Conservation Guardians of Northwest Illinois

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Also See: Riches to Rags to Riches, Part 2

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Riches to Rags to Riches

Traveling the countryside of northwest Illinois, many people would think it unlikely that there ever was a time when wild turkeys were not dotting the crop fields. They seem to be everywhere. Northwest Illinois provides a near perfect mix of woodlands, croplands, and grasslands, and it is in this setting that they thrive.

But it was not always so. The wild turkey story is not that different from the stories of several other noteworthy species, including elk, bison, cougar, wolf, and white-tailed deer. Each was once plentiful in northwest Illinois, and each subsequently vanished. The timing was somewhat different, but the driving forces were much the same. And the latest chapter of each species’ saga includes a different result, at least for the time being.

The wild turkey was once plentiful in northwest Illinois, as in the rest of the state. Early pioneers reported seeing numerous flocks, numbering in the hundreds. But as these settlers began to exploit the abundant natural resources, the status of the wild turkey began to change. With settlement came the utilization of native woodlands for farming, lumbering, mining and grazing. And although this dramatic transformation of the wild turkey’s habitat can be given most of the blame for the loss of turkeys, unregulated hunting surely drove the last nails into the turkey’s coffin.

Early attempts to preserve the species within the state were largely futile. Protection for the wild turkey was established by state law in the 1890's, and the wild turkey hunting season was closed in 1903. But this effort was too little, too late. Sporadic sightings were reported until 1928, when the last wild turkey was reported in southern Illinois.

The effort to bring back the turkey began in the 1950s. These initial attempts were anchored to the use of game farm-raised wild turkey/domestic turkey crosses. Between 1954 and 1958 the Illinois Department of Conservation (precursor to the Illinois Department of Natural Resources) released several thousand game farm turkeys in the southern part of the state. And just like every other state in the country that attempted this program, the efforts were disappointing. Game farm-raised “wild turkeys” have since been shown to lack the ability to survive in the wild.

With the invention of the cannon-net, a devise originally used to capture ducks and geese, a new chapter began for the wild turkey. The cannon-net, and a later variation called the rocket-net, is a device that essentially propels a large net, using rockets or cannon weights and an explosive substance like gun powder, over the target animal or animals. This device allowed biologists to capture significant numbers of wild turkeys from established populations in areas where the turkeys still existed, and release them into unoccupied habitats within Illinois.

The first “wild” wild turkeys were released into Jackson County in 1959. Seven gobblers (males) were captured in Mississippi and six hens (females) and two gobblers were captured in West Virginia. Between 1959 and 1967, 65 wild turkeys from West Virginia, Mississippi and Arkansas were released in five areas in southern Illinois. These initial releases were so successful that in 1970 the first wild turkey hunting season in 67 years was established for Alexander, Union and Jackson counties, all in southern Illinois. The initiation of this hunting season marked the beginning of the third phase of the wild turkey restoration efforts, as it was deemed appropriate to capture turkeys from established flocks within Illinois and release them into other areas of the state.

The thinking regarding wild turkey habitat needs was changing nearly as fast as the restocking techniques. At first it was believed that wild turkeys required several thousand acres of continuous woodland in order to survive. It was in these large woodland blocks where the only remaining populations could be found. Early releases in Illinois focused on these larger blocks of woodlands within the state, mostly in southern and west central Illinois.

Successful releases in Iowa suggested that extensive blocks of forest were not essential to wild turkey survival. In fact, they seemed to do better in areas with a mixture of forest blocks combined with grasslands (pasture and hayfields) and crop fields. It has since been shown that grassland areas are important for good poult survival as these areas contain an abundance of insects. Insects are a good source of protein, essential for the proper development of young turkeys. Crop fields, with their abundance of waste grain, are an important source of high energy food. High energy food such as corn provides a concentration of carbohydrates important to maintain wild turkeys during the winter months.

The first wild turkeys to return to northwest Illinois arrived in the winter of 1980, wrapped in burlap bags, and transported in a small airplane. These turkeys, eight hens and five gobblers, were released in Jo Daviess County and are the only wild captured turkeys ever to be released in the county. This release was so successful that by 1985, a wild turkey hunting season was established within the county.

The release also meant that wild turkeys could be captured within the county to be released in other parts of the state. Turkeys from Jo Daviess County were released in Carroll County in 1985 and in Stephenson County in 1990. From 1985 until 2000 when the turkey transplant program was disbanded, nearly 3,000 turkeys were trapped from northwest Illinois and released in other parts of Illinois as well as in Minnesota, the latter being part of a trade for ruffed grouse and prairie chickens.

Currently northwest Illinois, including Jo Daviess and the western parts of Carroll and Stephenson counties, have some of the most abundant turkey populations within Illinois. Hunters regularly harvest between 1,000 and 1,400 turkeys each year within this area, and Jo Daviess County typically ranks first within Illinois for wild turkey harvest.

What will the next chapter of the saga hold for the wild turkey? Habitat will be the key, and agriculture will be a driving force. Trends in agriculture portend a shift away from livestock toward corn and soybeans. It seems improbable that this shift will result in massive deforestation, but one never knows. There is definitely a strong push to replace existing grasslands, either in conservation set-aside programs like the Conservation Reserve Program, or pastures and hayfields, used for raising livestock, to corn and soybeans as a result of the high prices that these commodities are currently bringing.

Only time will tell with certainty, but for as far as this biologist can see, in this region it’s not looking so bad for the wild turkey.

—Doug Dufford, Wildlife Biologist, Illinois Dept. of Natural Resources