The Keystone State has been in the wild turkey management game much longer than most Eastern states. That's because, as bird numbers declined in the early 1800s due to habitat loss and unrestricted hunting, Pennsylvania had remnant wild turkey populations hanging on in the ridges and valleys of the South-central Region. Wildlife managers realized that regulations had to be tightened, habitat expanded and the species better managed before the big birds disappeared from the Pennsylvania countryside.

Early efforts included stocking game farm turkeys that resulted in no more than a put-and-take resource for hunters. Eventually, Pennsylvania Game Commission wildlife biologists began trapping and relocating wild birds to desirable locations throughout the state. Those efforts have paid off for wild turkeys -- and the people who love to hunt them!

From an estimated few thousand birds remaining in the state by 1900, the wild turkey population has rebounded to more than 400,000 birds.

The commission's first wild turkey management plan, drafted in 1999, was geared toward the needs of the species at that time, and toward building partnerships that would benefit wild turkey numbers. A more recent 10-year plan now guides management decisions from 2006 into 2015. With restoration efforts complete, the new plan focuses on obtaining more detailed information about wild turkeys, including harvest data, research on harvest and survival rates and habitat and social carrying capacities.

Goals also include minimizing human-turkey conflicts, improving hunter safety and increasing wild turkey habitat through both land acquisition and education of private landowners. It is hoped that this plan will allow for optimum wild turkey numbers statewide wherever suitable habitat exists.

The commission helps willing landowners determine what changes could be made on their properties to best benefit wild turkeys and other wildlife. Because turkeys can travel up to two miles per hour while feeding, and their home range can be anywhere from 400 to 2,000-plus acres, most landowners won't own enough property to provide for a flock single handedly. Instead, the commission advises, landowners should determine what necessary turkey habitat component is lacking on their property and try to improve that aspect.

These big birds need a wide variety of habitat in order to thrive, including good nesting habitat, fields with good cover and insects for poults, a dependable winter food source and stands of mature forest for roosting sites.

To keep turkeys hanging around the home place a bit later in the season, landowners are advised to provide a good late summer-fall food source, too. Even if landowners can't see turkeys daily from the kitchen window, they have the pleasure of knowing there are more birds, and better-fed birds, populating the property.

The 2009 Youth Hunt will be held April 18 with a limit of one bearded bird. The spring season opens the following Saturday, April 25 and runs through Memorial Day.