Speaker 1: Welcome to Backwoods University, a place where we focus on wildlife,
Speaker 1: wild places and the people who dedicate their lives to
Speaker 1: conserving both dig shout out to onex Hunt for their
Speaker 1: support of this podcast. I'm your host, Lake Pickle, And
Speaker 1: on today's episode, we're gonna hear from a turkey hunter
Speaker 1: who's been around since some of the original turkey conservation
Speaker 1: works started. We're gonna go on a turkey hunt, and
Speaker 1: then we're gonna sit down in the magical spring Woods
Speaker 1: with one of the individuals who championed the new Mississippi
Speaker 1: Turkey stamp. This episode has action from start to finish,
Speaker 1: So y'all settle in.
Speaker 2: It's time to get into it.
Speaker 3: Are you, sir?
Speaker 4: Oh, I can't complain. I'm doing just fine.
Speaker 2: Blake Nickles, Jamie Quick good to make you, sir, good
Speaker 2: to meet you, Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1: I just pulled into the driveway of a man named
Speaker 1: mister Jamie Quick. And if that name or the voice
Speaker 1: attached to it happens to sound familiar, you may have
Speaker 1: heard mister Jamie tell a story on one of the
Speaker 1: recent Turkey Story Bear Grease episodes. Believe me, he's got
Speaker 1: more stories than just that one.
Speaker 3: This mean you've got the shop before we go in
Speaker 3: the house.
Speaker 4: Yes, sir.
Speaker 1: I followed mister Jamie into his shop, where he shows
Speaker 1: me a glass case filled with turkey spurs and stacks
Speaker 1: of old Turkey pictures.
Speaker 2: The old school kind of pictures, the ones that you
Speaker 2: had to drop a roll of film off at the
Speaker 2: local records and wait for it to be developed.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, I know, I sense your picture, Yes, sir,
Speaker 3: that's that's that's the collection. That's my dys James W.
Speaker 4: Frother the first and she h, what year would this
Speaker 4: have been? And you remember, I.
Speaker 3: Don't remember when she she probably can.
Speaker 4: Always says I'm back there man.
Speaker 1: Ten inch Beard ninety eight, nineteen ninety eight eight.
Speaker 3: Her, Well, we used to take pictures like this. I
Speaker 3: was mad about writing the day told them. Oh yeah,
Speaker 3: and one of the the big spurs is up there.
Speaker 4: Yeah, the one he's sitting me in a picture of.
Speaker 4: That's a great spurre turkey.
Speaker 3: That's alf a little bit years just nineteen eighties. Mighty good.
Speaker 1: Like I said, mister Jamie has plenty of Turkey knowledge
Speaker 1: and stories to share with us, and I think it's
Speaker 1: time we dove in.
Speaker 4: What year did you start.
Speaker 3: Turkey on in the Sprague of nineteen eighties.
Speaker 2: Okay, was there Did you have any knowledge Did you
Speaker 2: know of anyone turkey hunting and around you or in
Speaker 2: the community prior to that.
Speaker 3: Yes. The fellow that got me started, he's from here,
Speaker 3: he was raised here, but he worked for the Sole
Speaker 3: Conservation Agency, all right. He was stationed at Forest, Mississippi.
Speaker 3: He got into big turkey hunt and at Forest well,
Speaker 3: he got transferred back to Covnan County and there was
Speaker 3: a few turkeys scattered here there and yonder, but he
Speaker 3: didn't have anybody to talk turkey with. So he got
Speaker 3: another fellow to go with him, and he got hunting,
Speaker 3: wanted somebody else, so he got me to go with him.
Speaker 3: And that's how I got started. I called him one
Speaker 3: day and told him, I said, look, I want to
Speaker 3: go with you in the morning. He said, well, I'll
Speaker 3: have to check with this other fellow because said he's
Speaker 3: got one roosted. I said, I'm gonna go try to
Speaker 3: get him. So he called him, and the other fellow,
Speaker 3: which is just a next door neighbor, said oh, yeah,
Speaker 3: it's found for him to go. Says let him go,
Speaker 3: which I didn't care of. Going or anything. I just
Speaker 3: went with them. Well, we checked out that morning. We
Speaker 3: went over on Leaf River. Leaf River was out of
Speaker 3: its banks and it was coming a hurricane that morning,
Speaker 3: wind blowing nine into nothing. But we heard a turkey
Speaker 3: and I got hooked from that first morning.
Speaker 1: Now, any turkey hunter can relate with this. There's just
Speaker 1: something about the sound of a gobbling longbeard that gets
Speaker 1: under your skin.
Speaker 2: And stays there.
Speaker 1: I want to ask mister Jamie about some of what
Speaker 1: it was like turkey hunting back then.
Speaker 2: Were there a lot of turkey hunters around.
Speaker 3: Well, I tell you the first year and the second year,
Speaker 3: I see, I delivered fuel for business. I was a
Speaker 3: petroleum jobber out of business in Collins. I delivered to
Speaker 3: all these farmers. Well, he was worked for the sole
Speaker 3: conservation army of a department. All the farmers were coming
Speaker 3: into him office. So we began to ask questions. County
Speaker 3: turkeys on your place? Yeah, yeah, anybody hunt. Now, ain't
Speaker 3: nobody hunt? But do you care if somebody you plumb welcome?
Speaker 3: We hunted the first two years. We hunted from the
Speaker 3: north end of the county to the south end, from
Speaker 3: the east side to the west side. We run into
Speaker 3: three different hunters, all sizes of ourself. That whole year.
Speaker 2: That sounds like a different world compared to today.
Speaker 3: It was a different world. But then every year after
Speaker 3: that we had good hatches. Turkeys were multiplying both more
Speaker 3: and more and more and more got into it.
Speaker 1: As a listen to mister Jamie tells stories from turkey
Speaker 1: hunting back in the eighties, the ease and getting permission
Speaker 1: to hunt, the lack of other turkey hunters in the area.
Speaker 1: I can't help but think about how closely this mirrors
Speaker 1: many of the stories that we heard from mister Benny Hearing,
Speaker 1: which shouldn't really seem all that surprising. Although they are
Speaker 1: in different parts of the state, both of their early
Speaker 1: turkey hunting years happened around the same time. I just
Speaker 1: find that time frame so fascinating, the history of turkeys.
Speaker 3: But now, the first few years that we hunted, I say,
Speaker 3: the first four or five years, if you heard a
Speaker 3: turkey gobble, you d you've done something. Yeah, they just
Speaker 3: were not that many turkeys. Of course, we didn't have
Speaker 3: the turkey hunters.
Speaker 2: Either, right right, So what so you that you kind
Speaker 2: of started in a unique spot then, so when you started,
Speaker 2: when there weren't that many, and then you saw it,
Speaker 2: saw it, saw it explode, and then you kind of
Speaker 2: saw it kind of level out to where it's at now.
Speaker 3: Well, Uh, it hit its peak? Is true?
Speaker 2: You participated in the Spring Turkey Star for a long time.
Speaker 3: Ever since it comes started every year.
Speaker 2: And when did it start?
Speaker 3: I don't remember. I don't remember, but I just happened
Speaker 3: to get on the mailing list. Yeah, I mean there
Speaker 3: was nothing that I did. They just sent me a survey.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: But whatever year they started, I've had one every year.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so they the first year it started, you were
Speaker 2: on the mailing list. What did they have you do
Speaker 2: the first year? The same thing they have you doing now.
Speaker 3: Just today, the same same booklet when you started hunting?
Speaker 3: How many gobbles did you hear? Just how many do
Speaker 3: you harvest this year? And you run up on any
Speaker 3: hens that were nesting or see anything that will see it.
Speaker 3: It's just questions that they asked, want to know, And
Speaker 3: you still do it to this year. I still do
Speaker 3: it even though I can't Even though I can't hear
Speaker 3: the gobbles like I used to, I still fell out
Speaker 3: the survey. What I do is you to hear?
Speaker 1: Yeah, The Spring Gobbler Survey was initiated in nineteen ninety
Speaker 1: five by the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks.
Speaker 1: It's a voluntary program used to gain long term data
Speaker 1: on wild turkey activity and populations, and it really leaned
Speaker 1: on the hunters for being the citizen scientist, so to speak.
Speaker 1: Mister Jamie would have been fifteen years into his turkey
Speaker 1: hunting career when it started, and he's been doing it
Speaker 1: every spring ever since, which I think is just too cool.
Speaker 1: We're about to wrap up with mister Jamie, but before
Speaker 1: we do, there's one really cool part of his story
Speaker 1: that just can't be left out.
Speaker 2: You made mention to me when we spoke on the
Speaker 2: phone before this. You're talking about your grandson. You said
Speaker 2: something along the lines of I can't remember exactly how
Speaker 2: you worded it, but said something about it. You're teaching
Speaker 2: him how to hunt him right or hunt them.
Speaker 3: Old school, old schedule.
Speaker 2: What do you mean by that?
Speaker 3: You just you hear that turkey, You go to him,
Speaker 3: set up and call him to you. No no bait,
Speaker 3: no nothing. Yes, it's just you and him.
Speaker 2: That's the way you like to do it.
Speaker 3: That's the way I like to do it, and the
Speaker 3: lynch box's then earned the cabinet. I carried it with me,
Speaker 3: and I couldn't tell you when you don't.
Speaker 2: So you're not. Let me make sure you're not using calls?
Speaker 3: Oh yes, what are you using? I carry it with
Speaker 3: me three hundred and sixty five days a year.
Speaker 4: Oh you're calling with your voice?
Speaker 3: Call him in my mouth?
Speaker 2: That's all you use?
Speaker 3: That's all I use? Really, if I can't, if I
Speaker 3: get a hold of one, did you give me a
Speaker 3: lot of trouble? And I did? I can't call. I
Speaker 3: might take the box, but I I can't remember the
Speaker 3: last time I did carry Really, if he's gonna call
Speaker 3: him back, he'll come to me. But they don't all come,
Speaker 3: of course they don't. They don't all come.
Speaker 2: Yeah, if they all came, I don't think it'd be
Speaker 2: as if no, it wouldn't get you as much. Sure, Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: how did you figure that out? The whole column with
Speaker 2: you voice? How'd you figure out you could do that?
Speaker 3: I just got trying it on my own, and my
Speaker 3: buddy and I we joined the Okatoba Hunting Club. One
Speaker 3: year they had turkeys between Collins and Mount Olive Okatoma swamp.
Speaker 3: It was full of turkeys, so we joined the club
Speaker 3: to have more space to hunt, and we went up
Speaker 3: there one morning. He went to one turkey and I
Speaker 3: went to a turkey. Well, his finally just left him,
Speaker 3: and I'm up to swamp calling one. He is god
Speaker 3: with his head off every time I called to him. Well,
Speaker 3: when my buddy got back to the truck, he could
Speaker 3: hear me. It was and it was supposed it was
Speaker 3: misty rain that morning, I left my box and the
Speaker 3: pickup because I didn't want it to get wet, and
Speaker 3: I didn't tell him. Well, he slept up on me,
Speaker 3: got behind me and just set there and listen. He
Speaker 3: wanted to be listened to me called he listed turkey gobble.
Speaker 3: I didn't get to turkey because he had hints with him.
Speaker 3: We got back to the truck. He helped me to
Speaker 3: see that my box on the dash of the pickup.
Speaker 3: He said, what are you calling that turkey with? I said,
Speaker 3: I was calling him with my mouth. He said, well,
Speaker 3: you take that box and stick it under the truck
Speaker 3: wheel and run over it. You don't need it. And
Speaker 3: I've been been calling him with my mouth ever since.
Speaker 2: Let me just throw this one out there.
Speaker 1: Me personally, I'm glad they make turkey calls because if
Speaker 1: I had to rely on my natural voice like mister
Speaker 1: Jamie does, I don't think I would ever kill a turkey.
Speaker 2: It's an impressive skill.
Speaker 1: To formally wrap things up with mister Jamie, I want
Speaker 1: him to share his thoughts on the current state of
Speaker 1: turkeys as well as the future of turkey out right now.
Speaker 3: They're making a good callback now. We last year we
Speaker 3: had the best hatch local to hear that we've had
Speaker 3: in years. I called, have you ever met Adam Butler? Oh?
Speaker 4: Yeah, he's a good friend.
Speaker 3: I called Adham and told him one day. I said, Adam,
Speaker 3: we were fortunate here to County County and he says, well,
Speaker 3: I'm glad you called me. He says, I'm getting calls
Speaker 3: from Jeff Davis County, Lawrence County, Simpson County, Smith County,
Speaker 3: big hatches.
Speaker 1: Thank you for the time and for the stories, mister Jamie.
Speaker 1: It sure was a pleasure, and I always love hearing
Speaker 1: the turkey numbers are doing good in an area. It
Speaker 1: was also rather perfect that he mentioned Adam Butler right
Speaker 1: there at the end. You see, if y'all remember I
Speaker 1: said at the beginning of this episode that we would
Speaker 1: be going turkey hunting and sitting in the woods having
Speaker 1: a conversation with one of the individuals who championed the
Speaker 1: new turkey stamp in Mississippi. And that individual just happens
Speaker 1: to be Adam Butler. So heck, what are we waiting for?
Speaker 1: Let's go turkey hunt.
Speaker 2: It all started with a text exchange.
Speaker 1: The next thing I know, I'm meeting my good friend
Speaker 1: Adam at four am to rendezvous before heading deep into.
Speaker 2: The Turkey woods.
Speaker 1: It was so dark when we started the trek from
Speaker 1: our trucks into the woods that the stars in the
Speaker 1: sky were the only thing that gave us some sense
Speaker 1: of direction. We reached our preferred listening spot and plenty
Speaker 1: of time, and we sat there in the dark, making
Speaker 1: small talk in a whisper tone, as many turkey hunters do,
Speaker 1: when out of nowhere the woods erupted with a gobble
Speaker 1: not two hundred yards away.
Speaker 2: He was early.
Speaker 1: We weren't expecting to hear a turkey for another fifteen
Speaker 1: minutes or so, but hey, no one ever gets mad
Speaker 1: about an early gobble. We slipped down about sixty yard
Speaker 1: to make our first set up. The turkeys were in
Speaker 1: a small hardwood drain surrounded by pines. I was going
Speaker 1: to drop behind Adam and hope to pull one of
Speaker 1: the gobblers just to the edge of the pines so.
Speaker 2: That he could get a shot.
Speaker 1: As we waited for fly down, the turkeys were getting
Speaker 1: really cranked up. One gobbler soon turned into multiple, and
Speaker 1: then the hens joined in on the chorus. It was
Speaker 1: quite the springtime commotion, the kind that made you just
Speaker 1: feel thankful that you were there to hear it. When
Speaker 1: the gobblers hit the ground, we started calling, and although
Speaker 1: they did cut significant distance, they never got quite close
Speaker 1: enough to give Adam a shot, and eventually they faded
Speaker 1: back down into the drain. Adam and I backed out
Speaker 1: and formed another game plan. It sounded like the turkeys
Speaker 1: were wanting to head due north up the drain towards
Speaker 1: a fresh cutover. We thought if we made a big
Speaker 1: loop and got in the drain with them, we might
Speaker 1: have a chance, but we were going to have to
Speaker 1: move quick. We started walking that direction, dodging briers and
Speaker 1: hearing fat gobbles as we went on. When we made
Speaker 1: it to the end of the drain, where we were
Speaker 1: trying to get to our pace slowed had and heard
Speaker 1: them gobble in a while, and we wanted to be
Speaker 1: cautious and not blow anything out. Thankfully, when we were
Speaker 1: about fifty yards away, we heard them gobble, still two
Speaker 1: hundred yards or so away from us.
Speaker 2: Perfect.
Speaker 1: We eased into the edge of the drain and made
Speaker 1: a setup. I was sitting roughly thirty yards behind Adam.
Speaker 4: And we commenced calling.
Speaker 1: They answered, and for a minute or two we thought
Speaker 1: they were gaining quick ground. That initial excitement faded when
Speaker 1: they hung up at about one hundred and seventy yards. However,
Speaker 1: both of us felt confident that we were in.
Speaker 2: A good location. We continued to call intermittently and they
Speaker 2: would answer us just about every time. It had likely
Speaker 2: been about twenty minutes when I saw Adam gopher his
Speaker 2: binos strutter. He said, right on the edge of the drain,
Speaker 2: still about one hundred and seventy yards good. I thought,
Speaker 2: hopefully they'll work this way. We sat there for a
Speaker 2: few more minutes, calling every so often, thinking it would
Speaker 2: still be a while before we had any real action.
Speaker 2: Spoiler alert, we were wrong.
Speaker 1: It had been somewhere between five and ten minutes in
Speaker 1: Adam spotted the strutter with his binos, and I happened
Speaker 1: to catch a black blob of feathers.
Speaker 2: Move between two trees.
Speaker 1: I focused in on that area when all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: I saw the fan of a long bearded gobbler pop
Speaker 1: up from the green grass headed our direction.
Speaker 2: He was eighty yards and closing.
Speaker 1: Now one important thing to note. When we made this
Speaker 1: set up, Adam did say, I want to sit on
Speaker 1: the other side of that drain, because I think that's
Speaker 1: where they'll come. But I don't think I can get
Speaker 1: there without spooking anything.
Speaker 2: And let me tell you something. He was right about both.
Speaker 2: There was no way he could have gotten there. But
Speaker 2: now that gobbler was eighty yards and closing, and he
Speaker 2: was on the other side of the drain.
Speaker 1: If he kept coming, he would be in range. But
Speaker 1: finding a hole to shoot through that would be tricky.
Speaker 1: I watched the gobbler go from eighty to sixty, from
Speaker 1: sixty to forty, his bright red head beaming the whole way.
Speaker 1: Forty turned into thirty, and I was looking back and
Speaker 1: forth from the turkey to Adam to see when or
Speaker 1: if he was going to shoot the further. The turkey
Speaker 1: walked down the drain closer to being dead even with us,
Speaker 1: the smaller the shot opportunity.
Speaker 2: Was going to be.
Speaker 1: He was steady walking, and I just kept waiting for
Speaker 1: a gun to go off.
Speaker 2: I didn't know it at the time, but Adam never
Speaker 2: had a good shot. And now the turkey had walked
Speaker 2: past us behind a huge wall of cover with no
Speaker 2: more opportunity to shoot. My head was reeling.
Speaker 1: This turkey is still under thirty yards away, but he
Speaker 1: has no shot.
Speaker 2: I did the only thing I knew to do, which
Speaker 2: was a hell Mary at best.
Speaker 1: I slid my hand up to my mouth and cupped
Speaker 1: it on the left side and yelped as softly as
Speaker 1: I could, aiming the sounds of my calls back to
Speaker 1: the right in a feudal attempt that the gobbler would
Speaker 1: turn around and come back. I could see through the
Speaker 1: thick vegetation that he had stopped walking when I yelped,
Speaker 1: so I did it again. To my absolute dismay, not
Speaker 1: only did that turkey turn around, but he also hopped
Speaker 1: to our side of the drain and walked to about
Speaker 1: twenty five yards and wigan.
Speaker 2: Adam let him have it. As you could.
Speaker 1: Imagine, there was some high fives and celebrating could be had.
Speaker 1: I mean, a picture perfect spring day in the woods, right,
Speaker 1: How could it get any better? Well, I'll tell you
Speaker 1: how it can get better. As I've told you all before,
Speaker 1: I love wild turkeys and I love turkey hunting. I
Speaker 1: love hearing from guys like mister Jamie Quick that saw
Speaker 1: the rise of turkeys and turkey hunting culture in my
Speaker 1: home state of Mississippi, and I especially love hearing about
Speaker 1: his involvement in the Spring Gobbler Survey. Anytime that hunters
Speaker 1: can get to be on the front lines of conservation, man,
Speaker 1: it just makes me flat out happy.
Speaker 2: And that's what we're here to talk about right now.
Speaker 1: Right after this hunt took place, and I really do
Speaker 1: mean right after this hunt took place, Adam and I
Speaker 1: found some trees to sit by, some shade to hide under,
Speaker 1: and a place to lay that gobbler down.
Speaker 2: Where we could both look an Admira and we had
Speaker 2: a conversation about one of the newest forms of turkey conservation,
Speaker 2: the turkey sound. This is that conversation. You could probably
Speaker 2: tell just from the background noise that we're sitting outside
Speaker 2: right now and we're reflecting on what was a pretty
Speaker 2: amazing spring morning.
Speaker 5: I would say it was amazing hard not to call
Speaker 5: it amazing. About as good as it could get.
Speaker 2: Today is March twenty seventh. Where are we two weeks
Speaker 2: into regular season or close to it?
Speaker 4: Right?
Speaker 2: Two weeks tomorrow tomorrow it'll be two weeks of regular
Speaker 2: season open. Let me ask you something because I'm curious
Speaker 2: if you feel the same way. And I feel like
Speaker 2: this would apply to a lot of people. For me,
Speaker 2: like everyone, you know, a lot of folks travel to
Speaker 2: Turkey on these days, and that's something that I do
Speaker 2: enjoy doing. And not even talking about Mississippi specifically. I'm
Speaker 2: talking about Mississippi right now because it's yours in my
Speaker 2: home state. To have a morning like we got to
Speaker 2: have this morning at home.
Speaker 4: Mm hmm.
Speaker 5: It doesn't get any better now, it doesn't. And I'm
Speaker 5: a little bit of an odd ball. I do travel
Speaker 5: to Turkey hunt, but not a ton, not as much
Speaker 5: as a lot of people. I mean, I think I've
Speaker 5: killed turkeys and you know, maybe like eight states, which
Speaker 5: is not a lot in this day and time, but
Speaker 5: I get after them here. Yeah, and uh, part of
Speaker 5: the part of the reason I probably don't put as
Speaker 5: much emphasis on traveling, uh is for me, turkeys and
Speaker 5: other places don't just match, don't match what it means
Speaker 5: to me back home to Yeah, and I'm blessed enough
Speaker 5: to hunt a lot of the same places that I've
Speaker 5: hunted all my life, and it just it's really special
Speaker 5: to me to think about hunting turkeys that you know,
Speaker 5: we're the descendants great, great, great great offspring of the
Speaker 5: turkeys that made me fall in love with it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, nearly four decades ago now the same too.
Speaker 2: It's so like in this on this show, we've kind
Speaker 2: of done like a we've had a look back at
Speaker 2: like the earliest turkey restoration efforts and talking to mister
Speaker 2: Benny hearing incredible story.
Speaker 4: Yeah he's awesome, my hero, so awesome.
Speaker 2: But what I was trying to what I was hoping
Speaker 2: to do with this one is kind of we looked
Speaker 2: back and now looking present. You know, it's not like
Speaker 2: a I don't think conservation is ever a journey where
Speaker 2: you go, look, guys, we made it.
Speaker 4: We can stop now, you know what I mean?
Speaker 2: Like there's always like more to do and kind of
Speaker 2: wrapping all this up into the main of what we're
Speaker 2: going with here is you know, talking to mister Benny,
Speaker 2: knowing some of the history of turkey restoration here in
Speaker 2: the turkey population, and then the just the such a
Speaker 2: rich turkey hunting culture here in this state. And then
Speaker 2: fast forward to that, like you were saying, hunting turkeys
Speaker 2: that you know pretty much state wide now, I mean,
Speaker 2: is that and then focusing in on some of the
Speaker 2: current conservation efforts that are going on, particularly in Mississippi,
Speaker 2: and the newest one that's gathered a lot of attention
Speaker 2: for good reason is the turkey stamp, which I know
Speaker 2: you had a lot.
Speaker 4: To do with.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I'm just really blessed that that was able to
Speaker 5: you know, kind of come about during my tenure here,
Speaker 5: you know, working as a wildlife biologist and turkey coordinator
Speaker 5: and now deputy director of the Wildlife Bureau. And I
Speaker 5: listened to your episode with mister Benny and just you know,
Speaker 5: it's really humbling to be part of that lineage of
Speaker 5: people working for the resource and all. And yeah, the
Speaker 5: turkey stamps really really big. I mean, there's other states
Speaker 5: that have that, and not many, but there's other states
Speaker 5: with turkey stamps. But when you think about you know,
Speaker 5: the best analogies looking at the duck stamp, which you know,
Speaker 5: the federal duck stamps nearly one hundred years old, and
Speaker 5: this year is the fiftieth anniversary of duck stamp in Mississippi.
Speaker 5: So we have the turkey stamp coming on the fiftieth
Speaker 5: anniversary of our state waterfowl stamp.
Speaker 4: So that's that's really cool.
Speaker 5: And when you think about just the amount of funding
Speaker 5: that's been raised all of those decades with duck stamp
Speaker 5: dollars and all the places that those moneies go and
Speaker 5: the things that they do, and you know, now having
Speaker 5: a similar sort of conservation vehicle for turkeys. Man, we're
Speaker 5: it's it's a good time to good time to be
Speaker 5: a lover of the bird.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it was something for It was exciting
Speaker 2: for me when I heard that. It was like, I'm
Speaker 2: trying to remember how it all went down, but I
Speaker 2: remember hearing that. I think the first time I heard
Speaker 2: about it, it wasn't a sure thing that we were
Speaker 2: going to have one. There was just like rumors here
Speaker 2: and there of like, hey, we might get a turkey stamp,
Speaker 2: and there was I had all these questions like what
Speaker 2: does that mean, what's it going to do? How's it
Speaker 2: going to operate? Like is it optional? Is it something
Speaker 2: everyone has to get? Like, how's it going to work?
Speaker 4: To where this is?
Speaker 2: I mean, this is the first spring season where it's
Speaker 2: it's in place. Yeah, and correct, I'm you had to
Speaker 2: turn to legally turkeyun the Mississippi you must have a
Speaker 2: turkey stamp.
Speaker 4: Correct for most people.
Speaker 5: There are a few categories of individuals that are exempt,
Speaker 5: like if you're under sixteen or over sixty five or
Speaker 5: right a lifetime license.
Speaker 4: But but for most people, yeah, you've got to have it.
Speaker 4: Now to turkey hunt.
Speaker 2: So talk to me about what the f I mean
Speaker 2: it sounds you know, you hear turkey stamp and it's
Speaker 2: going to benefit the bird.
Speaker 4: You're like, awesome, talk to me about how that works.
Speaker 2: Like everyone, you know, if if you're most people and
Speaker 2: you have to buy a turkey stamp, someone buys a
Speaker 2: turkey stamp resident or non resident, where is that?
Speaker 4: How is that going to benefit turkeys? Right?
Speaker 5: So the turkey stamp came about through legislation, in our legislation. Sure,
Speaker 5: and want to give you know, real well, real big
Speaker 5: props to the chairman of our House and Senate Wildlife Committee,
Speaker 5: So Ben super who's the chairman on the Senate side,
Speaker 5: wrote the bill, and Bill Kincaid, who's the chairman on
Speaker 5: the House side, you know, stewarded its passage through that chamber.
Speaker 5: So they both of those gentlemen, you know, were real instrumental.
Speaker 5: So because it was a legislative effort came about through
Speaker 5: a bill. That bill stipulates what the money can be
Speaker 5: used for. Uh, it doesn't just go to the general
Speaker 5: fund or anything like that. It has to be used
Speaker 5: on practices that benefit turkeys, adding to public publicly available
Speaker 5: turkey hunting opportunities, funding science to to you know, look
Speaker 5: at what's going on with turkeys or what you know,
Speaker 5: why they may or may not be doing well. So
Speaker 5: the the law itself is what you lays out what
Speaker 5: the money can and can't be used for. So from
Speaker 5: that point forward, you know, we kind of have the
Speaker 5: framework of how we can use the funds, and you know,
Speaker 5: going forward it'll be you know in coming upon us
Speaker 5: with the Department Wilde Fisheries and partner organizations to put
Speaker 5: those dollars on the ground in a way that's meaningful.
Speaker 5: We started that process already this year. So, just like
Speaker 5: anything with spending money, you know, you kind of got
Speaker 5: to know what your budget is before you can decide
Speaker 5: what you're buying, right, Yeah, And so going into this,
Speaker 5: you know, we didn't we didn't know exactly how much
Speaker 5: money the Stamp's going to generate long term, because one
Speaker 5: of the problems that we've had here in Mississippi is
Speaker 5: we don't have we don't have a way of accurately
Speaker 5: knowing exactly how many people are turkey hunting. We have estimates,
Speaker 5: and that was one of the things that the stamp
Speaker 5: itself was helping to solve is if you're managing a resource,
Speaker 5: it's kind of important to know how many people are
Speaker 5: coming in, how many people are hunting these things, And
Speaker 5: until you know that number, it's hard to predict exactly
Speaker 5: you know, what the revenue is going to be. So
Speaker 5: after this season is over, this twenty twenty sixth season,
Speaker 5: we'll have a better sense of.
Speaker 4: What level of funding we're dealing.
Speaker 5: With and we'll be able to start budgeting accordingly from there.
Speaker 5: We did want to at least, you know, plan a
Speaker 5: flag in the ground though with this initial round, because
Speaker 5: you know, people have been buying the stamp because it
Speaker 5: is licensed to turkey hunt.
Speaker 2: There's one displayed proudly. If you look in my truck
Speaker 2: right now, I have it in my in my visor.
Speaker 4: I saw that this morning while we were waiting on daylight.
Speaker 4: Proud of it. Yeah, on daylight.
Speaker 2: And then I got one from my wife Lacey. It's
Speaker 2: it's magnitude to the front of refrigerator.
Speaker 4: There you go, there you go.
Speaker 5: But we did at our most recent meeting of the
Speaker 5: Commission of Wilie Fishing Parks last or no this week,
Speaker 5: this week, a.
Speaker 4: Couple of days ago. Hyah, you lose track of times
Speaker 4: run together this time of year.
Speaker 5: Yeah, when you get on Turkey time, you lose track
Speaker 5: of things. But yeah, so we actually present ended a
Speaker 5: slate of projects to spend some of those dollars.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 5: Caleb Hinton, who's now our Turkey program coordinator, Caleb's a
Speaker 5: great guy and you know, just like you and I,
Speaker 5: he's he's crazy about turkeys and going to do a
Speaker 5: really great job for us uh in that role going forward.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 5: He presented our first slate of projects, all w a
Speaker 5: focused ultimately you know, we want the dollars to follow
Speaker 5: the bird on public private land.
Speaker 4: Research wherever, uh, wherever we need to go.
Speaker 5: To make sure we're conserving conserving turkeys for the future,
Speaker 5: but for this first slate of projects, it's for a
Speaker 5: lot of reasons, we tend we wanted to focus on
Speaker 5: wm as. So Caleb Uh, he stood before the Commission
Speaker 5: and you can go back and see that should be
Speaker 5: available on YouTube. Uh and you know, pose forth the
Speaker 5: first ever slate of projects we're going to spend turkey
Speaker 5: stamp dollars on. And it was really cool because Caleb
Speaker 5: Uh his first time presenting to the Commission. He's new
Speaker 5: in that in that role as the Turkey Pregnant Coordinator,
Speaker 5: and he pointed out that he killed his first turkey
Speaker 5: twenty five years ago this year on one of the
Speaker 5: WA's that he's now proposing turkey stamp funding.
Speaker 4: Oh that is cool.
Speaker 5: So I just thought that was was really cool kind
Speaker 5: of tying it all together.
Speaker 6: This is my first time here a streaking y'all. So
Speaker 6: this is a little bit about me. I'm a Wild
Speaker 6: Turkey Program coordinator. Now I've been in that role officially
Speaker 6: since August. I'm from southeast Mississippi, Perry County to be specific,
Speaker 6: and I'm a lifelong outdoorsman and extremely passionate turkey hunter.
Speaker 6: So I'm so privileged, thankful to be in.
Speaker 4: This role and excited to get it going.
Speaker 6: And I was thinking on the way up here, it's
Speaker 6: so cool to me, exactly twenty five years ago this year,
Speaker 6: I killed my very first turkey on one of these
Speaker 6: w mays.
Speaker 4: We're listened here for a project.
Speaker 6: So I'm just it's something that's really near to do
Speaker 6: to my heart.
Speaker 2: That's way cool, And it's cool for you know, even
Speaker 2: even for me, who's like I've been pumped about this
Speaker 2: stamp ever since I knew it was coming. It's it's
Speaker 2: good to be able to highlight that, just to show like, hey,
Speaker 2: this is what these funds are gonna do. And like
Speaker 2: I said, I'm sure they'll go through a plethora of
Speaker 2: different things that will benefit of turkey. But I do
Speaker 2: have a I have a you know, special place in
Speaker 2: my heart for places like WMA's and national forests and
Speaker 2: these publicly accessible hunting areas that are just so like
Speaker 2: you can't put enough value on them. And so no,
Speaker 2: that really is awesome to hear that.
Speaker 5: We're blessed he in Mississippi, We've got some pretty good
Speaker 5: public pretty honey man.
Speaker 2: I feel like, I mean, this year you've got the
Speaker 2: Turkey stamp, you got that, the dollars to night going
Speaker 2: to some projects that you just talked about. I feel
Speaker 2: like there's just a lot going on, and which I
Speaker 2: am biased, right because I live here, but like I
Speaker 2: feel like there's a lot going on with turkeys and
Speaker 2: in Mississippi right now as far as like things that
Speaker 2: will benefit.
Speaker 4: The bird, right.
Speaker 5: Yeah, So obviously the stamp and it, you know, the
Speaker 5: funding it will bring for the work that can be
Speaker 5: conducted there. And then I'm sure you saw recently the
Speaker 5: National Wild Turkey Federation in Mississippi State University announced the
Speaker 5: establishment of an endow chair in wild Turkey Research.
Speaker 4: Did see that at the end of at the convention
Speaker 4: this year.
Speaker 5: Yeah, And hou'sed that a Mississippi State up there. So this
Speaker 5: will be the second one. Doctor Mike Chamberlain's in the
Speaker 5: first one at University of Georgia, so this will be
Speaker 5: a second one. And MSU is going to be expanding
Speaker 5: faculty to hire somebody that will be doing turkey research
Speaker 5: here in state and I'm sure elsewhere as well. I mean,
Speaker 5: you know a lot of those research but the positions
Speaker 5: they are going to work in more than one place.
Speaker 5: But we're going to have a lot of focus uh
Speaker 5: here in Mississippi through Mississippi State University.
Speaker 4: So yeah, we got a lot going on. It's it's
Speaker 4: just to me, it's a good time.
Speaker 5: I mean, if you look at turkey restoration and sort
Speaker 5: of the history and and I know you talked to
Speaker 5: mister Benny Herring, and you know, turkeys did really really
Speaker 5: well here for a long long time, and then you know,
Speaker 5: kind of I think a lot of people just sort
Speaker 5: of took for granted it was always going to be
Speaker 5: that way. And then, you know, ten or fifteen years ago,
Speaker 5: when we started seeing some troubling signs around turkey reproduction
Speaker 5: and populations and harvests and stuff like that, I think
Speaker 5: it it opened a lot of folks's eyes that, hey,
Speaker 5: we we don't need to take this bird for granted,
Speaker 5: and we need to make sure we're doing the things
Speaker 5: to ensure that our great grandkids are going to have
Speaker 5: turkeys to hunt. And I think a lot of the
Speaker 5: stuff that we're talking about, turkey stamp, you know, the
Speaker 5: game check system we've got here in place now, the
Speaker 5: endow chair at Missippi State, you know, just a real
Speaker 5: focus on a lot of the stuff I mean talking
Speaker 5: about convention that partner wildlife Fisheries and parks here and
Speaker 5: our partner organizations have a program to help private landowners
Speaker 5: burn called Fire on the Ford Reward. Yeah, a convention
Speaker 5: we've yeah, we've we've crossed a one hundred thousand acre
Speaker 5: impacted threshold.
Speaker 4: That's crazy here in Mississippi.
Speaker 5: And so you know that's not a you know, quote
Speaker 5: turkey specific program, but burning's gonna help turkeys.
Speaker 2: Burning is yeah, Burning and turkeys go together like Southern
Speaker 2: Baptists and eating Mexican food after church on Sunday.
Speaker 4: I mean they just go together. Yeah. Uh no, I
Speaker 4: say that. I've never heard that going on to that one.
Speaker 4: That's good, right, it's free. Yeah, So no, I'm excited.
Speaker 5: It's a great time, great time to be uh somebody
Speaker 5: who cares about the bird and be optimistic about the future.
Speaker 4: Yeah, especially here in Mississippi.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: And that's the thing, man, from from everything that you said,
Speaker 2: Like when I going back to I'm going to keep
Speaker 2: referring to the mister Benny episode because it was just
Speaker 2: so awesome. But he even talked about back then, he
Speaker 2: was like those restoration efforts would have never happened if
Speaker 2: you didn't have a private landowners and a hunting community
Speaker 2: that cared about wildlife and turkeys.
Speaker 4: Absolutely, you fast.
Speaker 2: Forward to this today, like the situation is a little
Speaker 2: bit different. The circumstances have changed, but the principle of that,
Speaker 2: in my mind stays the same.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: It's like when when I heard that, like when it
Speaker 2: was like, all right, one hundred percent, Mississippi is going
Speaker 2: to have a turkey stamp. In my mind, I was like,
Speaker 2: this is going to be great, And I had no
Speaker 2: doubt that the turkey out in community here would get
Speaker 2: behind it because I was like, man, I know how
Speaker 2: turkey hunters feel about this bird and how they feel
Speaker 2: about keeping it around, and they're going to be for this.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 5: I've always felt like, you know, hunters, hunters are obviously
Speaker 5: the best conservationists and and real true hunters don't have
Speaker 5: a problem stepping up when when they need to. And
Speaker 5: I get it. I mean I know, not everybody, not everybody.
Speaker 5: Everybody hates giving it, you know, your money over to
Speaker 5: the government. But in this case, you know, we had
Speaker 5: public polling that showed almost eighty percent of turkey hunters
Speaker 5: that we surveyed were in favor of it. If they
Speaker 5: knew that we're really the money could only be spent
Speaker 5: on the bird. And and like I said, that the
Speaker 5: passage through the legislature that that is the case.
Speaker 4: So just a lot of support.
Speaker 5: I hope, you know, I hope see the end ever grow.
Speaker 5: I'd love to see other states adopt it, you know,
Speaker 5: like I said, I mean there are a few already.
Speaker 4: You know, Louisiana has one.
Speaker 2: South Carolina, Arkansas, I have one still.
Speaker 5: Yeah, there is still voluntary, I believe Florida, and you know,
Speaker 5: in our part of the world, Florida is one that
Speaker 5: has done really great things with their stamp funds over
Speaker 5: the years. So you know, most every states has a
Speaker 5: waterfowl stamp.
Speaker 4: So that was going to be a future where we're
Speaker 4: where we're the same way with the turkey. Stay you
Speaker 4: got out ahead of me. That was going to be
Speaker 4: my question. I was curious.
Speaker 2: I was like, man, let's say that this just crushes
Speaker 2: it for turkeys in Mississippi, which I know you and
Speaker 2: I had a bunch of whole other.
Speaker 4: People hope that it does. I think that it will.
Speaker 2: But let's just say it just knocks out the park
Speaker 2: and it's great and we're able to do all this
Speaker 2: great stuff for a wild turkey's Mississippi. Do you think
Speaker 2: it's realistic that other states could see it and be like, hey,
Speaker 2: this is a good idea.
Speaker 4: See how well it worked for that, I hope.
Speaker 2: So.
Speaker 5: I know there's there are some other states in the
Speaker 5: southeast that are that are talking about it, you know.
Speaker 5: And again, it's always tough, you know, when you're talking
Speaker 5: about legislation that's got.
Speaker 4: To be signed into law and all that.
Speaker 5: It's always tough, you know, those those shepherding that stuff
Speaker 5: through the policy sure discussions and so but I'd love
Speaker 5: to see it, I really do, man.
Speaker 4: I think it's great. I think it's great. Final question.
Speaker 4: Final question.
Speaker 2: When that turkey was strutting at you this morning and
Speaker 2: like the fleeting minutes before you shot it, what was
Speaker 2: going through your head?
Speaker 5: Well, what was going through my head was what I had.
Speaker 5: I had whispered over to you that we were on
Speaker 5: the wrong side of the ditch. After we sat down,
Speaker 5: I thought we need to be on the other side of.
Speaker 4: That ditch right there. But it was a little too late. Yeah,
Speaker 4: he couldn't do it.
Speaker 5: It was too open and they were too close, and
Speaker 5: I was afraid he was going to go that side
Speaker 5: of the ditch, and he did. But luckily you gave
Speaker 5: that a little bit at the end that turned him
Speaker 5: right back. I wasn't even going to bring that up,
Speaker 5: but you brought it up for me. I had to
Speaker 5: give Hi that old comeback call. Yeah, yeah, oh oh
Speaker 5: you lunch or something on that one.
Speaker 2: Look when that turkey did hook around and come right
Speaker 2: back towards us, I told Adam afterwards, I said, I
Speaker 2: was as surprised as you were. Yeah, that was great.
Speaker 2: You can't beat a spring morning like that.
Speaker 4: No, and you don't get many like we just had.
Speaker 2: For sure, clear skies, Turkey's giblin one coming in acting right.
Speaker 4: It just doesn't get any better. Yep.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, I'm going to bring this up one more time
Speaker 2: because I think it's a crucial part of this episode.
Speaker 2: Just know that for the entire interview with Adam, he
Speaker 2: and I were sitting against two trees and the spring
Speaker 2: woods with a turkey. He was pretty great.
Speaker 1: I want to thank all of you for listening to
Speaker 1: Backwoods University as well as Bear Grease in this country life.
Speaker 4: It means a whole heck of a lot to all
Speaker 4: of us.
Speaker 1: If you liked this episode, share it with a friend
Speaker 1: this week that loves spring turkeys as much as we do,
Speaker 1: and stick around because if this podcast was a turkey hunt,
Speaker 1: well we've got one gobbling, but I'm pretty sure he's
Speaker 1: covered up in hence, we're just getting started.
Speaker 4: We'll see y'all next time.