The turkey issue has a lot of layers to it. There are no turkeys where I live, and there hasn't been any for decades. The demise of wild turkeys is blamed on farming, chemicals and fire ants. The state has been working on ways to reintroduce turkeys to East Texas for a very long time with total failure. About ten years ago, the tried a new method of mass release of birds in an area of ten square miles or more. First they find an area with habitat that they feel will support turkeys. Then they get all the landowners in that area to agree to allow them to monitor and track the turkeys on their land. Basically allowing them onto their land whenever they want to observe them. Once they block in that 6,400 acres or more, then they will release a hundred birds at a time, over several years. Predators take out quite a few of them right away. Then fire ants are blamed for killing chicks when they first hatch. Those that survive are increasing in numbers, but there is a huge drop from the initial release.
Once an area that has been cleared is left alone, it becomes overgrown with trees right on top of each other. Inches apart, and so thick that it is impossible to get through them. Slowly, as they grow, some of those areas will open up a little, but still too thick for an understory to develop. It is not uncommon to have thousands of trees growing on a single acre. I don't know what the ideal number of trees per acre is for wildlife, or what it was hundreds of years ago, but I'm guessing it should be in the dozens of trees per acre instead of thousands.
Wild Hogs do best in super thick woods. Deer struggle and tend to be at the edge of it, where possible. Deer numbers here vary from one per 40 acres in the thicker areas, to four times that many in more open areas, or even more. On my land, I'm creating open pastures of several acres, with wooded areas that open between the bigger trees with small pockets of thick areas. Since doing this, my deer numbers have increased dramatically. I have two pet turkeys and I've thought about getting more and letting them free roam over my place once I get it fenced. I would love to see flocks of turkeys, and in all reality, the only way it's going to happen is if I make it happen.
