Management of longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) forests relies on frequent prescribed fire to maintain desirable plant communities. Prescribed fire is often applied while female wild turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo) are reproductively active and may immediately affect habitat availability and demographic outcomes. We identified covariates affecting selection of areas used by nesting and brooding females and determined if these covariates influenced nest and brood survival in a longleaf pine ecosystem. We captured 63 female wild turkeys and measured vegetation and landscape characteristics surrounding nests, brood roosts, and daytime use sites. We used conditional logistic regression to determine which vegetation and landscape‐scale characteristics influenced nest, brood roost, or daytime use sites. We generated Cox proportional hazard models at multiple spatial scales to determine if selection influenced nest and brood survival. Females selected nest sites with greater visual obstruction and increased ground cover, and also nested closer to roads. We observed relevant differences in vegetation and landscape variables associated with where females chose to roost broods compared to sites chosen for foraging or loafing. Females roosted broods at sites with increased ground cover and decreased visual obstruction, and daytime use by broods was most related to increases in ground cover. Time‐since‐fire was an informative covariate for brood site selection but not for nest site selection. Females selected brood roost sites in stands not recently burned (3–6 yr post‐fire), and selected daytime use sites in stands burned the current year (0 yr post‐fire) and 2 years post‐fire. We failed to observe links between selection of vegetation and landscape covariates and probability of nest or brood survival. Notably, our results suggest short (i.e., 1–2 yr) fire return intervals do not provide vegetation communities selected by females to roost broods. Conversely, stands burned within the current year were important for daytime use by broods. Collectively, our findings demonstrate the importance of maintaining diverse fire return intervals to ensure availability of vegetation conditions necessary for nesting and brooding. © 2018 The Wildlife Society.

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Across the United States, conservation leaders have been concerned about declines in hunting participation because hunting license sales and taxes on the sale of equipment used for hunting generate a significant portion of wildlife conservation funding. Natural resource agencies have begun focusing on recruitment, retention, and reactivation (R3) initiatives to reverse this decline. These initiatives, in part, seek to increase participation in hunting and shooting sports of currently nonhunting audiences. One of the primary techniques used by the R3 initiative is to develop mentoring programs that provide hunting opportunities for participants with an experienced hunter. Because of its unique and flexible tactics (e.g., calling, still hunting vs run and gun hunting), turkey hunting affords a natural opportunity for mentoring to take place. However, to make mentoring programs efficient and effective, R3 practitioners must have an understanding of the demographics of mentors and what challenges or incentives may exist to participating in a mentoring program. Therefore, we surveyed Florida turkey hunters to (1) understand the demographics of turkey hunters who mentor and (2) assess the challenges, benefits, and incentives to mentoring other turkey hunters in Florida. In 2015, we collected a random sample of 2,817 Florida hunters eligible to hunt turkeys from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission hunting license registry. A total of 710 respondents actively hunted turkeys in the state of Florida. Experienced turkey hunters who mentor perceived challenges (lack of time, interferes with their own hunting opportunity, unfamiliar with mentoring opportunities) less and viewed incentives less than novice and intermediate experienced mentoring hunters. Among wild turkey hunters in Florida, the propensity to mentor was greater among men and those who hunted private land and increased with level of turkey‐hunting experience. To recruit new mentors, agencies must increase awareness of formal mentor programs that focus a connection to public land access and provide recognition to the individuals attending.