Cost-Share Programs Boost Turkey Futures

As traditional sources for wildlife conservation funds dwindle, three states have implemented innovative cost-share programs to improve turkey habitat and conduct turkey research.

Modeled on a highly successful Florida program established in 1994, the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission and the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources recently initiated their own cost-share programs to improve habitat on public areas.

Primarily, the programs create new revenue streams that provide matching dollars to leverage against National Wild Turkey Federation state chapter Super Funds, said Ricky Lackey, NWTF district biologist for Florida, Georgia and South Carolina. Thirty years of demonstrable success from Florida’s cost-share program enabled Lackey to approach South Carolina’s DNR to implement a similar program in the Palmetto State. In 2019, South Carolina’s legislature established a mandatory permit to hunt wild turkeys.

“That created a new funding source for turkey management in South Carolina,” Lackey said. “It’s the exact same funding source that we use with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.”

Revenue from the permit was allocated in the summer of 2021 and funded 14 projects covering 14,400 acres in South Carolina. Program managers leveraged that money against matching funds from public landowners like the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, plus the NWTF’s South Carolina State Chapter.

“This is all on public land, wildlife management areas, national forests, anywhere hunting occurs,” Lackey said. “If it’s being generated by wild turkey permit dollars, it has to be.”

Any pilot project experiences growing pains, but the endorsement of state chapter volunteers helped make South Carolina’s cost-share initiative rollout a mostly seamless transition.

“The first year went pretty well,” Lackey said. “We had a good bit of participation, and this year’s program expanded in terms of projects.”

A positive optic occurred when South Carolina implemented its cost-share program in tandem with aggressive new turkey management regulations.

“Over the last few years, there’s been an urgency to address the declines in turkey numbers that we’ve had,” Lackey said. “It’s been a lot more in the spotlight. South Carolina was the first state to step out there in 2019 and make a big regulation change to try to lessen some of the decline. With all that extra focus on turkeys, the response to the changes has been positive.”

In contrast to South Carolina’s program, the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission implemented a dual-funding mechanism that includes a voluntary wild turkey stamp and an NWTF license plate. The license plate prominently features a wild turkey and NWTF branding. And, because Quail Forever also lobbied for the license plate, bobwhite quail are pictured too, which is appropriate because quail and turkey rely on the same type of habitat.

Jeremy Wood, the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission’s turkey program coordinator, worked in Florida and experienced the impact of its cost-share program. He believed the idea would work in Arkansas.

“I wanted to recreate that model in Arkansas,” Wood said. “I wanted to try to combine forces knowing that quail and turkey have similar habitat needs for nesting and brood rearing. Quail need those habitat conditions for their entire lives.”

The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission has emphasized quail restoration for more than a decade. Also, the AGFC has worked for two years to restructure its hunting license system to generate more revenue. Wood presented his vision at a fortuitous time when the commission redoubled its commitment to turkey recovery. Providing a low-impact avenue to generate additional revenue helped seal the deal.

“We merged those two funding sources,” Wood said. “We worked with the NWTF Arkansas State Chapter to see if they would be interested in partnering. We have two years’ worth of projects totaling $419,000 that have impacted close to 8,000 acres.”

Kacie Bauman, NWTF district biologist in Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi, said that support from turkey hunters was instrumental in the success of the Arkansas cost-share system.

“Arkansas hunters are very involved in what they want to see done in their state and what might be done,” Bauman said.

For fiscal year 2022-23, the NWTF has already approved $45,000 from Arkansas license plate funds, Bauman said. The AGFC allocated more than $143,000 from its turkey and quail stamp funds. The program could be even more successful if more people know about it.

“As we get this information out there with email blasts, mailings, social media posts and word of mouth about the turkey and quail stamps and license plate fund, I hope to see it grow,” Bauman said.

Due to the successes in Arkansas and Florida, Mississippi is examining the possibility of establishing its own voluntary turkey stamp, Bauman said.

In Arkansas and South Carolina, habitat needs are similar. Many forested lands are “overstocked,” Wood said, with trees shading the ground and suppressing ground-level vegetation.

“Projects in Arkansas focus on getting rid of canopy cover through ‘hack and squirt,’ mechanical means, and mulching,” Wood said. “We’re putting that vegetation immediately on the ground and possibly putting in fire to follow those treatments. We immediately start seeing grass and forb response.”

Cooperation with the NWTF and other conservation groups and state agencies to craft a productive solution in the form of a cost-share program is instrumental to success, Wood said.

“I really appreciate the partnership from NWTF and the Arkansas State Chapter,” Wood said. “Their partnership on this is huge. Even Quail Forever partnered with this. Having all those partners together on this so far is phenomenal. We’ve had projects funded through the USDA Forest Service, Corps of Engineers and the Game and Fish Commission. We’re hitting quite a few different properties and working with several partners to get this work on the ground.”

Healthy riparian areas are essential wild turkey habitat, so the National Wild Turkey Federation is committed to maintaining water quality, said Travis Smith, the NWTF’s western water coordinator.

Erosion is a major threat to riparian areas, which threatens wild turkey habitat, Smith said.

“The NWTF clearly understands the strong connection between healthy riparian areas and healthy forest stands and clean, reliable water supplies downstream,” Smith said. “That’s part of the NWTF’s long history in advocating and implementing conservation efforts [on private and public land].”

Water management in the West is vastly different than water management in the Southeast, but as demand for water intensifies around the country, the regions increasingly face similar pressures.

“There is a shared stewardship effort in the West, with 18 states, in a memorandum of understanding with the USDA,” Smith said. “North Carolina, Georgia, Florida and Arkansas are in there, too.”

As water conservation issues continue to mount, Smith said that clean water becomes more integral to the NWTF’s mission.

“Habitat work or [similar efforts], if it’s good for wild turkeys, it’s also good for all people, places and things,” Smith said.