Bag Your Own Turkey From Saturday Through Wednesday

For the hunters out there looking to bag their own turkey for Thanksgiving dinner, a five-day wild turkey hunting season begins on Long Island Saturday morning and lasts through Wednesday evening.

The hunt will be the third year turkeys have been game on Long Island in the fall, as the Department of Environmental Conservation instituted the hunt as the turkey population continues to swell. The number of turkeys on Long Island is guessed to stand around 3,000 and rising, after starting out as a group of 75 in the early 1990s, when they were brought down from upstate and released in three separate areas of Suffolk County.

“The fall turkey hunt has proven to be a great success in the area, allowing DEC to not only continue offering the seasons, but to even add a spring youth turkey hunt," said DEC Regional Director, Peter Scully. "Department of Environmental Conservation staff will continue to monitor turkey populations to ensure the continuance of these seasons for future generations.”

Hunting will be permitted in the area - for those with proper permits and licensing - at a few locations:

• Westhampton Management Area: 420 acres just south of Sunrise Highway and north of Gabreski Airport in Westhampton (.pdf attached)
• West Tiana Cooperative Hunting Area: 275 acres in Hampton Bays south of the Sunrise Highway on Bellows Pond Road.
• David Sarnoff Pine Barrens Preserve: Over 2,700 acres north of Route 27, mostly surrounding Route 104, between Westhampton, Northampton and Riverside. (.pdf attached)

Hunters are allowed one turkey of either sex per season, and are permitted to use archery or a shotgun. They must carry a New York State hunting license and turkey permit, and shooting is allowed from sunrise to sunet.

For more information, visit the DEC website.