To find out what the prospects are for turkey hunting statewide this spring, we talked to Larry Perrin, the turkey program coordinator for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

WHAT'S HAPPENING IN HOLMES COUNTY?
Several years ago, the FWCC started on an ambitious project to restore the turkey population in Holmes County, in the Panhandle. If you've followed the Holmes County project at all, you remember that residents started telling state wildlife managers back in the mid-1990s that their turkeys had disappeared. In 1997, the FWCC ran a survey of bait sites in the county; the results were very disappointing. Biologists then talked with hunters in Holmes and surrounding counties to see if they'd be willing to accept a closed turkey season for a while as part of an effort to restore turkeys in the area.

The hunters were very willing, so in 1998 Holmes County was closed to turkey hunting. During the next two winters, biologists stocked the county with a total of 121 turkeys at eight different release sites.

"We finished our stocking in January or February of 2000," Perrin recalled. "Now we're in the monitoring phase. Prior to our stocking, we didn't have any turkeys show up at any of our 28 bait sites. Then in September of 2000, we recorded turkeys at three of the bait sites."

A year later, FWCC biologists ran another bait station survey. This time they found turkeys at seven of the 28 sites.

That upward trend continued into 2004, and at this point biologists consider the Holmes County project a success. In fact, they have proposed what a couple of years ago was unthinkable: a short season for turkey hunting in Holmes County.

"We've been monitoring the population ever since we released the birds," Perrin said. "The population has continued to expand throughout the county and has continued to increase."

In September of 2003, there were turkeys at half the bait sites.

"When we saw birds at half the bait sites, that was sort of the trigger," he continued. "That tells us they're doing well. Now we're looking pretty hard at opening it up to turkey hunting. In terms of a restoration project, this has happened quickly."

Biologists proposed three possible season lengths for the spring of 2006 and offered the proposals to the hunters and citizens of Holmes County during a public meeting in July of 2004.

"We wanted to be conservative in our approach, so what we wanted was a limited spring turkey hunt with no fall hunting," Perrin explained. "We suggested three options; one was a three-day hunt, one was a nine-day hunt, and one was a 16-day hunt. Because of public input, we decided to go with the three-day hunt. Some of the people who turned out still expressed concern with any hunting at this point, but by having a very limited spring hunt where we harvest gobblers only, from a biological standpoint there shouldn't be any impact at all from hunting."

Just because the season has been proposed, however, doesn't mean it's necessarily going to take place. The FWCC won't take any action on the proposal until their February meeting, which should be just about the time you are reading this story.