National Wild Turkey Federation

Moving Forward

Just like the wild turkey in today’s age, we are facing new conservation challenges in a dynamic landscape. As we approach our 50-year anniversary, we are expanding our efforts by honing in on four shared values that will remain at the core of delivering conservation to scale into the future.

From the smallest conservation project, to our multimillion-acre landscape-scale initiatives, our Four Shared Values are evident in all we do and have allowed the NWTF, our partners and volunteers to increase the breadth of our mission and ultimately make an impact on a landscape scale, empowering our organization to conserve the wild turkey and our hunting heritage into perpetuity.

Stemming from and pointing back to the wild turkey, our Four Shared Values are all interconnected:

• Clean Water: Water is the lifeblood for all living things on planet earth, and as many turkey hunters know, if there is water nearby, so are turkeys. While water availability is crucial for wild turkeys, it is valuable for all wildlife and nearby human communities. Wildfires, disrupted floodplains, unmanaged forests, a changing climate —  there are numerous reasons why we are seeing water quality and availability diminish. Luckily, much of the conservation work the NWTF and its partners delivers not only benefits wild turkeys, but it creates healthier forests, which, in turn, create healthier watersheds, creating cleaner and more available water throughout the country.

• Healthy Forests and Wildlife Habitat: When we manage a forest for wild turkey habitat, we are also increasing the overall viable habitat for all wildlife. Scientifically backed forest management is more crucial now than ever. Decades of unmanaged forests have resulted in overly dense conditions, which provides poor habitat and comes with severe ramifications, such as catastrophic wildfires and fragmented habitat. A managed forest, on the other hand, increases the overall habitat for wild turkeys and the overall biodiversity while making the managed area more resilient to catastrophic wildfires and other disturbances.

• Resilient Communities: Americans who want to live amidst nature should be able to do so without the worry of catastrophic wildfire, flash flooding or debris flow events. Increasingly, catastrophic wildfires are spreading from uninhabited forests to nearby human communities. This, too, is the result of unmanaged forests, particularly in the wildland-urban interface [areas where forests meet human communities]. The NWTF has joined forces with many traditional and non-traditional partners and agencies to protect these communities while also increasing viable wildlife habitat.

• Robust Recreational Opportunities: At the NWTF, we know the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation to be the preeminent mode to conserve our natural resources, and we understand the important interplay between hunters and conservation. A deep sense of reverence for conservation is awake in the soul of the American hunter, and the more we can provide access and opportunities, the more we can deliver and amplify our conservation and hunting heritage mission. However, there are many other groups — such as mountain bikers, whitewater rafters, anglers, bird watchers and so many more — that cherish our natural resources as we do. By creating robust recreational opportunities for hunters and all outdoors enthusiasts, we provide more opportunities for collaboration, shared investment and ultimately a farther-reaching conservation impact and ability to share our outdoors lifestyle.