The 2025 legislative session is right around the corner and there is some unfinished business in the Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks committees. Last February, House Committee Chair Bill Kinkade authored a bill to establish the Wild Turkey Stamp to fund conservation and research. 

A nearly identical bill was written in the Senate with the only disparities between the two being the fees imposed on resident and non-resident hunters. Both bills were sent to conference, it was here where the turkey stamp bills died. Politics killed the bills after both chambers of the Mississippi legislature overwhelmingly passed the legislation. Those issues were smoothed out. 

“The turkey stamp bill will be back and it should pass without a problem,” Kinkade said. “We are all already to get it done.”

It should be noted Kinkade answered the phone call about the turkey stamp while wrapping up a duck hunt Friday morning. 

Mississippi hunters and the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks supported the bill at a MDWFP commission meeting in May 2023 asking for a turkey stamp to be created.