Turkeys triumph with tidy terrain
The Kirkpatrick Foundation recently awarded the University of Science & Arts of Oklahoma with a $40,000 grant to improve the habitat used by wild turkeys on the university’s habitat, near the Jean McLaughlin Outdoor Education & Research Center.
The grant will cover equipment to help clear out overgrowth in the forest where the small flock of turkeys live, as well as reforest portions of the habitat to create more usable forest for the turkeys. Currently, because of the overgrowth, the birds are unable to move freely, prohibiting them from thriving.
“My background is in land restoration and reclamation. Before academia I worked as an environmental consultant working with oil and gas on land reclamation issues,” said Dr. Rachel Jones, dean of the School of Science & Physical Education and associate professor of environmental science and biology. “Dr. [Jason] Shaw is our wildlife biologist, and over the last five years has gotten into birding, so it’s really a perfect marriage of his interests and mine coming together in a way that we can build research projects from the same source together and separately.”
This project will be part of ongoing research at the habitat looking at long term ecological change. This grant will assist in setting up a research space that can be used for decades to come, and further allow USAO to build partnerships with other interest groups such as the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation and National Wild Turkey Federation.
Students interested in careers in land management, wildlife management, or parks and recreation, or who have an interest in being a game warden are encouraged to be a part of the development of this project.
The Kirkpatrick Foundation has been long supporters of USAO and the JMOERC. In 2021, they provided the university with a $50,000 grant for the equipment and instrumentation that outfitted the JMOERC when it was built.
In 1955, two of Oklahoma’s most important cultural leaders, John and Eleanor Kirkpatrick, formed the Kirkpatrick Foundation. In the more than six decades since, the foundation has supported nearly 1,000 organizations focusing on the arts, culture, education, animal wellbeing, environmental conservation and historic preservation.
About the University of Science & Arts of Oklahoma
As Oklahoma’s liberal arts college, the University of Science & Arts of Oklahoma provides a distinctive education in the liberal arts and sciences, supporting both its interdisciplinary core curriculum and major fields of study with superior teaching. USAO fosters diversity of thought and practice to help students realize meaningful, purposeful and productive lives as global citizens in a rapidly-changing world.