PHOTO: Jackie Johnson
Wisconsin hunters can once again help preserve the natural habitat for their favorite game bird species by buying this year’s turkey, pheasant and waterfowl stamps.
DNR assistant upland wildlife ecologist Krista McGinley says the stamp programs were put in place by hunters to help maintain the wild. “Hunters recognize the value these stamp programs would have for the wildlife that they hunt and the habitat that they spend their time hunting in.”
Sales of the turkey stamp in particular bring in about $750,000 each year. This year’s turkey stamp programs aim to increase and restore Wisconsin’s native oak habitats and McGinley says that they’re aiming to improve turkey habitat over the next two years. “Restoring, managing, establishing oak savannas and other types of oak woodlands. Creating openings in heavily forested areas so that turkeys have the space they need for all the stages of their life cycle.”
The pheasant stamp program will be funding the state game farm, which helps seed the state with new birds each year, and also work to establish more permanent wild breeding of the birds. Duck stamp funding will pay for wetland restoration, and major maintenance of dikes and dams along waterfowl impoundments.
WSAU