Pigeon River FWA, one of the larger public areas of the state, is located in portions of Steuben and Lagrange counties. Lagrange County hunters took 85 birds last spring. Farther to the east, you'll find Jasper-Pulaski, Kankakee, Kingsbury and Willow Slough FWAs.

"In Marshall and Starke counties alone, we still have some pretty good habitat in the dairy industry areas. The FWAs in these areas act like islands of habitat that interconnect with some other forested areas. You also have Tippecanoe State Park in there, and you have a fair amount of woodlands with some real good habitat in the north-central portion," explained Backs.

The North Region contributed 12 percent to the total state harvest in 2006, with 1,533 birds. Of the 12 percent, 34 percent were juvenile birds. Backs suspects that the high percentage of jakes killed was because of hunters not being as selective as they are in other regions. EAST-CENTRAL REGION
Eighteen counties make up the East-Central Region, yet it produces the lowest harvests in the state. At least four of those counties were closed to hunting in 2006. In the remaining 14 counties, several areas reported no harvests. Only 23 birds were taken in the top counties of the region. Six birds each were harvested in Grant and Howard counties. Hendricks County hunters took five, while Carroll County hunters harvested four birds.

The closed areas are one of the primary reasons for the low harvest. However, Backs said that even if these areas opened, he would not expect the region to contribute much more than a few percentage points to the overall harvest.

"There's just not a whole lot of habitat in this region. We did do some restoration in this area in 2004, and these areas will open to hunting in 2007. The East-Central Region should pick up as far as total harvest, but in proportion to the whole state, it's probably going to contribute less than 5 percent of the total state harvest," Backs noted.

Henry County will remain closed to hunting in 2007, because of turkey/ vehicle collisions that have been reported.

There is little public area in the East-Central Region. Backs said there is a small parcel of public land in Randolph County that could contribute to future harvests in the region. He refers to this as a satellite parcel to the Wilbur Wright FWA.

WEST-CENTRAL REGION
Backs noted that the high harvests of the West-Central Region have not been a big surprise. Hunters took 2,566 birds there in 2006, or 20 percent of the total statewide harvest. Parke County dominated the region with a reported harvest of 444 birds, which ranked it No. 5 in 2006. Nonetheless, that's not to say that other counties haven't fared well. Consider Greene County, where hunters took 397 birds, and Sullivan County that reported a harvest of 288. In fact, every county in this region reported harvests in the triple figures, with the exception of Montgomery (66) and Tippecanoe (47).