Former Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency Biologist Jack Murrey was honored Monday with the National Wild Turkey Federation (NWTF) 2007 Joe Kurz Excellence in Wildlife Management Award.
The Joe Kurz award, presented to Murrey Monday in a special ceremony at TWRA's Nashville headquarters, recognizes wildlife managers who have worked tirelessly for the wild turkey and its habitat.
I had the honor of working with Jack Murrey 25 years ago during my own TWRA days. I spent many hours hunkered in a blind with Murrey, waiting on turkeys to walk in range of a cannon net.
To be honest, I always thought Murrey was a little weird (in a nice way). Never in my career had I met anyone so totally and completely consumed by wild turkeys.
Remember this was in the day when we had very few wild turkeys. Over previous decades there had been previous efforts to restore turkey populations to the wild. All attempts had been miserable failures. I had no reason to believe Murrey's efforts would be any different.
But he knew better. At the time wildlife managers across the country were dicovering the promise of capturing turkeys from existing wild populations to spread across the country, or in case, Tennessee. Jack Murrey fine-tuned TWRA's capture techniques and program to a fine art. He perservered when naysayers said it couldn't be done. Prior to his retirement in 2003, Murrey has been personally instrumental in restocking more than 10,000 wild turkeys across the state of Tennessee. In the Volunteer State he is THE unsung hero.
“If you hunt wild turkeys in Tennessee, Jack Murrey deserves your gratitude,” said Dr. James Earl Kennamer, NWTF senior vice president for conservation programs. “Murrey’s dedication to the wild turkey is an example of why Tennessee enjoys great turkey hunting and will continue to do so in the future.”