An increase in this year’s fall firearms turkey harvest could be the first concrete evidence that Missouri’s wild-turkey population is recovering. The Missouri Department of Conservation Telecheck database shows that hunters checked 7,077 turkeys during the fall firearms turkey season Oct. 1 through 31.

This year’s fall firearms turkey harvest is 1,150 more than last year, a 19.4-percent increase. MDC Resource Scientist Jason Isabelle credits weather for the jump in fall turkey harvest. He says cold wet weather starting in 2003 hurt nesting success. But dry weather this summer gave turkeys their first real break in five years. Isabelle says this year’s hatch was the best since 2002.