LITTLE ROCK - With the last weekend of the 2023 Arkansas turkey season in the rearview mirror, hunters have tallied 9,193 checked birds. This is an increase of 21 percent from 2022 and the first time since 2017 that the harvest topped the 9,000-bird mark.
Last year's brood survey also indicates good reproduction, which should translate to more mature gobblers on the ground next year as well. Arkansas may not boast the turkey habitat of traditional turkey hotspots such as Missouri or Tennessee, but numbers are trending up thanks to favorable weather in some areas during the nesting seasons since 2020. Gobbler carryover appears to have been good last year thanks to the "No Jakes" harvest regulation and continued efforts by agencies and private landowners to put good habitat on the ground.
The harvest isn't the only increasing number in Arkansas's turkey woods. With the help of the Arkansas State Chapter of the National Wild Turkey Federation, the AGFC has been able to add or open 3,206 acres of land for public access since 2018.
Through sales of its state license plate, created in 2015, the NWTF-AR board of directors direct revenue toward conservation and education across Arkansas. These efforts include land acquisition, habitat enhancement, scholarships and mentored hunting programs.
The largest swath of public land added with the help of the NWTF-AR actually came by way of its partnership with the Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission and The Nature Conservancy, when it helped procure the 1,376-acre Huttig Pine Flatwoods Natural Area in Union County. Primarily purchased to preserve open pinehardwood flatwoods that can host the federally endangered red-cockaded woodpecker. This area was included in the Beryl Anthony Lower Ouachita Wildlife Management Area and has received numerous habitat improvement awards from the Wild Turkey and Northern Bobwhite Habitat Cost Share Program to improve nesting and brood rearing habitat for w...
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