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Making Tracks with the USDA Forest Service
Life's most challenging questions pop up at the most unusual times. It happened to me this spring while talking to my neighbor. We were visiting across the fence, and he asked me about my job. I told him that I am a USDA Forest Service (USFS) wildlife biologist, and I am the national coordinator for the Making Tracks program, a USFS partnership with the NWTF.
"So, what do you do?"
There it was, one of those challenging questions. My initial response was fairly glib and ambiguous, something like, "It's really hard to answer that question. I spend time working with people and answering questions."
The right answer
It's amazing how the "what-I-should-have-saids" always seem to surface at that quiet, magic time of the morning between setting up for a turkey hunt and actually hearing a bird gobble.
A week later, Dave Schmid, my hunting partner, and I were sitting at the base of a large red cedar tree. It was Dave's first turkey hunt. And it was during these few minutes that the answer to my neighbor's question formed in my mind.
There are more than 28 million acres of wild turkey habitat on national forests and grasslands. Through our Making Tracks partnership program, the USFS, NWTF, state wildlife agencies, conservation groups and individuals work together to improve and restore turkeys to suitable habitats in those areas.
NWTF volunteers and their fundraising efforts leverage USFS dollars through cash and in-kind contributions, grants and stewardship authorities to restore habitats for wild turkey and other associated species, restore wild turkey populations and cooperate with local forests and districts in outreach activities.
The Making Tracks partnership started in 1985, and the liaison position began in October 1990. I am the third person to hold the position.
Each liaison has worked to teach the USFS about the efforts and advantages of partnering with the NWTF, as well as shown the NWTF how they can be more effective working with the Forest Service. We have coached USFS staff and NWTF volunteers on habitat restoration methods. We work as volunteers on committees to staff outreach events, and celebrate successes by recognizing outstanding individuals, projects and programs.
Here are examples of how the partnership has helped turkeys from 2001 through 2008:
- The USFS improved about 1.3 million acres of wild turkey habitat across national forests and grasslands. Of the total 1.3 million acres improved, approximately 893,000 (or 65 percent) were accomplished with partners; key among those partners is the NWTF.
- Together, the USFS and partners have spent more than $38 million on the conservation of the wild turkey and its habitat.
- The USFS completed an estimated 2,335 projects benefiting wild turkeys and their habitat. Approximately 1,398 of them were accomplished with partners, and of those, 519 projects were done in cooperation with the NWTF. These projects cover 25 states, 16 national forests, and six USFS regions. Projects range from longleaf pine ecosystem restoration, prescribed fire, installation of water developments (guzzlers), enclosures to protect vegetation, and habitat restoration and improvement through vegetation treatments and treatments of invasive species.
- Hundreds of kids and parents participate in JAKES projects, Wheelin' Sportsmen and Women in the Outdoors events each year with Forest Service employees working alongside NWTF volunteers.
A real life example
As the first wave of gobbles drifted over the pasture and away from us, there was a clamor of activity right in front of Dave. A soft hen call resulted in another chorus, as five jakes and two strutting toms walked toward our decoy. Just minutes after sitting down, Dave was seeing and hearing gobblers within 40 yards. He was hooked on turkey hunting.
So my answer is actually simple. Helping people enjoy the great outdoors — that's what I do. — Ted Schenck, national Making Tracks program coordinator for the USDA Forest Service