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Turkeys and Grouse | Wild Turkey Science #507

·1 hr 2 min·5 clips

A wild turkey hen stayed on her nest as fire crept around her, leaving an unburned tail outline in the ash.

This episode of Wild Turkey Science features Dr. Ben Jones, CEO of the Ruffed Grouse Society and American Woodcock Society, discussing forest management for game birds. Hosts Dr. Marcus Lashley and Dr. Will Goolsby explore the habitat connections between turkeys, grouse, and woodcock with their guest. Jones began his research career studying wild turkey response to prescribed fire in Mississippi. His Ph.D. work at the University of Tennessee later focused on ruffed grouse habitat in the Appalachian hardwoods. A key finding from his research was that growing-season prescribed fire did not significantly burn up turkey nests, with one observed hen remaining on her nest during a low-intensity fire. The episode details how active forest management, including timber harvest and fire, creates essential age-class diversity across landscapes. Jones explains that robust forest product markets are critical for enabling habitat management at a meaningful scale. He describes a strategy where conservation groups can add a small subsidy per ton to make low-grade timber harvests commercially viable for operators. The conversation covers the importance of acorns for ruffed grouse productivity, with birds capable of consuming whole red oak acorns. Jones presents a counterintuitive weather relationship where deep, fluffy snow benefits grouse survival but is detrimental to turkey winter survival. He clarifies that while turkeys and grouse populations often show inverse trends, habitat change and winter weather are more likely drivers than predation. The hosts and guest discuss the challenge of social acceptance, noting prescribed fire is gaining understanding faster than commercial timber harvest. They emphasize that management plans for deer, turkeys, or grouse are often very similar in their focus on forest diversity. The tone is conversational and collegial, blending personal hunting anecdotes with detailed ecological and economic insights. Listeners interested in forest ecology, habitat management, or upland bird hunting will find this episode highly engaging. Those seeking purely turkey-specific hunting tactics or uninterested in forestry economics might find less direct application.

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Turkey habitat work becomes concrete where mill margins, diesel costs, and subsidies collide.

Wild Turkey Science treats habitat work less as a conservation slogan than as a plain economics problem. It follows the low-value wood, the need to keep a sale commercially viable, and the pressure to make the numbers work for mills, operators, and landowners.

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Press play for the real math behind making fuel removal pencil out.

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