Turkey population at risk in hurricane areas

Hurricanes have taken a toll on the popular game bird.
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- White-tailed deer and wild hogs can handle most everything that a hurricane can dish out, but wild turkeys are another story.
Biologists with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission are just now beginning to evaluate the effects that Hurricanes Charley, Frances and Ivan had on the state's turkey populations.
"We don't think that a lot of habitat was damaged, but in the forests that were hit the hardest, turkey populations are going to take a hard hit," FWC wild turkey program leader Larry Perrin said. "When hurricanes knock down a lot of trees, it can be devastating to brooding habitat, and that can hurt turkey populations for several years."
Still recovering
According to the National Wild Turkey Federation, South Carolina's turkeys are still recovering from the damage done by Hurricane Hugo, which hit the state in 1989.
Biologists with the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources studied the Francis Marion National Forest after Hugo, a category 5 hurricane, devastated nearly half of the turkey habitat in the 250,000-acre forest. The biologists found that the forest's turkey population suffered because of the drastic habitat loss.
Broken and uprooted trees, along with more sunlight reaching the forest floor because of the open canopy, caused the rapid germination of pine and hardwood seeds.
That resulted in dense, woody undergrowth that was too thick for turkeys to travel through. Coupled with the loss of acorns and other mast, turkeys had a tough time trying to find food, and turkey populations and turkey harvests by hunters declined significantly.
Harvest figures down, still
Even today, 15 years after Hugo, the number of turkeys killed in the Francis Marion National Forest by spring turkey hunters is well below the number killed before the hurricane. In 1989, hunters killed a record 421 turkeys. This past spring, they killed 54. Biologists estimate it'll take another five to 10 years before the turkey population reaches its pre-Hugo numbers.
The good news for Florida's turkeys is that neither Charley nor Frances was as strong as Hugo and did less damage.