Duff Holbrook

Life & Legacy

Herman Lindsay "Duff" Holbrook (June 30, 1923 – July 17, 2015) was an American wildlife biologist, forester, and outdoorsman. He was recognized as one of the United States' leading experts on the wild turkey. Holbrook spearheaded the reintroduction of the wild turkey, as well as the white-tailed deer, to areas of its historic range in South Carolina.
Holbrook, together with William P. Baldwin Jr., a United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFW) biologist, is credited as the inventor of the cannon-netting method, also known as the rocket net, which is used to capture turkeys and other birds. Holbrook utilized the canon nets to capture turkeys in Francis Marion National Forest and relocated them to Sumter National Forest and other areas in Upstate South Carolina to re-establish new populations. Baldwin credited Holbrook with the successful restoration of the species to the state, writing "From the midlands up, if you see a wild turkey, Duff put it there." As of 2015, wild turkeys can now be found in all of South Carolina's 46 counties. The turkeys that repopulated South Carolina, as well as parts of Georgia, are the descendants of the approximately 350 turkeys which were relocated by Holbrook during the 1950s.