Vermont Rebuilds Wild Turkey Population From Just 17 Birds

On a warm April afternoon in West Pawlet, Vermont Governor Phil Scott joined 200 residents to celebrate something that seemed impossible 55 years ago: wild turkeys are back.

In February 1969, wildlife biologists Bill Drake and John Hall released just 17 wild turkeys trapped in upstate New York. Those birds became the foundation for today's statewide population of 45,000 turkeys roaming Vermont's forests.

The town unveiled a restoration marker honoring the people who brought the birds home. For John Hathaway, who harvested Vermont's first wild turkey after reintroduction, the moment connected generations of conservationists.

Vermont's turkeys vanished in the 1800s when settlers cleared dense forests for farmland. Unregulated hunting finished what deforestation started, wiping out the species entirely from the state.

But as farming declined through the 1900s, forests grew back. By the 1960s, wildlife officials saw an opportunity to restore what was lost.

The results exceeded every expectation. Five years after that first release, the population reached 500 birds. Today, Vermont's turkeys have hit what scientists call "carrying capacity," meaning the habitat supports as many birds as it can sustain.

"We're at the point now where the population is stable," said Toni Mikula, a game bird biologist with Vermont Fish and Wildlife. "We're just going to keep monitoring and hopefully things will stay just as well as they are now."

The Ripple Effect

The turkey restoration reveals something powerful about conservation: success requires a team. Hunters funded nearly all the recovery work through ammunition purchases and equipment taxes, said Jason Batchelder, commissioner of Vermont Fish and Wildlife.

Brett Ladeau, a volunteer with the National Wild Turkey Federation, hopes the celebration introduces people to names they've never heard. "This is to celebrate them and the work they did to restore the turkey to the population we have now in Vermont," he said while demonstrating turkey calls at the event.

At the ceremony, Ladeau shared his knowledge with Rose Smith from the Pawlet Historical Society, teaching her to use a turkey call. These moments link the biologists who started the work in 1969 to everyone who studies, hunts, and protects the birds today.

Wild turkeys now thrive in every corner of Vermont, their comeback proof that thoughtful conservation can reverse even total collapse. "The habitat, the climate, the predation all seem to be balancing out right now," Batchelder said. "It's a wonderful time to be a turkey lover."