Crowley's Ridge, which runs through the Delta from the Missouri bootheel to Helena, has a growing turkey population. Most Crowley's Ridge turkeys are on private land, though, and only two public areas on this landform provide any opportunity for turkey hunting: Bill Brewer/ Scatter Creek WMA near Paragould and St. Francis National Forest between Marianna and Helena.

Over the entire state (making exceptions for the inevitable holes in the doughnut), turkey populations are pretty good. Although nesting success was probably below the desired level last spring as a result of wet weather in May and June, there's still a healthy turkey population over most of the state, with a good carryover of last year's substantial jake crop -- this spring's 2-year-old gobblers. Regardless of the part of the state in which they're afield, hunters willing to do their homework should have little trouble finding gobbling turkeys to hunt this spring.

MAP YOUR WAY
Just as someone who's never made the trip before will need a highway map to get from Paragould to Mountain Home to El Dorado, you need maps of your hunting area to help you get around better in the woods. Fortunately, there's no shortage of good map sources.

The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission has excellent maps of some of its wildlife management areas, but the agency's maps for some WMAs are pretty rudimentary and aren't much help to the turkey hunter. Contact the AGFC at (501) 223-6300 to inquire about the availability of maps for the WMAs you're interested in.

The AGFC also publishes a set of county road maps in a volume titled The Arkansas Outdoor Atlas, which is currently available for $18 from the agency at 2 Natural Resources Drive, Little Rock, AR 72205. This reference is at too small a scale for in-the-woods work, but is invaluable for helping you get to where you want to park your rig and start hunting. It shows national forest boundaries, WMA boundaries, camping areas, boat ramps and much more.

National forest maps show the road networks, and they're well worth the nominal cost ($6 at the time of this writing). For Ozark and St. Francis national forest maps, contact Ozark/St. Francis Forest, P.O. Box 1008, Russellville, AR 72801; phone, (479) 968-2354. For Ouachita National Forest maps, contact the supervisor's office at P.O. Box 1270, Hot Springs, AR 71901; phone, (501) 321-5202.

Each national wildlife refuge publishes its own maps and distributes them free, but these are small-scale and don't help much once you get off the roads. However, a detailed topo-type map of the entire White River NWR is available from the Friends of White River NWR at St. Charles. Contact them at (870) 282-8200 for pricing and shipping information.