MADISON, Wis. (WMTV) – It wasn’t pink plastic flamingos that filled Bascom Hill on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus Sunday morning. It was decoy turkeys.
In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the reintroduction of wild turkeys to Wisconsin, the National Wild Turkey Federation (NWTF) planted 50 decoy turkeys at the base of Bascom Hill.
Tylor Flynn, regional director for Wisconsin for the NWTF, called it one of the country’s most successful reintroduction programs.
Fifty years ago, the wild turkey disappeared from Wisconsin because of overhunting, organizers said. To help bring the population back, the state Department of Natural Resources trapped eight ruffed grouse and sent them to Missouri in exchange for 29 wild turkeys…