When DNR officials decided to trap turkeys and transplant them to McDowell and Wyoming counties, for example, Taylor stood up at a public meeting and warned the assembled hunters not to shoot at the birds until a viable population became established.

"I told them, ‘This ain't the trout-stocking truck. When these are gone, there won't be any more,'" Taylor said.

Armed with a bachelor's degree in biology from West Virginia University and a master's degree in fish and wildlife science from the University of Tennessee, Taylor first worked for the DNR in 1979 as an aide at the McClintic Wildlife Management Area in Mason County. He rose steadily through the ranks until, in 2001, he was named chief of the agency's Wildlife Resources Section.

Along the way, he held positions as a game manager, a mining coordinator, a district wildlife biologist and as the agency's federal aid coordinator. His work — particularly with wild turkeys — brought him national and international recognition.

He led the first research efforts on the rare ocellated turkey of Central America. He contributed significantly to West Virginia's trap-and-transplant expansion program, as well as a groundbreaking turkey-hen dynamics study.

In 2005, Taylor received the National Wild Turkey Federation's coveted Henry S. Mosby Award, given to biologists who make "exceptional contributions to the research and management of the wild turkey."

"In 1980, there were an estimated 14,000 turkeys in West Virginia," said DNR Director Frank Jezioro when he announced Taylor's award. "Today, there are nearly 140,000 in our state, and it took people like Curtis to make that happen. His receiving the Mosby Award is a great honor for Curtis, our agency and for our state."

Taylor said the recognition caught him completely off guard.

"To be honest with you, I thought that when I got out of fieldwork and into administrative jobs, I had hurt my chances to ever get it," he said.

Nowadays, Taylor spends his days supervising a statewide network of biologists and game managers — a job he said he wasn't sure he had the qualifications to hold.

"I don't know if you're ever really prepared," he said. "During my tenure, I've been very lucky and privileged to do just about everything we do. In one of my first jobs, I poured concrete and put up outhouses at a wildlife management area. The next day, I helped to survey a waterfowl marsh. That's the way it is in this agency. We don't have the money to put a biologist behind every tree. Our people have to learn to do everything. That's one of our strengths."

The wildlife chief's job keeps Taylor extremely busy.

"A lot of DNR field employees don't realize just how much goes on [in the Charleston office]," he said. "When I came here [in 1997] to begin working the federal aid job, I was overwhelmed with the amount of important, spur-of-the-moment stuff that had to be done. There are a lot of deadlines, and the wildlife chief has to know a lot about any given program within the agency on a moment's notice."

Given his plainspoken nature, it's not surprising to learn that one of Taylor's original goals was to foster better communication from the agency. "We've made some real strides there," he said. "We're getting our story out through West Virginia Wildlife magazine, through West Virginia Wildlife on television, and through our Web site at www.wvdnr.gov."

He called the DNR's employees and constituents the agency's "two greatest assets."

"Ninety-nine percent of the folks who work here don't consider the work they do to be a ‘job.' They love what they do so much, it's as if they say, ‘Wow. I actually get paid for doing this.' That's why we have so many people who work here 40, 42, and 45 years before they even begin to consider retirement.

"Our employees are great, but so is our constituency. The hunters, fishermen and wildlife enthusiasts of the state are really behind us. Most other wildlife agencies don't have the support from their customers that we do."