EDGEFIELD, S.C.— High winds, bitter cold and scarce food on frozen ground are some of nature's obstacles faced by wintering wild turkeys on the Great Plains. Thanks to the National Wild Turkey Federation, wild turkeys in the Dakotas will get a boost when times are tough.

Through the NWTF's Operation Big Sky regional habitat program, the South Dakota State Chapter and North Dakota's Central Dakotas Strutters Chapter are assisting landowners in their respective states by helping fund habitat enhancement projects and more to benefit wintering flocks of wild turkeys.

The NWTF's South Dakota State Chapter contributed a $5,000 donation to a South Dakota Department of Game, Fish and Parks (SDGFP) project to purchase four rolls of protective hay and grain netting to be distributed statewide to landowners to protect hay bales from feeding wild turkeys.

"In the northern Great Plains, riparian habitat is shared by wintering flocks of wild turkeys and cattle owned by local landowners. The landowners often store hay and grain close to the cattle herds and this can sometimes attract large flocks of wild turkeys in search of winter forage," said Jared McJunkin, NWTF regional biologist. "Local landowners are providing critical winter habitat needed by wild turkeys and we want to help the landowners by protecting their hay and grain from any disruption that a flock of wild turkeys might cause."

The state chapter and SDGFP also assisted a landowner with $1,250 to plant food plots on his property, which sustains a winter wild turkey population of up to 1,000 birds. The food plots will give wild turkeys and other wildlife alternative food sources stored crops or spillage from livestock feeding operations.

In North Dakota, $900 was spent on seed corn for landowners to use to plant food plots for wild turkeys on their properties. As in South Dakota, the food plots will give wintering wild turkeys and other wildlife standing forage for sustenance during the brutal winter weather often experienced in the state.

"These habitat improvement projects in North and South Dakota are an example of the NWTF lending a helping hand to generous landowners that sustain wild turkey populations on their property and, in many cases, grant access to appreciative hunters," said McJunkin.

Partners for the projects in South Dakota included SDGFP and private landowners. Partners for the Operation Big Sky project in North Dakota included the North Dakota Game and Fish Department, Pheasants Forever and private landowners.
 
Operation Big Sky is the NWTF's flagship habitat program for wildlife in the northern Great Plains. Through the big sky program, NWTF chapters plant mast-producing shrubs, help provide standing grain and help ranchers that winter large numbers of turkeys on their property. Since 2001, chapters in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, Nebraska and the Dakotas have enhanced 829,422 acres of habitat for wild turkeys and other wildlife.

Founded in 1973, the NWTF is a nonprofit conservation organization that works daily to further its mission of conserving the wild turkey and preserving our hunting heritage.

Through dynamic partnerships with state, federal and provincial wildlife agencies, the NWTF and its members have helped restore wild turkey populations across the country, spending more than $306 million to conserve 14 million acres of habitat for all types of wildlife.

For more information about the NWTF visit www.nwtf.org or call (800) THE-NWTF.