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Thoughts of spring turn to camo, blinds and decoys for thousands of hunters who recently got their spring turkey permit post card from the Department of Natural Resources.
More than 154,500 permits were awarded in the initial drawing. And if one permit isn't enough, or you missed out on the drawing, you can buy one of the nearly 70,900 leftover permits. Hunters are reminded that excess spring turkey permits will be sold one zone per day starting March 23.
The spring 2009 turkey hunting season will run from April 15-May 24 in six 5-day periods. A total of 7 zones, 15 state parks and Fort McCoy will be open for hunting.
Leftover permits will be sold one zone per day. Sales will start at 10 a.m. each day and run through midnight. Each zone will have a designated sales date as follows:
- * Zone 1 – Monday, March 23
- * Zone 2 – Tuesday March 24
- * Zone 3 – Wednesday, March 25
- * Zone 4 – Thursday, March 26
- * Zones 5 & 6 – Friday, March 27. Due to the low number of permits left in these units, the sale has been combined into one day.
- * There are no leftover permits in Zone 7 and there are no leftover permits for time periods A, B or C.
- * Any permits still remaining for all zones – Saturday, March 28 starting at 10 a.m. and continuing until sold out or the season ends.
Leftover permits can be purchased over the Internet through the Online Licensing Center; by calling toll-free 1-877-WI LICENSE (1-877-945-4236); at more than 1,400 license vendors across the state or DNR service centers during their regular business hours. Hunters with any questions about when or how to buy permits may call the DNR Customer Call Center from 7 a.m. through 10 p.m. seven days a week at 1-888-WDNRINFo (1-888-936-7463.)
The fee for turkey permits is $10 for residents and $15 for nonresidents. All hunters are also required to buy the spring turkey license and stamp unless they have previously purchased the license and stamp, or are a 2009 Conservation Patron License holder. Residents and nonresidents have equal opportunity to purchase over-the-counter permits. Purchasing these permits will not affect preference status for future spring or fall turkey permit drawings.
Turkey hunting zones have been consolidated from last year's 46 to seven larger zones this year. Hunters who want to recheck zone boundaries or the number of permits still available in a specific zone, can do so on turkey zone map (pdf; 453kb) and the http://www.dnr.state.wi.us.
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