My place is on what used to be Camp Fannin, a US Army WWII base that trained solders. With the latest Omnibus Bill signed by Trump, the Army is using some of the money to go back and clean up the land. 1,800 acres are being cleared of all underbrush and saplings. They are turning thick jungle into what looks like a nice park. They are working on my neighbors place right now and they have been surveying mine, so I'm coming up pretty soon.

From what I understand, turkeys struggle when released because the land has changed too much and its not open under the trees. With what the Army contractors are doing, I'm wondering if this 1,800 block of land, just North of Tyler, would be a good place for the state to release turkeys when they are all done clearing it?

Who do you ask? Who is in charge of something like this? Why wouldn't they be interested in something like this?

Eddie, I got a release last year on my place at Brushy Creek in Anderson County. Jason Hardin With TPWD is who you will need to visit with. Its a lengthy process and they have a target area that you are quite a ways north of. Need 10,000 acres minimum. Never hurts to ask for an evaluation though. Tarrence Jackson working on tring to put together a coop near Frankston and hopefully get a release in the near future. Jason's office number is 903 322 2770.

Thank you!!!

I called and left a message. Hope I was able to explain it properly.

they run around like mosquitos in Bosque.....we are tired of shooting them.....

I never heard back from him, so I have no idea if he's interested, or if he even got the message.

I told my neighbor about calling him and he said that he might do the same thing. He used to have a ranch in Florida and he was very disappointed that we don't have any wild turkeys here.

They will be clearing land for at least another year, so maybe by then there will be some interest from the Fish and Game.

So have you contacted all of the landowners that join you and where all of these lands are being managed to make sure everyone is on board? As cos mentioned, you must have a minimum of at least 10,000 contiguous acres of habitat, and it would be a good idea to gather well over the minimum just in case some of the habitat ends up not being suitable and gets buffered out of the target areas. Large cow pastures are examples of what may be buffered out and excluded.

The current primary target areas are along the neches river basin to the south, and the Sulphur river watershed to the north, but any east Texas landowners with suitable habitat and the minimum required acreage can apply. I used the county CAD to lookup a lot of our neighbors, and had an article printed in the Frankston paper, and a lot of interested landowners called and most people I talked to helped out by talking to their neighbors, family and friends with property about it as well. We're currently around 18,000 acres worth of landowners with another 3000-5000 acres that aren't yet connected to the contiguous land mass we've gathered.

Once you've connected enough properties you've have to schedule a landowner meeting so biologist can come out and talk to everyone and identify the properties on GIS maps provided by the biologist to make sure all the properties connect. Each landowner will need to leave their contact info on their identified parcel. Once that's done the biologist will have the GIS evaluation done. If you pass the GIS evaluation, the next step will be to schedule the on the ground evaluation, where the biologist go out to the properties to evaluate the habitat. We passed our GIS last spring, and our OTG was scheduled for June, but I called it off to give out landowners more time to work on habitat. If you don't pass the OTG evaluation you'll have to wait like 3-5 years to be considered again and start the entire process all over.

We had quite a few landowners with good habitat, but the majority have never burned or thinned, so rather than fail, I called it off until next May, and made sure as many landowner as possible applied for all the grants available to enhance wildlife habitat through thinning mulching and prescribed fire. There are lots of funds available through NRCS and other organizations just for these purposes, so whether or not we get turkeys will depend on how much gets done between now and May. I've confident that we'll pass with the interest this has created in the area, and the number of landowners who can come on board and are implementing thinnings, mulching and prescribed burns in the area.

Just thought I'd shed a little insight for you or anyone else thinking about forming a co-op to get eastern birds released. If you can get Jason on the phone shoot him an email at Jason.Hardin@tpwd.texas.gov. Make sure you at least have the minimum required acreage though first. You can also contact you're local biologist for your county as well, who may already be working with some landowners in the area on wildlife management plans.

Hey Gary...did you every start seeing any more hens/poults later in the summer months?

Thank you for the insight and sharing what you have accomplished. I haven't done anything, and wont put any effort into this. My thought was just a superficial one that I felt was worthwhile reaching out to see if there was any interest. The Army people have all the contact information on the land that they are clearing, and where they have done it, made me think of awesome turkey habitat. It's only 1,800 acres, so that's why I won't bother pursuing it any farther. It just seemed like an opportunity for turkey's to have some habitat that is being paid for by the military that wont ever happen again.

Well if the habitat is continuously managed over the years and there happen to be turkeys nearby or moving through the area, some may settle in those areas with the best habitat. It's good that they're improving the habitat in the area, but hopefully some of the landowners will keep it up in the coming years. In areas that are burned or thinned for wildlife it's usually done every 2-3 years. After about 5 years with no type of management all that stuff will just get thick again, and if any turkeys have moved in they'll just move elsewhere when the habitat becomes thick and undesirable.

Tarrence, we did see quite a few poults later on. we have a group of 18 from 4 hens on south side of ranch. Several smaller hatchs as well.

Awesome...good to hear it. I figured the hens started setting on their nests later in the spring out that way this year...I know for sure they did on the national forest in deep east Texas.