Welcome to Wild Turkey Science, a podcast made possible by Turkeys for Tomorrow.

I'm Dr. Marcus Lashley, Professor of Wildlife Ecology at the University of Florida.

And I'm Dr. Will Gulsby, Professor of Wildlife Ecology and Management at Auburn University.

We're both lifelong hunters and devoted scientists who are passionate about hunting,

managing, and researching wild turkeys.

In this podcast, we'll explore turkey research, speak to the experts in the field, and address the

difficult questions related to wild turkey ecology and management.

Our goal is to serve as your connection to wild turkey science.

Yeah, I thought it would be really important for folks to hear your perspective on the early succession conversion, you know, restoration, maintenance. But also, I think that's really interesting fodder for people to think about because even,

well, I'll just say the majority of people, even if they're on a lease, they're managing fields.

That's right.

And there may be ways that you can adjust your management of those fields, even if you're typically using them as food parts you

may be able to adjust that to accommodate the poultry and cover which several studies now

have identified as a real problem across the landscape well well my my fastball pitch right down

the middle for the turkey landowner calls me and says, I don't give a rip about nothing but a wild turkey. And I want to shoot as many of them in the face as I can on this piece of property. My fastball down the middle, I'm going to look at roads and infrastructure and then the integration of all that stuff in the property. So if we've got all the fields on one side and all the woods on one side,

we're going to do timber work, we're going to make fields places.

We might even plant trees places.

But then the corridors, man, daylight in those roads and then managing their early succession

up against the road, that's like a two-year return.

You're almost immediate return on wild turkey sightings,

at least, let's say, on managing roads and corridors. The other thing on the fields, you know,

we talked about having, I mentioned brown top millet. You know, I've grown frustrated with

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