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Georgia’s wild turkeys were once considered a conservation success but now are in decline – Georgia Recorder

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Georgia’s wild turkeys were once considered a conservation success but now are in decline – Georgia Recorder


The majestic gobble of the wild turkey no longer echoes as loudly through Georgia’s Piedmont region as it once did.

The wild turkey was once considered a conservation success story. In 1973, Georgia’s turkey count was just 17,000, but by 1984, 113,000 of the plump little critters roamed the state. Unfortunately for the turkeys, that growth has been reversed.

“We’ve documented ongoing declines actually for about the last 20 years in turkeys across the southeast, Georgia included,” said Michael Chamberlain, a wild turkey expert and professor at the University of Georgia’s Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources. “There’s no question populations have declined, which is reflected in the harvest that has declined quite a bit in the past decade or so.”

Georgia hunters bagged 9,809 turkeys in 2022, down from 11,781 in 2017 and just over 33,000 in 2012, according to data from the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. The department finds that in recent years, the average turkey hen has produced only about 1.5 poults, or baby turkeys. That’s about a third of the peak level in the state and below the break even point of two poults per hen.

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“It’s not an issue that’s solely in Georgia or even the southeast,” Chamberlain added. “Those same declines are being documented now in a number of other areas including areas of the mid-Atlantic, areas in the Midwest as well.”

The biggest threat to turkeys is loss of habitat, said Emily Rushton, DNR wildlife biologist and turkey expert. That includes people developing wild lands, clearing forests to create farms or fragmenting the habitat with roads or gas lines.

“We think too that when we restored turkeys into these areas, they were reproducing so well that it sort of inflated the population to levels beyond what naturally should be there, and so part of it is sort of like a leveling off of the population, and there’s also some unknowns too. A lot of states are doing disease research to see if there’s something that’s causing these lower reproductive levels.”

In 2021, Georgia pushed back the start date for turkey season in an attempt to help stave off population decline. Turkeys are the only game bird hunted during their breeding season, Rushton said.

The goal was to start the hunt after the male turkeys, or gobblers, have fulfilled their role in creating the next generation but are still strutting and emitting their namesake noises.

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“What we want to do is start the season after the gobblers have bred hens, but while they’re still gobbling to give hunters that enjoyment of calling in birds when they’re gobbling, but also give them time to breed hens,” Rushton said. “We’re trying to get the opening day to turkey season as close to that peak incubation date as we can, when most hens are on nests, but gobblers are still gobbling and responsive to hunters.”

It’s too soon to say whether the change has had an impact, Chamberlain said.

“It’s going to take some time to kind of see a signal, if you will,” he said. “Other states that have made changes, it’s taken several years to start seeing kind of, ‘OK, we’re starting to see some improvements here.’ We’re early in the process, and hopefully things will improve following the regulations changes, but it’s going to take more than just that to right the ship.”

Since most turkeys in Georgia live on private land, restoring the wild turkey will require landowners to prioritize sustaining suitable habitats, he said, adding that he believes the message is starting to get out.

“I think it takes people being aware of the problem, first of all, and being invested in being part of the solution,” he said. “The last few years with the increase in use of social media and the ability for people to obtain information and see that there’s a problem, they now realize that what they’re seeing in their backyards is not entirely different than people in other states.”

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Chamberlain offered advice for landowners who want to pitch in for Georgia’s turkeys – take a look at the world from a turkey’s perspective and manage your property accordingly.

“Just drop down on one knee and look around you,” he said. “That seems really simplistic, but if you just do that and look around your property, you can identify areas where turkeys may use or may not use. Turkeys avoid danger primarily with their eyes, so they have to be able to see. If you get out on one knee and you can’t see around you, they can’t either. And that’s not saying they will not be there, but it puts them at a disadvantage relative to predators that are trying to kill them or eat their eggs.”



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Report: Georgia Tech Signs Associate Head Coach Ricky Brumfield to Extension

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Report: Georgia Tech Signs Associate Head Coach Ricky Brumfield to Extension


According to Chris Hummer at 247Sports, Georgia Tech is going to be re-signing associate head coach/special teams coordinator Ricky Brumfield to an extension, which will make him one of the highest-paid special teams coaches in the country.

More details on the contract via Hummer:

“Brumfield’s extension will take him through 2026 and is at an average annual value of $425,000 a year, making him one the highest-paid special teams coaches in the country. The Yellow Jackets elevated Brumfield in February to associate head coach and gave him the cornerback room in addition to his role with special teams.”

It has been a year of promotion for Brumfield as he was promoted to associate head coach back in February and was also added to the cornerback room, while still serving his role with special teams. If you take a look at the 2025 class, the Yellow Jackets have a top 15 corner in Dalen Penson and the No. 122 player nationally, according to 247sports. At the high school level, he plays for Sandy Creek and is a lockdown corner on defense and a versatile threat on offense capable of scoring on any play. Sandy Creek is considered the No. 1 team in 3A this season and he is a large reason why. 

The Yellow Jackets blocked a field goal, blocked a punt, and recovered an onside kick on Saturday vs Syracuse. Georgia Tech is currently tied No.1 in the nation for blocked kicks with two.

Brumfield is one of the best special teams coordinators in the country and has led one of the best units in college football. It is a big keep for the Yellow Jackets as they continue their quest for building the program to where it once was. In terms of his resume, Brumfield graduated from Utah State in 1999. He was a two-year starter at Utah State as a wide receiver. He helped lead the Aggies to a pair of Big West Conference championships and a berth in the 1997 Humanitarian Bowl. His coaching career started at Union (KY) College where he served as the special teams coordinator/wide receivers coach from 2001-2003. He also served as special teams coordinator at Fairmont State (2004-2010), Nicholas State (2011-2012), Western Kentucky (2013-2015), Texas-San Antonio (2016-2017), Virginia (2018-2020, 2021) and Florida International (2022). 

Georgia Tech has done a great job with its coaches and keeping their continuity with the program and keeping Brumfield is a huge win for the program.

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WATCH: Cops Grill Colt Gray on School Shooting Threat Last Year

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WATCH: Cops Grill Colt Gray on School Shooting Threat Last Year


Footage has emerged of the 14-year-old suspect in a Georgia school shooting being interviewed by police over online threats of a similar attack more than a year ago.

Deputies with Jackson County’s Sheriff’s Office in Winder, Georgia, visited the home of Colt Gray, then 13, in May 2023 following a tip-off from the FBI that somebody had posted on Discord about planning to “shoot up a middle school tomorrow.”

Gray has now been charged with the murder of four people—two students, and two teachers—in a shooting spree that also saw nine others wounded at the town’s Apalachee High School. Local police say Gray has admitted “I did it” while being interrogated after his arrest on September 4, while his mother has claimed to have warned the school around half an hour before the attack took place.

In the bodycam footage of the 2023 visit—released by the sheriff’s office on Monday, and shared online by NBC and other outlets—Gray denied posting the comments on Discord, assuring them: “I would never say something like that,” and insisting that he had deleted his account on the chat platform several months earlier.

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One of the deputies responded by telling the teenager: “I got no choice but to take you at your word right now, but like I was telling your dad if we found out otherwise, then it’s a different story.”

Colt’s father, Colin Gray also appears in the footage, telling officers that despite being bullied his son was “doing really good” at school. Colin Gray has since been arrested on four counts of manslaughter, two of second-degree murder, and eight counts of cruelty to children in the wake of the killings earlier this month.

The father told officers during the visit last year that his son had been struggling with family-related stress at the time, following his parents’ separation and subsequent eviction from their home.

He added that he’d been training his son in the “responsible” use of firearms, taking him on hunting trips in an effort to get him out of the house and to stop playing video games.

“We do a lot of shooting, we do a lot of deer hunting. He shot his first deer this year,” Gray is heard to say in a longer clip of the interview, shared by CNN. “I don’t know anything about him saying sh-t like that [but] I’m gonna be mad as hell if he did,” he added.

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Colt’s grandfather, Charles Polhamus, has since described Colin as “evil,” alleging he drove the 14-year-old “to do what he did” last week through a relentless campaign of psychological and physical abuse. His aunt, Annie Polhaumus Brown, has also spoken about her nephew’s troubled childhood, and vowed to stand by him at trial.

If convicted, Colt faces up to life in prison, with his father facing a maximum total of 180 years behind bars.



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Most students in a Georgia school district hit by a shooting will return to class Tuesday

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Most students in a Georgia school district hit by a shooting will return to class Tuesday


ATLANTA (AP) — Many students in Georgia’s Barrow County are headed back to class Tuesday, six days after a shooting killed two teachers and two students at the school district’s Apalachee High School northeast of Atlanta.

While no return date has been set for the 1,900 students at that high school, the 13,000 students in Barrow County’s other schools will return, including at the middle school and elementary school that border the Apalachee campus in Winder.

Superintendent Dallas LeDuff, in a video message Sunday, said sheriff’s deputies and state troopers will provide extra security when schools reopen Tuesday, with counseling available at all campuses. He said that if students or employees aren’t ready to return, they should contact their school’s principal for aid.

“We know the days ahead are going to be difficult, and that we have some staff and some students who are not ready to return to school,” LeDuff said. “We also believe as a school system that it is our responsibility to provide a safe space for those who are.”

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Sabrina Masters Reed, a third grade teacher at Holsenback Elementary School, said she attended grief and trauma training on Monday. She said she’s not sure how many students will return Tuesday, but said many parents will need their children to return so they can go to work without having to find child care.

Many in the community remain in shock nearly a week after the shootings, said Reed, who leads the county’s chapter of the Georgia Association of Educators, the state’s second-largest teachers group.

“I know of other coworkers — who are parents — and parents who chose this community because they thought it was safe here,” Reed said of the rapidly suburbanizing county of 90,000 people. “The thing is, I think it is a safe place here in Barrow County. It’s just a sad fact that these tragedies can happen anywhere in any community in the U.S.”

Relatives and friends are mourning the victims, including teachers Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Cristina Irimie, 53, and students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both 14. A memorial service was held Sunday for Aspinwall, while a Romanian Orthodox Church congregation honored Irimie. Her funeral is set for Saturday.

Colt Gray, 14, is charged as an adult with four counts of murder, and District Attorney Brad Smith has said more charges are likely to be filed against him in connection with the wounded. Authorities have also charged his 54-year-old father, Colin Gray with second degree murder, involuntary manslaughter and cruelty to children. Investigators allege Colin Gray gave his son access to the gun when he knew or should have known that the teen was a danger to himself and others.

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Another teacher and eight more students were wounded, with seven of those hit by gunfire. More of the wounded are going home from hospitals. Doug Griffith said his 15-year-old daughter, Natalie Griffith was released from a hospital on Monday after being treated for gunshot wounds to her arm and wrist.

Natalie Griffith is a freshman and a flute player in the band. She was shot in her algebra class.

“She’s got an A in algebra, and she’s extremely proud of that,” Doug Griffith said.

Griffith is one of a number of relatives seeking to raise donations through GoFundMe. He said he wants to make sure his daughter has help, as well as to support other victims.

“I just want to make sure that she has the support that she’s going to need because this is uncharted territory,” Griffith said.

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On Monday the Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency and county officials opened a community recovery center in Winder, offering counseling, legal and financial assistance and other services.





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