REGION-BY-REGION
Delta
"The Delta's harvest decline is largely the result of four consecutive years of poor hatches," said the AGFC's Brad Carner, formerly a turkey biologist and now assistant chief of the Wildlife Division.

That lessening is troubling, but not devastating. Delta turkey populations have historically fluctuated much more than have populations in the state's other physiographic regions. Episodes of diminished populations have been due largely to heavy spring rains and/or high river levels along the Mississippi, Arkansas, White, Cache and other river-bottom systems in the region -- which is where almost all of the turkeys live in this heavily-farmed country.

The 2005 hatch, as mentioned, was substandard for the fourth consecutive year, with the spring and summer brood surveys revealing an average of 1.51 poults per hen -- well below the long-term average of 3.4 poults per hen, and virtually identical to last year's figure of 1.49. At .79 -- meaning that during the survey period, 79 gobblers were seen for every 100 hens -- the gobbler:hen ratio was much better than last year's. A ratio of .50 is the established minimum desirable figure.

Still, there's decent hunting to be had in the Arkansas delta. Areas that have segments of relatively high ground, such as St. Francis National Forest WMA near Helena and Bill Brewer/Scatter Creek WMA near Paragould, showed higher poult production than did areas lying lower on average, like White River National Wildlife Refuge and Bayou Meto WMA.

Don't be discouraged from hunting these above-mentioned areas this spring. The Delta Region consistently brings up the rear in the harvest figures primarily because there's more farmland than turkey habitat left there. But what's left is generally pretty good habitat; on an acre-for-acre basis, Delta Region turkey hunting is as good as it is anywhere else in the state.

Ozarks
You might remember the 10 inches of rain that fell on the Ozarks during a three-day period in mid-April 2004. That rain raised the Buffalo, White and other rivers in the region to near-record levels -- during the peak nesting time for turkeys. That event was the major contributor to the poor Ozark hatch in 2004, and birds in that shrunken cohort are this season's 2-year-olds.

Last year, despite the fact that there was no major flooding in the region, the poult-per-hen ratio was only 1.03 -- even worse than in the flood year of 2004. The gobbler:hen ratio is below the desired level of at least .50, too, coming in at only 42 gobblers per 100 hens sighted during the spring and summer brood surveys.

The result: a shortage of young, inexperienced gobblers in the Ozarks this spring. Ozark hunters will be dealing largely with older birds, which are not only scarcer (because of a turkey's naturally short life cycle) but also wiser (because of heavy hunting pressure).