“Those were the worst conditions for turkeys,” Casalena said.

“Harsh winters leave them in very poor condition. If they lose that first clutch, they often don’t have the energy to re-nest.”

Weather conditions are beyond any manager’s control. Such fluctuations are unavoidable, and the plan certainly should not be faulted.

The PGC’s substantial accomplishments would not have been possible without partnerships led by the National Wild Turkey Federation along with other conservation organizations, local sportsmen’s clubs and government agencies.

Thousands of acres of wild turkey habitat have been maintained and created. The NWTF funded a regional biologist who has worked closely with the Game Commission on research and management on both public lands and private lands.

Since the 1999 plan, there has been a shift in wild turkey-hunting patterns from more fall gobbler hunters to more spring hunters. In 1996, there were 250,377 fall hunters and 241,613 spring hunters. In 2005 there were 203,982 fall hunters and 247,304 spring hunters. From start to finish of this period, the fall wild turkey harvest declined by about 30 percent, compared to the 19-percent drop in the number of hunters, while the spring gobbler harvest was nearly equal, down by just 3 percent.

One major change during the 1999 plan was a shift from managing turkeys using special turkey management areas to using WMUs.

“We’re now managing turkeys on a smaller scale,” Casalena pointed out.

A new plan will make management goals through 2015 similar to the previous plan. The idea is to achieve optimum wild turkey populations in all available habitat, using strategies that take advantage of what has been learned to date.

Pennsylvania hunters can take pride in the Game Commission’s “adaptive resource management plan,” as Casalena refers to it. This pro-active management plan has made the commonwealth one of the top destinations for wild turkey hunters across the country. It is doubtful that any state offers better turkey hunting opportunities available to so many hunters -- and some of our best opportunities exist on public land!

There are few major changes in the plan, except that this will be a 10-year plan, whereas the previous one was a five-year plan.

“The previous plan was too aggressive. We couldn’t accomplish all its objectives,” Casalena admitted.

One change is the use of dogs for fall turkey hunting, which is a common practice in other states.

“I also added a section on the initial comments concerning our turkey management plan,” Casalena said.

The most common objection was to the second spring gobbler tag. Casalena anticipates less opposition to the second tag because only 3 percent of the 2006 spring gobbler harvest was from second tags.

Also, questions were frequently asked about spring season dates.

“People are constantly asking us to open the season earlier,” Casalena said. “But in Pennsylvania, the season is timed to open after the majority of the breeding has occurred. This is very important in a state with 240,000 spring gobbler hunters.”

The timing also makes it less likely that hunters will take hens, mistaking them for gobblers.

“We always remind hunters that we err on the side of the resource, rather than the hunters. There are still plenty of opportunities for hunting.”