According to Michael Schummer, Ph.D., a wildlife biologist for the MDIFW, two consecutive years of poor nesting conditions could result in fewer young birds available to hunters this year. Even worse, brood surveys indicated a nesting and brooding failure in southern Maine during the 2006 spring breeding season, due to devastating spring floods.

The resulting lack of young birds could translate to lower success rates because the number of older, “educated” birds in the population has likely increased.

Maine has over 1,300 public land in the form of wildlife management areas and public reserve lands, many of which offer public hunting opportunities. Approximately 94 percent of the state’s land area is privately owned. However, more than 10 million acres of working farms and forestry operations are open to public hunting.

In most cases, land not specifically posted against trespassing is open to hunters, although some landowners may require permits for certain activities. Hunters are advised to make every effort to get permission to hunt on private lands prior to the season opener.

During the spring season, the towns yielding the greatest number of turkeys were in Auburn at Exit 13 off I-495; in Brunswick at Exit 22 off I-95; in Limerick at Exit 5 off I-95; in Sanford at Exit 2 off I-95; in Windham at Exit 8 off I-95; and in Windsor on Route 105 east of Augusta. These same areas should produce good hunting again this spring.

For more information on Maine’s turkey-hunting seasons, call the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife at (207) 287-8000 or visit the department’s Web site at State.ME.US/IFW.

For more information on Maine’s public lands, contact the Maine Bureau of Public Lands at (207) 287-3061.

For lodging and travel information, call the Maine tourism department at 1-888-624-6345.

CONNECTICUT
Connecticut’s wild turkey population has grown steadily since the birds were re-introduced in 1975. Today, the birds in some areas have actually become a nuisance by destroying gardens and farm crops.

According to Michael Gregonis, turkey and deer biologist in the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection’s Wildlife Division, the state’s wild turkey population consists of approximately 40,000 birds. In spite of this thriving population, last year hunters had a rather low success rate of only about 20 percent, popularly blamed on poor spring weather.

Hunters harvested 1,760 turkeys in May of 2006 and about 200 birds during the autumn archery and shotgun seasons. But Gregonis said the outlook for the 2007 season is good because the turkey population is healthy and continues to expand.

In fact, because the turkey population is doing well, the Wildlife Division has no special programs in place to enhance turkey hunting or to promote the turkey population, though few years ago, the division did increase the spring harvest limit from one bird to two.

Department land managers have also been working on several projects to clear-cut small blocks of forest to improve ruffed grouse habitat. White-tailed deer, turkeys and many other wildlife species reap the benefits of these projects.

Private-land hunters tend to harvest the most turkeys in Connecticut, especially in the towns of Woodstock, Union, Lebanon, Lyme, Warren and Newtown, which had the highest harvests last spring.