I don't know for sure, but I think they can have an effect. There is one place I hunt here in CT (state land) where I followed the expanding turkey population (they haven't been around all that long), and this little area was getting better and better every year until about 5 years ago. Then the ATV's showed up, not the putt-putt kind of thing that one might use for hunting, but the run wot kind of vehicle's. That first year a week after season opened I spent a few days with a gobbler with about 6-8 hens (very unusual for our late season here in my experiance), and I sorta expect it was because they had been disturbed from their nesting areas. The following year I managed to get the one gobbler in the area that I heard (prior there was quite a few more then that), and since then the birds have been totally absent except for an occasional bird spending a day or 2 there.

Edited by - RayC on 02/26/2002 08:09:00