Outdoor News Daily

North Dakota’s pheasant harvest in 2007 was the highest in more than 60 years, according to statistics released by the state Game and Fish Department.

“To sum it up, we had an outstanding hunting season last fall,” said Stan Kohn, upland game management supervisor. “We carried a large breeding population into spring. We predicted a good number of broods and chicks last summer, and they were there. And good fall weather brought out the hunters.”

In 2007, North Dakota had 107,574 pheasant hunters, the first time the state has surpassed the 100,000 mark. Resident and nonresident hunters were both at all-time highs. The number of resident hunters increased to 71,870 (up from 68,216 in 2006) and the number of nonresident hunters increased to 35,704 (up from 31,633).
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MADISON – Preliminary figures show that hunters set yet another spring turkey harvest record, registering 52,814 turkeys during Wisconsin’s 2008 spring wild turkey season. This is a 3 percent increase from the 2007 spring harvest of 51,306 birds. The statewide hunter success rate for all hunting periods was 25 percent, the same as in 2007.

“This spring’s season was great,” says Hull. “Despite the tremendous snowfall events experienced by the southern half of the state and concerns about increased mortality, Wisconsin’s turkey population has certainly proved that it is hardy enough to handle even the toughest of conditions.”
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PIERRE, S.D. – South Dakota hunters can look back on 2007 as another record-setting year for deer harvest.

According to harvest surveys compiled by the S.D. Game, Fish and Parks Department, last year saw the all-time highest recorded deer harvest in the state and it was the eighth straight year that deer harvest has increased.

GFP Game Harvest Survey Coordinator Corey Huxoll said that estimates indicate approximately 70,000 white-tailed deer and 17,000 mule deer were harvested during the 2007 hunting seasons, for a total of more than 87,000 deer. That is a slight increase of about 300 deer from 2006 and a significant increase of more than 41,000 deer since 1999.
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Hunters in West Virginia harvested 9,895 turkeys during the 2008 spring gobbler season, according to Frank Jezioro, Director of the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources (DNR). Preliminary harvest figures indicate this year’s spring turkey harvest was about the same as last year’s harvest (less than 1 percent lower than the 9,965 birds taken in 2007).

The top five counties this spring were Mason (396), Preston (371), Jackson (319), Wood (316) and Harrison (291). Thirty-five of the state’s 55 counties had lower harvests this year. Three districts had lower harvests this year with District 2 (11 percent lower), District 6 (4 percent lower) and District 4 (2 percent lower) decreasing in harvest when compared to 2007. Three districts had higher harvests rates with District 5 having the largest increase at 5 percent. The highest harvests were reported in DNR District 1 (2,184), followed by District 6 (1,944), District 4 (1,868), District 5 (1,705), District 3 (1,372) and District 2 (822).
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ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Maryland’s hunters reported taking 2,833 wild turkeys during the 2008 spring turkey season, a 15 percent increase from the 2007 harvest of 2,455 turkeys. Nearly 1,200 turkeys were taken during the first week, 30 percent more than 2007’s opening week.

“Spring turkey hunters were greeted by excellent weather early in the season, providing ideal conditions to hear and call to gobblers,” stated Bob Long, DNR Upland Gamebird Biologist. Harvest throughout the remainder of season was similar to previous years.

The harvest data reflected DNR’s expectations based on brood surveys conducted over the last few summers, showing that young gobblers, called jakes, were less abundant in most regions this year.
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