"The success of the re-introduction of wild turkeys to the state of Michigan is truly a wildlife success," Stewart continued. "In fact, success beyond our wildest dreams."

But success in Michigan always depends, year after year, on one thing -- weather. Without assistance from man, wild turkey populations in Michigan will survive and thrive only if the winter is relatively mild, with minimal snows and short periods of extended cold.

"In many areas of northern Michigan, where most of the state's public-land turkey hunting areas exist, without some type of supplemental turkey-feeding program during the worst parts of the winter, there wouldn't be enough wild turkeys to hunt, regardless of how good the hatch was the year before," said Jim Maturen, a veteran turkey hunter and co-founder of the Michigan Wild Turkey Hunters Association, which conducts an annual winter turkey-feeding program each winter wherever needed across much of the northern L.P. "It didn't take long for us to realize that a wild turkey won't survive more than a few weeks in the bitter cold of February and March if he can't dig through three feet of snow to scratch out food from the ground. Here in Area K, which is one of the state's largest turkey hunting units, as well as in most other areas of the NLP such as Area J, we have a saying that's always held true of our turkeys during a hard, snowy winter -- 'It's either fed or dead.' "

The same can be said of much of the western U.P.'s wild turkeys, according to Craig Albright, a wildlife biologist with the DNR in Escanaba. Credit for the area's continued wild turkey explosion is due to the extended efforts of winter feeding, conducted over many years by Wildlife Unlimited and other sportsman's organizations, as well as growing contributions from members of local National Wild Turkey Federation chapters.

"As a result of that concern and those efforts -- which must be undertaken every winter, particularly in northern Menominee, southern Marquette, Alger, Iron, Dickinson, and Delta counties where snow depths and cold weather can be deadly -- wild turkeys have done better than anyone ever expected."

After a dismal 2004 nesting season when abnormally cold, wet spring weather took a heavy toll on both the mating season and what few poults were hatched, the 2005 hatch appeared to be a good one, although perhaps a bit late, said Albright.

"We saw a lot of little, newly hatched poults as late as August, probably an indication of nest predation earlier in the year, forcing many hens to nest a second time when foliage better protects the eggs from view," the biologist said. "But overall, the 2005 hatch looks like it was very good. And last year's warm, dry summer meant that poults should have been able to find good numbers of insects, which they feed on exclusively for several months before changing their diet to mast, berries and nuts, grains and vegetation."