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Population Spike Prompts New Look at Turkey Troubles

September 08, 2009 - Maine's wild turkey restoration program has unquestionably been a resounding success. These big birds now occur in numbers and areas very likely never before seen in Maine.

While it has been a boon to sportsmen and those who derive their income from outdoor recreation, this tremendous accomplishment is not without its detractors. We've also seen a rise in complaints from those who derive their living from agriculture. Some even think we may have gone too far in bringing these big birds back from the brink.

About every 10 years, the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife convenes a public working group, which is charged with setting goals and objectives to manage the state's turkey population for roughly the next 15 years. The group last met in 2000, and wasn't scheduled to meet again for several years.

However, the recent rise in nuisance complaints and some uncomfortably generous liberalizations of turkey seasons prompted IFW to reconvene their group. Participants represent largely the same group of stakeholders as the previous crew, with a slightly greater proportion from the agricultural industry.

One of the first tasks the group took on was to identify the type and extent of nuisance problems, and right away the complexity of problems became apparent. In many areas, turkeys depend on dairy farms for winter survival, and could not otherwise withstand the harsh Maine winters.

However, the birds can also sometimes be quite a nuisance at those farms. When winter food is scarce they congregate, feeding mostly on waste grain they pick from manure. And most farmers are willing to share their waste with the birds.

However, the birds may also pick through corn and haylege. It's not so much what they take, but what they leave behind — feces — that can be problematic. The fowl are fouling the forage, and there is some evidence that bird (starling, not turkey) feces in feed can result in declining milk production. The birds can also destroy wrapped bales by breaking them open, exposing them to moisture and rot.

Galen Larrabee, representing Maine dairy farmers on the working group, noted that while some problems still exist, IFW has done a far better job of addressing complaints in recent years.

Another group with a gripe are strawberry, blueberry and, to a lesser extent, raspberry growers. The problem, according to blueberry growers, is birds eating berries and destroying plants as they forage. Turkeys most certainly forage in blueberry fields, particularly in the summer when the birds are most abundant, and thus, most obvious. And damage occurs in those fields. Circumstantial evidence strongly suggests the birds are responsible.

However, researchers at Purdue University, Iowa State University and in California determined that most (roughly 95 percent) of the crop damage typically attributed to wild turkeys was actually being caused by raccoons, deer and foxes.

In the summer, big groups of turkeys consist largely of family groups of hens and poults. And from the time they hatch to roughly raking time, those rapidly growing poults feed largely on a high-protein diet of insects and other invertebrates. The birds are breaking plants as they forage for insects, but may actually be doing the berry growers a favor by removing insect pests. In terms of cost/benefit, it could be a wash.

Speaking of wash, blueberry growers, like dairymen, are also concerned about the unwanted mess turkeys leave behind. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has a Good Agricultural Practices certification program that encourages minimizing microbial food safety hazards by discouraging wildlife from using crop lands, and growers try to meet their standards.

However, a single flock of blackbirds can deposit more waste in an hour than the local turkey flock will in a year. Furthermore, a New Hampshire study found no salmonella in turkey droppings.

Perhaps the greatest damage is inadvertent. In late fall, strawberry growers cover their plants with straw to protect them from frost. Turkeys scratch at the straw searching for weed seeds and bugs and in so doing, destroy some plants directly. Uncovering them also exposes them to frost and further damage.

"If we get snow shortly after we cover the plants, they're usually fine," says Jeff Bellmore, a berry grower and turkey hunter. "But if the birds get to them first, we've got problems."

Turkeys, just like deer, bear, moose and a good many other species of Maine wildlife, do cause damage. How much damage they really do is debatable. Perhaps the biggest difference between turkeys and other pests is that they're relative newcomers to our state.

I'm guessing that, in time, agriculturalists will be more accepting of turkeys, at least to the same extent as they are toward other species, particularly as long as IFW remains vigilant in responding to complaints. And in the final analysis, the problems they cause really aren't all that bad.

I've talked to a lot of farmers, not just in Maine but throughout New England, and to a man and woman, they all agree on one thing: although the birds can sometimes be a nuisance, they still like having them around.

BOB HUMPHREY / HUNTING Portland Press Herald 9/6/09


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