West Virginia hunters harvest 11,314 turkeys during spring 2020 season

CHARLESTON, W.Va. – The West Virginia Division of Natural Resources has released preliminary data on the number of turkeys harvested during the 2020 spring turkey season, which shows a slight increase when compared to last year.

The release from the DNR stated that according to the preliminary data, West Virginia Hunters harvested 11,314 birds during the spring turkey season this year, a slight increase over the 2019 harvest of 11,215. DNR officials said that this year’s spring turkey harvest is close to the five-year average of 11,344 and 9 percent above the 10-year-average.

“We had a good harvest this year thanks to a great youth turkey season,” said Mike Peters, wild turkey biologist for the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources. “The youth turkey season expanded to two days this year and it appears our young hunters took advantage of the additional opportunity.”

DNR officials said that youth hunters harvested a total of 643 gobblers during the two day youth turkey season, harvesting a total of 368 on Saturday and 275 on Sunday. This represents a 37 percent increase over last year’s youth harvest, according to the release. These numbers are included in the table below with county totals.

The release stated that Districts 4 and 5 reported slight harvest increases over last year’s totals. The remaining districts harvested slightly fewer birds than last year. District 1 harvested the most birds (2,749), followed by District 6 (2,284), District 5 (2,131), District 4 (1,617), District 3 (1,521) and District 2 (1,012).

The top five counties with the high highest turkey harvest were Mason (457), Preston (434), Jackson (402), Wood (344) and Harrison (339) counties.

Below is a table detailing the spring harvest of turkeys in the state over the last five years.

County	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020
Barbour	165	204	250	202	234
Brooke	78	100	174	118	131
Hancock	98	106	87	109	146
Harrison	286	328	440	347	339
Marion	192	257	330	298	289
Marshall	207	256	417	311	296
Monongalia	197	267	346	263	270
Ohio	111	113	145	145	130
Preston	371	475	555	455	434
Taylor	101	135	189	142	146
Tucker	90	97	89	102	86
Wetzel	196	244	396	270	248
Dist. I Subtotal	2,092	2,582	3,418	2,762	2,749
Berkeley	115	147	162	141	151
Grant	161	145	160	140	124
Hampshire	170	184	166	203	176
Hardy	132	132	151	142	123
Jefferson	79	115	115	125	121
Mineral	134	133	148	121	113
Morgan	54	64	65	83	93
Pendleton	88	112	112	112	111
Dist. II Subtotal	933	1,032	1,079	1,067	1,012
Braxton	197	209	307	257	234
Clay	101	120	142	102	102
Lewis	211	249	289	233	250
Nicholas	330	311	287	260	265
Pocahontas	144	142	113	155	109
Randolph	250	247	207	258	213
Upshur	228	302	335	297	255
Webster	156	151	129	100	93
Dist. III Subtotal	1,617	1,731	1,809	1,662	1,521
Fayette	292	278	247	257	289
Greenbrier	308	269	225	254	248
McDowell	200	177	132	105	122
Mercer	176	192	150	129	174
Monroe	184	192	183	231	201
Raleigh	283	280	213	205	211
Summers	219	209	170	158	182
Wyoming	320	262	197	182	190
Dist. IV Subtotal	1,982	1,859	1,517	1,521	1,617
Boone	157	157	125	132	169
Cabell	114	176	125	147	182
Kanawha	285	320	308	296	309
Lincoln	215	229	158	173	218
Logan	181	165	157	141	172
Mason	378	448	469	465	457
Mingo	131	143	106	118	147
Putnam	210	268	235	236	287
Wayne	139	186	129	132	190
Dist. V Subtotal	1,810	2,092	1,812	1,840	2,131
Calhoun	145	164	190	164	147
Doddridge	137	160	216	178	198
Gilmer	132	143	170	142	140
Jackson	302	408	460	447	402
Pleasants	80	88	122	124	109
Ritchie	216	264	327	285	283
Roane	231	256	280	258	252
Tyler	182	181	250	217	209
Wirt	174	205	230	186	200
Wood	328	380	407	362	344
Dist. VI Subtotal	1,927	2,249	2,652	2,363	2,284
State Total	10,361	11,545	12,287	11,215	11,314