31 corporate members and nearly 3 million acres of property enrolled. This program works to improve wildlife habitat on rights of way and other energy company property through changes in vegetation management. Another program goal is to help promote these properties as quality wildlife habitat for the public, rights of way landowners and company customers. Energy for Wildlife is a membership-based, certification program open to any energy company with rights of way and/or other company property that can be managed.
Wild Turkey Country
The Wild Turkey Country conservation
easement program conserves
key wildlife habitat by helping private
landowners protect their properties
from development through conservation
easements. A conservation easement
is a voluntary, legal agreement between a landowner and a qualified
conservation organization. The conservation easement restricts the
type and amount of development that may take place on the property.
In addition to protecting the land in perpetuity, a conservation easement
can provide substantial tax breaks for private landowners. The NWTF
currently holds 20 conservation easements protecting 10,831 acres
from development.
More Places to Hunt
More Places to Hunt is an NWTF program designed to help provide more hunting land on public and private property. The NWTF already has spent $9.4 million and obtained more than 413,000 acres of land for hunters since 1987. This program builds upon our chapter's success, and allows the NWTF to coordinate with partners to accomplish even more.
Widespread urban sprawl, changes in land ownership and tightened state agency and federal budgets have left hunters with far less private and public access to quality wildlife areas. Studies by the National Shooting Sports Foundation indicate that one of the top reasons people give up hunting is that they can't find places to hunt. As hunter numbers decline, state agencies lose revenue used to support habitat and hunting lands.
To reverse this trend, the NWTF will ramp up efforts through land purchases, conservation easements, legislative action and working with partners. At the core of this access program will be NWTF's state and local chapter volunteers.
The NWTF chapters have already experienced tremendous success in improving hunter access in a variety of ways including recent land acquisitions, funding conservation easements and walk-in hunting area programs, holding landowner appreciation days and having an active involvement in legislative issues that provide public access.
