This project is a collaborative effort between the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife and the University of Maine.

Lara Katz – PhD student in the University of Maine Ecology and Environmental Sciences Program and the USGS Maine Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit. Lara is continuing Matt and Steph’s research by developing a web-based tool that allows managers to simulate turkey population responses to potential harvest scenarios.

Matthew Gonnerman – Postdoctoral Associate at the University of Maryland/Eastern Ecological Science Center. Matt completed his PhD at the University of Maine studying wild turkey population ecology across land use gradients in Maine.

Stephanie Shea – Assistant Diagnostician and Accreditation Program Manager at the University of Maine Cooperative Extension. Steph completed her PhD in the University of Maine’s College of Food and Agriculture and researched the pathogen dynamics and host effects of Lymphoproliferative Disease Virus in wild turkeys in Maine.

Kelsey Sullivan – Game Bird Biologist at the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife

Pauline Kamath – Assistant Professor of Animal Health at the College of Food and Agriculture.

Erik Blomberg – Assistant Professor of Wildlife Ecology and project Co-PI.  Erik has been studying the ecology and management of game birds for over 15 years, and teaches wildlife population ecology in the Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Conservation Biology at the University of Maine.  Learn more about research in his lab on the lab web page.

Joseph Zydlewski – Unit Leader, USGS Maine Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit and project Co-PI.

Funding

This research was funded by the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, the National Wild Turkey Federation, the Maine chapter of the National Wild Turkey Federation, the Maine Agricultural and Forest Experiment Station, and the Maine Outdoor Heritage Fund.  Major funding was received through the Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act.

Acknowledgements

We thank R. B. Allen and a number of other MDIFW biologists and staff for collaboration on this project. B. Currier, B. Peterson, and K. Leary made significant contributions to field data collection. Student volunteers from the University of Maine and Unity College also contributed to field work. We thank American Forest Management and the numerous individual private owners for land access and accommodations.