Time to change the rules

The old expression, “You ain’t seen nuthin’ yet…” applies when it comes to importing non-native species into Central Oregon for sportsmen to harvest.

Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) biologist Corey Heath’s statement in The Nugget a while back regarding big horn sheep is to the point: “You have to manage them pretty close so they don’t overpopulate a range.”

We can trace the history of big horn sheep back to a time when they roamed all over the West, so it makes some sense to create a new population here. However, we can not apply that same excuse for the introduction of Chukar, a native of India that has been planted on dry hillsides throughout Central Oregon, or for other “exotics” imported just so hunters can kill them.

Starlings, house sparrows, myna birds, Monk Parakeets, “wild” turkeys, peafowl, bass and other pestiferous animals are causing social and ecological unrest throughout the U.S., often thanks to well-meaning sportsmen.

In our case, it’s turkeys we have to watch out for.

According to ODFW, turkey introductions began back in 1926 when well-meaning biologists — at the behest of hunters — released four Eastern race turkeys in Jefferson County. The fate of those birds is perhaps unknown, but the precedent was set — turkey-hunters had their foot in the door.

In 1961, three Merriam turkeys from Arizona were released near Green Ridge. Between 1984 and ’88, a total of 31 more “wild” turkeys from Montana, Nebraska and Douglas County, Oregon, were released at Green Ridge, Wizard Falls Hatchery and Abbot Creek.

Eventually, “wild” turkeys became such a nuisance over in the Valley that another 75 or so of the Rio Grande variety were trapped by ODFW and released in Central Oregon, which helped set the stage for us to slowly be inundated by turkeys.

The animals were dumped without even a glance at what impact they may have on indigenous plants and wildlife.

We know that turkeys are omnivores and as such they will dine on invertebrates of all kinds and plants, including the protected Peck’s penstemon, butterfly larvae (caterpillars), ground-nesting birds, lizards, frogs, salamanders, mice, ants and just about anything else they can get down.

Hunters are often not as efficient predators as they would like to be (or claim to be when bragging around campfires, especially when it comes to killing turkeys. The evidence of this is well documented not only here, but also in New Zealand where the countryside is getting overrun with them.

Unlike New Zealand, we have coyotes, bobcats and feral cats, hawks,\ eagles and other predatory species that should be keeping the turkey population in balance. Obviously, that doesn’t seem to be working, especially if you consider this e-mail from Mary Crow of Sisters:

“Shortly after coming home I looked out the window and a turkey was clinging to the trunk of one of our boxwood trees, working on the suet feeder I had out for the white-headed woodpeckers! I could hardly believe this turkey acting like a woodpecker!

“But that was enough to convince me that all our feeders needed to come down for a few days, until the turkeys move on. It’s only been six days since they first arrived in our yard. In that short period they have gone from a delight to a nuisance…”

Steve Dougal of Redmond reported what he found a few weeks back: “I was out at the Forest Service Ranger Station east of Paulina, Crook County, yesterday. Although I had my (binoculars) with me there was no chance for birding, but (I) did see about 50 TURKEYS strutting about close to the main buildings.” So much for so-called, “wild” turkeys.

I would like to say “Enough is enough,” but I cannot; turkey hunters and other species of sportsmen pay the bills and keep ODFW alive. Perhaps it is time for the legislature to consider a “non-consumptive license” for us bird-watchers and other nature-lovers. That way, we will have a financial voice in what ODFW does — and does not do — before we are overrun with big horned sheep, wild turkeys, big-mouthed bass and alligators.