Exotics Politics

A few months back, I blogged on the introduction efforts for one of Oregon's exotic species, the turkey.  When Europeans arrived in the U.S., the turkey lived in 39 of today's 50 states, not including Oregon.  Some have claimed that since the turkey probably used to live in Oregon, it shouldn't be considered an exotic. 

Scientists had found turkey fossils from 11,000 years ago as near as Shasta Caverns in Northern California.  Now, evidence uncovered years ago but lost until recently shows that turkeys lived near Ft. Rock OR from about 13,000 to 7,000 years ago.  Using that, some people want to consider our reintroduced turkeys a native versus exotic species.

Dr. Stephen Bedwell was an up-and-coming anthropology professor when he drowned in 1972 in Wisconsin, and secrets about the pre-history of wild turkeys in Oregon almost went with him to the bottom of Lake Winnebago.

Now 33 years later, Bedwell could become the accidental patron saint of Oregon’s wild turkeys, posthumously rescuing these birds from wildlife purgatory and giving them what turkey-lovers say is their rightful status as an Oregon native.

A footnote in Bedwell’s 1970 doctoral work, which involved the excavation of caves used by early natives near Fort Rock, reveals his discovery of turkey bones there dating as far back as 13,000 years.

Turkey bones showed up in several layers of earth under the ash from the explosion about 7,000 years ago of Mount Mazama, which eventually formed Crater Lake, according to the 1972 publishing of Bedwell’s findings in a book called "Fort Rock Basin, Prehistory and Environment."

That runs counter to Oregon’s wildlife rules, which consider turkeys an introduced exotic species.

Using that logic, people could reintroduce the Bactrian camel (two humps) and consider it a native species; after all, it lived here until the end of the Ice Age.  I could say the same for wild horses, except that the horses that were native here have been domesticated into extinction.  Our resident wild horses are descendents of escaped domesticated animals.  Of course, the state has already reclassified reintroduced mountain goats as a native species because they used to live here. 

The turkeys that have been reintroduced to Oregon are the Rio Grande subspecies (ranges from NE Mexico up through west and central Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas...the ones I see on my property) and the Merriam's subspecies (from the mountains of Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado).  There has been some interbreeding.  Dr. Bedwell did think that it was the Merriam's turkey that used to live in Oregon...when the climate was wetter east of the Cascades.

Oregon's ecosystems have evolved for many years without the turkey, so their reintroduction has undoubtedly altered the environment, helping some species and harming others.  However, that's not what the state's new Wild Turkey Management Plan's executive summary says:

There is concern about releasing turkeys in some areas of the state because of the potential impacts they may have to native wildlife and plants.  There are no data however, that substantiate significant competition between wild turkeys and other wildlife or that turkeys negatively impact plant populations.

In reading the report, it becomes apparent that there has been little-to-no research done on how turkeys interrelate and compete with other species or on how their foraging impacts native plants, insects, etc.  That's why the authors can safely say that there's "no data."  But, saying that "no one knows the impacts" would have been a much more honest and accurate answer.

Back to the original article.

Now hunters and biologists believe Bedwell’s work finally can take that scarlet "E" for "exotic" off Oregon’s flocks.

"It’s proof positive there is historical evidence of turkeys in Oregon," says John Thiebes, a National Wild Turkey Federation field biologist in Medford. "And we want to make sure people are aware that turkeys were in existence in Oregon before (introductions)."

If accepted, Bedwell’s research could lead to a reclassification of turkeys from exotic to native/re-introduced.

Such a change wouldn’t necessarily mean shifts in turkey management, which is guided by a recently developed 10-year plan.

But it would pull turkeys from the exotic ranks with the likes of bullfrogs and starlings to the more stately "re-introduced" realm with bighorn sheep and mountain goat.

In some ways, this issue is as important as naming a state fossil...not very.  Come to think of it, why don't we reintroduce China's Metasequoia tree since it used to live here until about 5 million years ago? 

Sometimes it's perversely fascinating to what lengths people will go to justify meddling or not meddling with the environment.

Comments

[Jeff]

It astonishes me that they have a 10-year plan for Turkey management. Someone actually gets paid to do this?

[Mark Hamm]

Interesting post. Shows how involved wildlife management can be. Some think we should strife to recreate conditions of 1492. Pretty ethno-centric.

[Mike]

Pennsylvania turkeys, like Chinese pheasants, Hungarian grouse, and Nepalese chukkars, are exotic target animals dumped in Oregon by our Dept. of Fish and Wildlife. They sell hunting tags. It’s a money maker for the State. The landowners who provide turkey habitat get zip.

Two years ago November the ODFW declared one square mile in the Willamette Valley as the sole turkey hunting zone in western Oregon. This tiny area also happens to be where I live. There is no public property in this square mile. Parcels range from 5 to 20 acres. Everybody has a home, children, pets and livestock. You can’t really see the neighbors from my house, because the woods are thick. Bullets, however, can travel much greater distances than the few hundred feet that separate the houses around here.

Nobody was informed that we were the zone. On the opening day of turkey hunting season the roads were suddenly jammed with SUV’s and hunters in camouflage. At least 50 hunters came down my driveway asking if they could hunt my land. The neighbors all had similar experiences. The hunters were turned away, but the situation was very uncomfortable for all involved. Some of the hunters came from as far away as California. Last year the zone was somewhere else, thank God.

Most of turkeys around here hang out at my next-door neighbor’s. They have horses, and the turkeys like to eat the horse droppings. I would no sooner eat a wild turkey than I would eat a slug. Butterball turkeys are cheap at the market and don’t taste like road apples. There is no skill needed to hunt a wild turkey around here, they meander through the yard like they own the place. Today I shooed four hens with a dozen or so chicks apiece out of the garden. I think the flock is up to over a hundred birds.

Fifteen years ago the ODFW petitioned the Columbia River Gorge Commission to declare 10,000 acres of private land “turkey habitat”, where farming, forestry, and residency would be banned. Thankfully those residents turned out for the meeting and shot the idea down. The ODFW is the biggest turkey in Oregon, bar none.

Everything in this post is the God's honest truth.