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For Immediate Release

Contact:

Randy Simons  | Dan Keefe
(518) 486-1868 | news@parks.ny.gov

 

June 28, 2017

Allegany State Park Announces New Museum Display

Commemorates the Founding of New York’s Wild Turkey Trap & Transfer Program

The New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation (State Parks) announced that a new display has been constructed in the Administration Building Museum in partnership with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), and the National Wild Turkey Federation. The new display commemorates the founding of New York’s Wild Turkey Trap & Transfer Program which was first launched in 1959 by the NYS Conservation Department within Allegany State Park, and eventually led to the repopulation of wild turkeys across the Northeast.

“We are holding a public ceremony in the lobby and museum on July 6th at 10a.m., to showcase the new display and honor the men who founded this program and did so much for the conservation of the Wild Turkey; and to thank the many people who have made this new museum piece possible.” Regional Director Jay Bailey said. “We are extremely proud of Allegany State Park’s role in the reestablishment of this iconic North American bird.”

“The Trap and Transfer Program’s historic efforts to reintroduce wild turkey to Western New York were the initial steps in the eventual restoration of wild turkey throughout the Northeastern United States,” said DEC Regional Director Abby Snyder.  “The restorations of the wild turkey to New York State is one of our greatest conservation success stories, and would not have been possible without collaborative efforts of our partners at State Parks and the National Wild Turkey Federation.”

The National Wild Turkey Federation’s Director of Research and Science, Tom Hughes commented “Trap and transfer of truly wild stock is the only method of population establishment that works for wild turkeys, but it can only work if there is a source population and a cooperator willing to allow trapping. For New York, and later much of the Northeast, the Allegany State Park was that source and that cooperator. We all owe a tremendous debt of gratitude, not only to those visionary and dedicated biologists who did the trap and transfer, but to the Allegany State Park administration and personnel who provided great stewardship of the resource under their responsibility and were willing to share.”

The display is a companion piece to a stone monument that was erected in Allegany State Park in 2016 on the very site where the first birds were captured for relocation in 1959. The monument is located just off of France Brook Road in the Red House Area of the park.

The New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation oversees more than 250 individual parks, historic sites, recreational trails, golf courses, boat launches and more. For more information on any of these recreation areas, call 518-474-0456 or visit www.nysparks.gov, connect on Facebook, or follow on Twitter.

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