Taylor: We've talked about spring hunts in the past, and at least at this time I don't think our staff is ready to propose any spring hunting; as for baiting, I can answer that with a definitive "hell no." I don't think that's a move we want to make. There are other tools we can use without going down that road.

G&F: Let's move on to turkeys. What is the state of the state's turkey population right now, Curtis?

Taylor: We've had a couple of good brood years -- not great, but better than those we've had recently. We went through a real bad spell there for a while, with weather that just wasn't conducive to getting good hatches of turkeys.

G&F: What are the factors that produce good hatches?

Taylor: Right now, we're dependent upon mast conditions and the weather during the time those broods are hatching. If we have a dry spring preceded by a good mast year, production is going to be good. Conversely, if we don't get those conditions, production is going to be down. We know that, from the population dynamic study we did on hens, that reproduction is driven by hens of age 2 and older. We know that the survival rate of hens is not all that good, so our management is focused on trying to get as many 2-year-old hens as we can.

G&F: Don't juvenile hens contribute to the population, too?

Taylor: Don't get me wrong. Juvenile hens will attempt to nest. But I've also seen juvenile hens stop, lay an egg, look at it, putt and run off. They have all the tools to breed, but they don't have the parenting skills. Our studies have shown that less than 10 percent of our juvenile hens are successful at breeding.

G&F: Aside from weather and mast conditions, what other factors affect turkey numbers?

Taylor: There are some habitat concerns. A fair amount of timber cutting is going on. Depending on the method used to cut it, timbering can either be good or bad for turkey reproduction. More than timbering, though, the factor that worries me most is all the corn that's getting spread around through the woods -- primarily for deer hunting.

G&F: Explain, please.

Taylor: When you go to Wal-Mart, Lowe's or wherever to buy corn, you see bags that have the words "deer corn" printed on them. There's a reason for that. The corn has an aflatoxin level so high, it can't legally be fed to cattle. Aflatoxin, of course, is a fungus. And it can be bad for turkeys. There are studies that show that high aflatoxin levels can restrict, reduce and curtail egg production in domestic turkeys. It hasn't yet been documented in wild turkeys, but we suspect it could be a problem here.