When the 20th century turned, many species of North American big game animals teetered on the brink of extinction, and conservation was hardly more than a concept. American bison, for example, numbered fewer than 1,000, and the wild turkey population hovered around 30,000. Due to loss of habitat and human encroachment, bison will never regain their former numbers. But thanks to state wildlife agencies and hunters, wild turkeys are steadily increasing in number and expanding their range. Today, wildlife biologists estimate that about 5.6 million wild turkeys roam the fields and forests of North America–more than half its pre-Columbian estimate of 7 to 10 million birds–making it perhaps the greatest conservation success story of the 20th century.
 

By the 1890s, much of the land in the East and elsewhere had been cleared for agricultural production and timber to build America’s burgeoning cities and expanding railroads. With human populations stretched across the continent, unregulated hunting to provide food for the urban masses in the East and developing West took its toll on game populations.

Between the unregulated hunting and destruction of habitat, white-tailed deer, waterfowl, pronghorn antelope, elk and other creatures hovered at historical lows and languished near extinction. One of the starkest illustrations of the time was the North American wild turkey, which could only be found in 21 states by 1930.

A Changing Tide
Fortunately, all that has changed. At the urging and support of America’s hunters, state wildlife agencies were created and hunting seasons enacted to regulate the harvests of wildlife and ban the hunting of animals for sale. In 1937, the Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act (also known as the Pittman-Robertson Act of 1937) was created at the request of sportsmen. The act created an excise tax on sporting rifles, shotguns, ammunition and other hunting equipment, with the proceeds earmarked for wildlife conservation projects. It has since been used to purchase, protect and fund management for millions of acres of critical wildlife habitat.

Another key element to the resurgence in many populations of wildlife was the creation of volunteer conservation organizations. These groups are typically made up of hunters who raise millions of dollars to support wildlife agency efforts and volunteer for wildlife and habitat enhancing projects that help non-game as well as game animals.

These conservation groups have played a crucial role in preserving habitat and working with state and federal wildlife agencies to protect America’s wildlife for not just today’s hunters, but for all future generations. As budget shortfalls and limits in manpower affect a growing number of public agencies, the role of these volunteer organizations is sure to grow in the new millennium.

The Role of the Volunteer
One of the best examples of how sportsmen organizations have proved vital in restoring wildlife populations can be found in the efforts of the National Wild Turkey Federation. When the NWTF was created in 1973, wild turkey restoration was already underway in a number of states.

Early attempts to release pen-raised wild turkeys had failed miserably, and it wasn’t until 1951 that the restoration tide began to turn. It was then that wildlife biologists in South Carolina’s Francis Marion National Forest successfully trapped wild turkeys with a cannon net. The net, propelled over feeding turkeys by black powder cannons, made it possible for state wildlife officials to capture birds from healthy populations and release them in suitable habitat that contained few, if any, wild turkeys.

The efforts of state game agencies alone brought wild turkey populations to approximately 1.3 million birds by the time the NWTF was founded. Though no one could fully realize it at the time, the creation of the NWTF would soon greatly accelerate this effort by unifying the efforts of grassroots volunteers, state and federal wildlife agencies and corporations.