Field & Stream Photo
A bit of sad news in the turkey hunting world with the passing of Mr. R. Wayne Bailey of Milton North Carolina. Although I never had the pleasure of meeting him we all enjoy the bounty of his life’s work when we take to the spring turkey woods especially here in North Carolina.
GODFATHER OF GOBBLERS
North Carolina’s turkey program has been overshadowed nationally by Alabama, Virginia and other states with high turkey populations. Wayne Bailey is the “godfather” of the Tar Heel program, a man immersed in turkey conservation since the early 1940s. “In 1970, I became leader of Carolina’s restoration project and continued for 10 years,” he said. “I began the program by moving around the state, talking with game commission personnel and investigating potential release sites.”
Bailey found that the Tar Heel flock was steadily declining because of a long winter hunting season, which was supposed to be gobblers only. “By collecting wing tips I learned that 10 to 15 percent of the harvest was hens,” said Bailey. “My first recommendation was for a gobblers-only harvest and a moratorium on the fall hunt. Populations began to increase immediately.”
Bailey credits the National Wild Turkey Federation with boosting the reintroduction process. “They gave money to states for allowing their birds to be restocked across state lines. They paid $500 per bird, a wonderful step that greatly accelerated the program,” he said.
If Carolina gobblers seem extra sharp and alert, blame it on genes and Bailey’s tactics. “I swapped our otters for West Virginia turkeys, bartering for some of the best mountain stock,” he said.
Mr. Bailey is credited with developing a lot of the trapping methods to capture live turkeys which was key in restoring the population across the country.
“The hardest part was figuring out how to catch the damned things,” Bailey says. “I worked for three years before I ever caught one. It didn’t get any easier until we started using cannon nets to trap whole flocks at a time. We made our first stocking in 1950. It reestablished a population in northern West Virginia that later spilled over into southern Pennsylvania.”
Bailey’s comment elicits a smile from Donohoe. “Once Wayne started trapping birds, other states started approaching him for birds to reestablish their populations,” he says. “In Ohio, our first birds came from West Virginia sometime around 1956 or ’57. Our second batch came from Missouri. Missouri and West Virginia were the source for an awful lot of birds.”
“Missouri sent 5,000 birds to 22 different states,” Lewis says, pulling the figures from memory. “Populations in Kentucky, Indiana, Wisconsin, and even Michigan came about because of the birds we sent.”
“Actually, another state made more of a contribution to transplanting birds than anyone ever realized,” Bailey says, a twinkle in his eye. “I often trapped on Allegheny Mountain, along the Virginia–West Virginia border, and I always put the bait site on the West Virginia side. But I ran the bait lines way down into Bath County, Virginia. Virginia was transplanting turkeys and didn’t even realize it.”
The cabin erupts with laughter. “I never knew that!” says Gwynn, a 35-year veteran of the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.
There is no doubt that we lost a dedicated conservationist that has made a lasting contribution to all of us who enjoy the sound of a gobbler sounding off on an earlier spring morning. I hope all of you will join me in a moment of reflection on your first turkey hunt this spring, when you hear that first gobbler sound off remember Mr. Bailey and all he did to make the moment you are experiencing possible.
Links
Field & Stream Story “The Turkey Summit”
Field & Stream Story “This Old Bird Knows Turkeys”
NC Wildlife Story about Turkey Restoration
NC Game & Fish “Tarheel Turkey’s”
National Wild Turkey Federation Press Release
Mr. Bailey’s Obituary
