AR-News: (US-WA) Turkey hunting boon to region’s economy

[jim robertson]

Turkey hunting boon to region’s economy
Young sport has growing pains


Rich Landers
Outdoors editor

The mushrooming popularity of spring turkey hunting throughout the Inland 
Northwest has bolstered businesses and stimulated outgrowth ranging from 
festivals to growing pains.

“It's unbelievable, actually, how turkey hunting up here has become so huge 
it's bigger than the deer season,” said Ray Clark of Clark's All Sport in 
Colville.

Hunters come to northeastern Washington from as far as New York and Florida, 
attracted by reports of extraordinary hunting for an introduc
ed turkey population that's spread across the region, particularly in the 
past decade.

Hunting, once pretty much limited to fall, has become an economic windfall 
in the spring, said Clark, who estimated that turkey hunters now bring in 
about 35 percent of his hunting-related business.

Even though the 32,000 turkey tags sold in Washington last year seem paltry 
compared with the statewide sales of 165,000 deer tags, turkey hunting is a 
relatively new sport and hunters are still gearing up.

“We even have a Colville Turkey Days festival,” he said. “The community has 
jumped on it pretty strong.” Nonresidents come to this region because they 
can find opportunities that are waning in states with longer turkey hunting 
traditions.

http://www.spokesmanreview.com/news-story.asp?date=050904&ID=s1516421&cat=section.Hunting_and_fishing

"Just remember it's the birds that's supposed to suffer, not the hunter." 
—George W. Bush, advising quail hunter and New Mexico Sen. Pete Domenici, 
Roswell, N.M., Jan. 22, 2004