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PAWLET — Outside the West Pawlet Fire House, a crowd gathered on a warm April afternoon. About 200 people — including Gov. Phil Scott — mingled and chatted as the event got underway.
They were there to celebrate the return of the wild turkey — and the moment that started it all.
On Feb. 28, 1969, wildlife biologists Bill Drake and John Hall released 17 wild turkeys into the region after trapping them in upstate New York. That small group became the foundation for a statewide population that now exceeds 45,000 birds.
At the event, the town unveiled a restoration marker honoring the conservation effort and the people who helped bring wild turkeys back to Vermont.
For thousands of years, Vermont was covered in dense forest. But in the 1800s, settlers cleared most of it for farmland. That deforestation, combined with unregulated hunting, wiped out several species, including wild turkeys.
In the decades that followed, farming declined and Vermont’s forests began to grow back.
By the 1960s, wildlife officials had begun working to reintroduce the birds.
Five years after the first release, the population had grown to about 500 birds. Today, it stands at about 45,000.
For many event attendees, the focus wasn’t just on the birds, but on the people who made their return possible.
Brett Ladeau, a volunteer with the National Wild Turkey Federation, demonstrated turkey calls and reflected on the legacy of the restoration effort.
“Hopefully [the event] means a lot, because there are names that people may or may not know, and this is to celebrate them and the work that they did before us, laying the groundwork to restore the turkey to the population we have now in Vermont,” Ladeau said.
And wild turkeys didn’t just return — they thrived. After decades of steady growth, Vermont’s population has now stabilized.
Toni Mikula, the state’s upland game bird biologist, said the population has reached what scientists call its “carrying capacity.”
“In the past five decades, we have been continuously lengthening seasons, increasing [hunting] permits and creating more opportunity,” Mikula said. “That’s kind of stabilized now — we think the population is stable, and we’re just going to keep things the way they are for a while.”
The success of the restoration is closely tied to hunters, who play a major role in conservation efforts.
Jason Batchelder, commissioner of the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department, emphasized that connection.
“I think it’s the ultimate connection,” Batchelder said. “Conservation is paid for almost entirely by hunters and shooters. Ammunition purchases and excise taxes on equipment — it pays for restoration. It pays for land and habitat conservation.”
Beyond policy and population numbers, the story of Vermont’s wild turkeys is also deeply personal.
John Hathaway, the first person to harvest a wild turkey in Vermont after their reintroduction, attended the event. He demonstrated how to use a turkey call and shared his knowledge with others, including Rose Smith from the Pawlet Historical Society.
Moments like this connect generations — from the people who released the first turkeys in 1969 to those who continue to study, hunt and protect the birds today.
Wild turkeys are now found across Vermont — a population rebuilt from just a few birds and sustained through decades of conservation work.
“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.”
