By Nick Simonson

Despite a slow start to North Dakota’s spring turkey hunting season with cooler temperatures, wind, rain, and some snow in late April after opener, conditions have improved for hunters in the back half of the season, and more birds and success are being found along with good areas of habitat and improvements to those spaces old toms haunt thanks to the efforts of the National Wild Turkey Federation (NDWF), according to the organization’s District Biologist, Clayton Lenk.

“Throughout the Midwest it seems like [hunters] have been doing pretty good.  We’ve had some poorer weekends weatherwise, but it doesn’t seem to be affecting the numbers too much as far as numbers harvested still falling in that five-year average for states that I have that have reporting that I’ve seen so far,” Lenk comments, “they’re seeing a good number of birds when they’re getting out.  The rainier days and gloomier days are maybe a little bit slower, but the nice weather days that we have had, it seems like people are hearing a lot of birds and seeing a lot of birds,” he concludes on the 2026 spring turkey hunting season so far.

Colder than average temperatures, wind and precipitation met hunters in the opening weekend of the season throughout much of the state, with occasionally nice days scattered during weekdays. The season, timed to coincide with the breeding phase of the turkeys’ calendar, allows hunters to stake out areas where wild turkeys roost, and then pursue them through the use of a variety of calls and decoys, remaining well camouflaged to set up their shot.  Lenk has learned through his network of fellow NWTF employees and hunters that success has been generally good, and getting better over the last several days as spring conditions warm and precipitation has been minimal.  Locating good habitat has been part of the equation, a facet the organization remains focused on in North Dakota.

“We do a variety of things. We’re doing some beaver dam analog projects in riparian areas trying to back up some more of that water so that riparian area has more water and has more of the native vegetation in that area like cottonwoods and things like that require wetter soils,” Lenk explains, adding the organization is also focused on producer focused projects including, “grazing infrastructure improvement projects helping those native grasses have a little bit longer rest time so it can have better benefits for our brood rearing habitat for our turkeys obviously, but other grassland nesting birds as well,” he concludes.

It’s that suitable habitat that NWTF is working to advance and protect across the United States, along with its efforts to preserve the country’s hunting heritage.  It’s a two pronged focus that brings projects together throughout North Dakota, the upper Midwest, and soon throughout the nation, with the expansion of a large habitat initiative rolling out west of the Rocky Mountains this summer, according to Lenk.

“We’re always looking for partners to work with, looking for new projects to get involved in and most of the project work that we do is either more in the central part of the state or the western part of the state, but we have done some acquisitions more in the eastern side or the northeast side,” Lenk details of the organization’s regional focal points for habitat work in North Dakota, adding “the biggest thing we have coming in 2026 is a new initiative in the west.  We have initiatives covering every other part of the country except for the west right now, and so the west will be our final initiative to round out our coverage there.”

More information on recent habitat efforts including the removal of invasive species, access projects, acquisitions and other efforts in North Dakota can be found at nwtf.org.  There hunters and conservationists can find more on the organization, its habitat programs, events, and how to get involved in the future of turkey hunting. The North Dakota spring turkey hunting season, open to residents with lottery-awarded tags, closes at sunset on Sun. May 17.

Simonson is the lead writer and editor of Dakota Edge Outdoors.

Featured Photo: Conditions have been tough at times for turkey hunters, though recent weekends and more stable spring weather have been more conducive to hunting, calling and hearing toms on the landscape. Simonson Photo.