"An aggressive transplant program and three or four mild winters have really helped our wild turkey populations grow in the state," says Dean Mitchell, upland game coordinator for the Division of Wildlife Resources. "Because of that, we're proposing a 20 percent increase in wild turkey permits for next year."

In the past 12 months, 1,202 wild turkeys found new homes in Utah. A total of 213 Rio Grande wild turkeys were brought in from Kansas, while 944 Rio Grande and 45 Merriam's wild turkeys were moved within the state.

The Division is proposing 777 Rio Grande permits for Utah's 2002 spring hunts, an increase of 123 over the 654 offered for the 2001 hunts. The Division also is proposing 555 Merriam's permits, an increase of 95 over the 460 offered for 2001.

In addition to the transplant work, Division of Wildlife Resources biologists began work this past spring on a wild turkey harvest management strategy. The goal of the strategy is to provide hunters with a quality experience by assuring that each of the state's wild turkey flocks has plenty of gobblers, and that wild turkey hunters are afield in relatively uncrowded and safe conditions. The strategy is still in draft form, but biologists used the major criteria and parameters outlined in the strategy to craft spring 2002 turkey permit recommendations.

Mitchell said the strategy calls for no more than 30 percent of a flock's gobblers to be taken during spring hunting seasons; that there be no more than one hunter for every 1* square miles of turkey habitat on a local turkey hunting unit, or that turkey hunter interference rates remain below 20 percent; that Rio Grande hunters experience a success rate of 50 to 60 percent; and that Merriam's hunters experience a 30 percent success rate. The strategy also calls for no fall turkey hunting seasons in Utah until all turkey transplant priority sites have been filled with birds.

"We've been so busy here in Utah, just trying to put turkeys every place that we think they'll live, that we haven't had the opportunity to really sit down and think about a strategy for managing turkey populations," Mitchell said.

"Recent wild turkey management research publications, symposia and discussions with the states of Arizona and Minnesota, looking at their turkey harvest management strategies, have helped us put together what we think is going to be a good, solid set of guidelines and criteria that we'll use in managing our turkey populations across Utah."

For more information about the meetings, call the nearest Division of Wildlife Resources office or the Division's Salt Lake City office at (801) 538-4700.