Missouri expands walk‑in access
The Old Hickory Project is expanding walk‑in turkey hunting access in southern Missouri, using revenue from a timber sale in Mark Twain National Forest to fund habitat restoration and access improvements via an NWTF–Forest Service partnership. (Web) (dailyjournalonline.com).
Southern Missouri hunters are getting more foot-only turkey access as the Old Hickory Project adds walk-in areas in Mark Twain National Forest. (nwtf.org) The Missouri State Chapter of the National Wild Turkey Federation said foresters recently completed a 314-acre timber sale in the Salem and Potosi ranger districts, and the sale revenue is funding timber-stand improvement work elsewhere in the forest. (nwtf.org) The project also completed 186 acres of brush clearing in Spring Walk-In Turkey Hunting Areas and repaired or installed 11 gates, opening more public land to hunters who enter on foot during spring season. (nwtf.org) Those walk-in tracts are closed to motorized traffic in spring, a setup the National Wild Turkey Federation says spreads out pressure and gives hunters quieter access across thousands of acres. (nwtf.org) The habitat work is aimed at “early successional” cover — open, sunlit ground with grasses, flowering plants and scattered shrubs — because turkey hens nest there and poults feed there on insects in their first weeks. (nwtf.org) Will Rechkemmer, the National Wild Turkey Federation wildlife biologist for southern Missouri, said the Old Hickory effort was one of the partnership’s first multi-district projects, using a sale in one district to pay for restoration across several districts. (nwtf.org) The next phase is already scheduled: the federation said it plans to restore 42 acres of old fields, and the Forest Service has said prescribed fire will be used to keep restored openings from filling back in with hardwoods. (nwtf.org; nwtf.org) The work builds on a larger Old Hickory Shared Stewardship project that the Forest Service said improved more than 500 acres on the Potosi-Fredericktown Ranger District by combining timber harvests, tree removal in openings and invasive-species treatment. (fs.usda.gov) Mark Twain National Forest already has more than 1.4 million acres of public land open to hunters with a valid Missouri license, and the Old Hickory work is focused on making some of that ground easier to reach on foot and better suited for turkeys. (marktwainforest.com; nwtf.org) In February 2026, the Forest Service and National Wild Turkey Federation team behind Old Hickory received the federation’s Making Tracks Habitat Management Program Award, a sign that the agency and its nonprofit partner plan to keep using the model in southern Missouri. (fs.usda.gov)
