WASHINGTON, D.C. – Turkeys and other wildlife stand to benefit from a $50 million healthy habitat partnership with USDA in response to climate change.

The landmark 20-year national master stewardship agreement between USDA’s Forest Service and the National Wild Turkey Federation (NWTF) allows both organizations to work together in addressing matters like the wildfire crisis out west.

The partnership is also aimed at promoting healthy forests across the country.

Officials said funding for the effort will come from President Joe Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, along with revenue already dedicated regularly by USDA for related matters and other sources.

The handshake between the agencies comes nearly a year after USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack announced a commitment to developing wildfire strategies and the NWTF began to identify areas where it could assist.

The NWTF will develop projects designed to protect communities, reduce wildfire risk and improve forest health, wildlife habitat and water quality in national forests and grasslands, officials said.

The work includes vegetation management such as controlled burns to lower the risk of wildfires.

“Larger wildfires, more frequent natural disasters and other disturbances that continue to threaten the health of the nation’s forests and grasslands, and the wildlife habitat they provide, means the work we do together is even more vital,” said USDA Forest Service Chief Randy Moore.

In addition, the agreement calls for promoting the commercial use of forest products and transporting wood fiber from over-supplied areas to where it’s in much higher demand.

Officials said the agreement will also provide opportunity for similar partnerships with other federal and state agencies, Native American tribes, the timber industry, municipal water providers and other stakeholders.

Kurt Dyroff, co-CEO of the NWTF, said the partnership goes directly to the core of his group’s mission to preserve wildlife and natural resources for the benefit of people and communities.

“Wild turkeys, as well as other wildlife, rely on healthy habitats and healthy forests for their long-term sustainability. Likewise, hunters rely on the same for a quality and successful hunting experience,” he said.

Officials said the transition to a nationwide focus should go smoothly considering both organizations have already worked successfully together on conservation on a more regional basis for about the past 40-years.

Under the agreement, the NWTF will ensure investments are designed “equitably and inclusively and support underserved communities and diverse partners.”

People involved with conservation in states like Indiana are taking a wait and see approach on how resources are distributed and the potential benefits.

“I’m not sure how the program will apply to Indiana,” said Brad Bumgardner, executive director of Indiana Audubon.

The nation’s oldest continuously operating conservation group, headquartered in Connersville, is dedicated to protecting native bird species, including turkeys, across the state.

The Mary Gray Bird Sanctuary, consisting of more than 700 acres in Fayette County, is owned and operated by Indiana Audubon.

Bumgardner said the agreement can make a positive impact if common threats to habitat in each state, which can be different, are allowed to be addressed with the funding. “There certainly is potential if the funding will allow for those types of uses,” he said.

Bumgardner, a former naturalist for the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, pointed to a rebound in the wild turkey population in Indiana as an example of the success that can be achieved from proper intervention with nature.

Wild turkeys once flourished in the state but were nearly depleted as their habitat was destroyed by decades of development. Years of restocking took place in targeted areas and the birds have kept reproducing enough for hunters to have a much higher rate of success.

Since 2015, about 12,000 wild turkeys have been harvested statewide during every spring hunting season compared to 200 in 1985, according to DNR.

“They are naturally building and sustaining themselves on their own,” Bumgardner said.

It’s also not unusual for motorists to experience wild turkey sightings. “It appears they have come back quite well,” he said.