The wild turkey is West Virginia's largest game bird and a tough challenge for hunters because it's very wary and has excellent eyesight. The turkey is a good sign of a healthy environment because it needs open areas with lots of insects for its young and large forests with mature trees (like oaks and beech) that provide food.

After the Civil War, the turkey population dropped drastically because large forests were cut down for logging and farming. Unlike in many other states, the turkey wasn't completely wiped out in West Virginia because a small number survived in the remote eastern mountains. By 1945, there were about only 6,000 of them left.

Early efforts to raise turkeys in captivity and release them failed. But in 1950, wildlife biologists started a new plan. They trapped wild turkeys from the mountains and released them into 39 other counties. This trap-and-transfer program worked. The population has grown to an estimated 170,000 birds today. The return of the wild turkey is considered West Virginia's greatest wildlife management success story.