CLERMONT COUNTY, Ohio — Wildlife officials are asking Clermont County residents to report every wild turkey they spot this summer, part of a decades-old survey the state uses to track how well the birds bred this year.
The Ohio Division of Wildlife, a branch of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, is collecting sightings of turkeys — toms, hens and poults — through July and August, the Clermont County Park District said in a Facebook post sharing the state’s request.
Observers are asked to record the date and county where they saw the birds and note how many gobblers, hens and poults, or young turkeys, were in the group, then submit the report through the state’s Wildlife Reporting System at wildohio.gov or the HuntFish OH mobile app, according to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. Ruffed grouse sightings, including counts of adults and young, are being collected in the same survey.
Biologists rely on the count because July and August is when most young turkeys and grouse have grown large enough to be told apart from adults, but before broods scatter later in the year, the department said. The results feed into the state’s annual poult index, a measure of nest success used to gauge the health of Ohio’s turkey population.
Southwest Ohio, which includes Clermont County, posted the strongest results of any region in last year’s survey, averaging 3.3 poults per hen — the best mark among the state’s five regions, according to the department. Statewide, the 2025 index came in at 2.7 poults per hen, a slight dip from the historical average of 2.8. It followed four straight years of above-average productivity: 3.1 poults per hen in 2021, 3.0 in 2022, 2.8 in 2023 and 2.9 in 2024.
The turkey survey has run every summer since 1962, one of the longest-running wildlife-tracking programs in the state; the grouse count was added in 1999. Ohio’s turkey population once nearly disappeared entirely — unregulated hunting and lost habitat wiped the birds out statewide by about 1904, according to the department. Restocking efforts starting in the 1950s slowly rebuilt the population, leading to the state’s first modern spring turkey season in 1966 in nine counties. Hunting expanded statewide by 2000, and the harvest peaked in 2001 at 26,156 birds checked.
The survey runs through the end of August, and the state is asking anyone who sees a turkey or a ruffed grouse — even a single bird — to file a report.
The information contained in this story was obtained from the Clermont County Park District.