MANSFIELD — For Nick Miller and his brother, Jake, opening day for turkey hunting is circled on the calendar.
“It’s like a national holiday for us,” Nick Miller, an Ontario graduate said. “It’s the best day of the year. We always take off work.”
The two brothers are co-owners of O-Town Outdoors, a hunting/outdoor content production wing of their video production and photography business, Venari Studios.
On April 20, the first day of turkey season, the Miller boys heard more gunshots and saw more vehicles out than ever before.
Tailgate Talk turkey population conversation begins around the 11 minute mark.
“I think a lot of people this year got to enjoy it because of the coronavirus. We always take off work, but this year a lot of people didn’t have to,” Miller said. “Especially if you’re alone, hunting is one of the best things you could do right now.
“It’s a very safe thing you can do during this time.”
The downside of so many hunters out and about this season is a potential dramatic loss in population of turkeys.
“It’s great to see people outdoors, especially youth, but it is having a very, very large impact in the wild turkey population,” the 25-year-old said.
Miller believes the local turkey population has decreased dramatically among the previous five to 10 years due to more hunters and very wet springs.
In a study published April 13, Dr. Mike Chamberlain with Dr. Bret A. Collier said, “Our concerns are predicated on well-documented, long-term declines in abundance and productivity of Eastern wild turkey populations throughout broad portions of the subspecies range, declines which we note have been ongoing for years and are of significant concern to many state wildlife agencies…
“That being said, in these extraordinary and challenging times, the future ability for us to enjoy hunting wild turkeys could be negatively impacted by our collective actions during spring 2020. We hope all turkey hunters will agree, the future of the resource should be our singular most important focus.”
Miller said he could see the effects of over hunting the birds long into the future.
According to Greg Wasilewski, Richland County wild life officer, those with a hunting license are able to hunt male turkeys with a beard from April 20 to May 17.
Hours for hunting are 30 minutes before sunrise to noon until April 26. After that date until May 17, hunting hours expand to 30 minutes before sunrise to sunset.
“I shot my first bird yesterday for the season,” said Miller. “So now, I’m done. I could go and get a tag for a second one, but I don’t want to hurt the population.
“This is a dead serious matter and what happens this year could affect us for decades. This is a very serious matter.”
The maximum number of beards a hunter can harvest this season is two, Wasilewski said.
Wasilewski asked for those with questions about hunting to give him a call: 419-429-8392.
