G&F: Let me make sure I understand. Do you believe that the deer feeding and deer baiting that goes on in West Virginia could be preventing turkeys from reaching their full population potential?

Taylor: I think absolutely. During our study of radio-collared hens, we gathered one of the largest data sets ever recorded in the country -- a tremendous amount of data. And one of the things we saw was direct mortality on turkeys because of where feed corn was placed. Feed corn increases predation by concentrating turkeys in a particular area. It also contributes to the spread of disease.

G&F: Could you elaborate on that?

Taylor: Every major disease of wild turkeys is transmitted through the ground by way of turkeys' droppings. When you have a feeder, you have turkeys coming in day after day after day, and they create a virtual mud hole. An environment like that increases the chances of disease transmission a hundredfold.

G&F: Your agency's biologists just concluded a radio telemetry study on gobblers. The results haven't been published yet, but give us a preview. What, basically, have you learned from the study?

Taylor: That you and I are the only predators that mature wild turkey gobblers have, for the most part. Gobblers don't suffer the same predation rates that hens do, by any stretch of the imagination.

G&F: Was that the purpose of the study?

Taylor: The main thing we wanted to find out from this study is whether our hunting seasons were putting too much pressure on gobblers. We wanted to know if we were killing too many, and if we were affecting the age ratio. We found out that we were not.

G&F: So our gobbler season will stay the length it is?

Taylor: Yes. But if the data had showed us something different, we were prepared to change the season. Trust me, if we spend that much money and that data tells us we should change the season, we would do it. You saw that after the hen study. The results from that indicated that we could open up fall seasons in additional counties, and we did that.

G&F: We both know that West Virginia has terrific hunting for small game -- squirrels, rabbits and so forth. I think we both know, too, that those species aren't hunted to the extent they used to be. Why do you think that is?

Taylor: A lot of kids today, the first thing they want to do is get a bow, climb up in a tree stand and kill a deer. And there's nothing wrong with that. But I think they cheat themselves because they miss a lot of the woodsmanship they otherwise would have learned if they'd started out hunting squirrels or some other small game. When you're a squirrel hunter, you have to know a fair amount about the biology of the critter. And you have to know a fair amount about the forest -- which trees produce mast, what they look like and where they're found. I'm afraid today's young hunters are missing out by not learning that information.