The perverted priorities of the PA Game Commission (PGC) are, once again, illustrated by their stocking a quarter million non-indigenous pheasants that do not survive from one year to the next, yet they have done absolutely nothing to restore the disappearing eastern wild turkey which is an indigenous PA species.

In a Popular Science magazine article in 2017, the PGC turkey biologist admitted that the agency had no idea that the eastern wild turkey population was dramatically decreasing in Penns Woods. That fact absolutely amazes me because we could see the gradual disappearance of the turkeys over the last seven years during our drive to our northcentral thirty acres hunting compound from the Harrisburg area. Turkey flocks were everywhere along our route. No longer. Not one!

Since then, they have done absolutely nothing to restore the turkey population. They used to have a turkey propagation program but did away with it and refuse to even consider restarting it. They used to trap and transfer, but they don’t do that any longer even though that effort was largely responsible for restoring turkeys throughout the Commonwealth.

The PGC touts their meaningless “analysis paralysis” turkey research which has been nothing more than an exercise in futility because none of it results in turkey restoration.

Restoring the wild turkey population is not rocket science. Penns Woods suffered the same turkey decline in the early 1920’s. Back then the PA General Assembly had the foresight to order the PGC to buy wild turkeys elsewhere and release them throughout the Commonwealth. Our current legislators need to, once again, intervene to force the PGC to buy and stock turkeys. That’s step one.

Step two is for the PGC to start the trap and transfer program again. Pittsburgh and Philadelphia are overrun with wild turkeys where they can’t be hunted legally.

Since the PGC touts having hundreds of thousands of dollars of budget surplus, step three is to restart the turkey propagation program.

To both reiterate and summarize, restoring wild turkey populations throughout the Commonwealth is not rocket science. To do so simply requires the PGC to wake up and do something worthwhile for once.

GEORGE GEISLER

Camp Hill

Submitted by Virtual Newsroom