The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has called on Long Island landowners to help with a different kind of census count — wild turkey.
Recent estimates place the turkey population around 6,000.
This winter, the DEC will start tagging turkeys with leg bands to measure their population size and figure out a sustainable management strategy.
They want landowners to report if they have seen turkeys on their property on a regular basis.
Wild turkey all but disappeared in the late 1800s because of deforestation. The DEC reintroduced them to the region in the 1990s.
