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Photo by St. johns river Water district Management
WANT MORE? > For additional information about Dunn's Creek and other Florida WMAs, visit www.myfwc.com. You can also view online WMA regulation summaries, area maps, or learn about specific hunting season dates, permits, rules and fees. |
Florida's Dunn's Creek WMA
Check out some of the latest turkey management and habitat improvement projects in one of the Sunshine State's wildlife management areas
Many people automatically envision blue sparkling water, white sandy beaches and key lime pie when talking about Florida. However, a country boy like me thinks about those hog-headed largemouth bass, black-water swamps, strutting longbeards, and the state's super early turkey season opener. It's a safe bet that most hardcore sharp spur addicts dream about chasing gobblers across the peninsula during March. For good reason, hunters can take advantage of some intense gobbling action throughout the seemingly endless acres of public land weeks — even months — before other states get things cranked up.
The Sunshine State encompasses a number of wildlife management areas that provide excellent hunting opportunities when March Madness rolls around. These managed locations generally are loaded with turkeys and a variety of other native wildlife species. At the same time, land management specialists and biologists are always looking for ways to make things better, like on Dunn's Creek WMA.
Background info
Dunn's Creek WMA is more than 3,000 acres of floodplain swamp, mixed forests and piney flatwoods in eastern Putnam County. The St. John's Water Management District in cooperation with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission manages the area. Over the past few spring seasons, reports revealed turkey harvest figures have not been on target. The SJWMD staff and NWTF formed a working partnership to devise a management plan that will ultimately improve turkey habitat and increase hunter success rates.
NWTF recommendations
According to Brian Zielinski, NWTF director of conservation operations for the Northeast and Southeast, management techniques such as prescribed fire, timber thinning and mechanical/chemical vegetation treatment are needed to enhance turkey habitat inside of Dunn's Creek WMA. These recommendations are capable of generating many benefits for turkeys and other wildlife. The NWTF also wants to use Super Fund dollars to implement turkey flock surveys through trail camera evaluations and other forms of population research, which will provide land management specialists and biologists with accurate information about the impact of habitat improvement projects.
NWTF biologists feel completing each step of the recommended plan will play a dramatic role in achieving turkey management goals. For example, prescribed fires will help maintain successional growth of the forest understory in a grass and herbaceous stage, which is crucial for providing optimal nesting and brood rearing habitat for Florida wild turkeys.
Prescribed fires are conducted during growing and dormant seasons. Growing season burns are designed to kill many invasive plant species and promote the germination and propagation of native grass and forbs. Prescribed burns are scheduled on two- to three-year rotations and spread across the WMA in a patchwork to maintain nesting habitat and produce good bugging areas for poults.
In addition, timber thinning will allow much needed sunlight to reach the forest floor, which gives grass and forbs a chance to take hold. An understory of native grass and forbs significantly improves turkey habitat, but eventually the domination of woody stems, vines and shrubs will return. Unfortunately, this type of understory can be too dense for flocks to benefit from or use on a day-to-day basis. However, maintaining early successional growth in these wooded areas can still be achieved through prescribed fires after the timber thinning work is completed.
Chemical and mechanical treatment is needed to control invasive plant species like Japanese climbing fern, cogongrass and Chinese tallowtree. Many of these non-native plants can dominate stands and make these areas unsuitable for wild turkeys. Chemical treatment of invasive species can be very productive, because it allows managers to burn or roller-chop them without spreading the invasive plants in the process.
Using all three management tools together is a great way to create and maintain the type of prime turkey habitat that will strengthen flock numbers within Dunn's Creek WMA. — Travis Faulkner