JACKSON — For a second year in a row, Mississippi House Rep. Bill Kinkade introduced legislation to establish the Wild Turkey Stamp in order to fund conservation and research. Kinkade serves as the committee chairman for the Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks Committee. 

Mississippi hunters and the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks first supported the bill at a MDWFP commission meeting in May 2023 asking for a turkey stamp to be created. HB553 would require resident hunters to purchase a turkey stamp for $10 and non-residents to purchase a turkey stamp for $100. 

The bill was referred to the House Committee for Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks. 

Last February, Kinkade authored a similar bill to establish the Wild Turkey Stamp and a nearly identical bill was introduced in the Senate later. The only disparities between the two being the fees imposed on resident and non-resident hunters. 

Both bills were sent to conference, it was in conference 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 this summer.

“The turkey stamp bill will be back and it should pass without a problem,” Kinkade said in December before the legislature went back in session. “We are all already to get it done.”