Not being an A hole but I have fought hard to get turkeys in Washington and i just want to say this is the trouble we have had for 25 yrs in Washington is on what they eat and how it will effect the grouse population and the best one being the bios of Washington were worried about them eating frogs and snails .. turkeys do eat about everything ...Now let me clue you guys in alittle ... We had two chapters for the NWTF here on the westside ..Started in the 90,s Mine being one of them we raised lots of dollars for turkey restoration here in Washington finally convinced Washington to release a few on the westside .. We turned loose around 56 birds on the Pilchuck tree farm , pilchuck sold out to another company and now its off limits to hunting .. after all this hard work we got slapped in the face and lost 1000 s of dollars we put into it .. so basically everyone but the hunters are benefiting from this . this is why I and they everett chapter quit .. I thank everyone whoever put there time into making Washington what it has become today... our last meeting a couple years ago was in Acme Wa. up north and the public shut us down again on making more plants in this area due to what they call crop damage .. Berry farmers ect ...So just to make it clear I have been involved on these issues for 20 yrs now and i will gladly brag that one up !!! Another thing the state of Washington is making millions off the wild turkey so please do not kill them all ....Make it clear I am not hear to p--- O-- people just get some respect .... peace !!!!
That's a bit of a stretch......you convinced WDFW to release birds on the west side....or perhaps Pillchuck or both? There were at least 4 chapters in western Washington in the 90's...and the Everett Chapter came after Olympia, which was the first chapter along with Castle Rock and Vancouver if I recall.
Not trying to be negative, but you sound like a typical NWTF promoter of all things turkey that happened in Washington. Just the opposite, turkey releases by WDFW stimulated the chapter system...fact. If NWTF was the force behind all the releases and turkeys we have today, then why did it just stop? Did the NWTF decide we had enough birds or some other reason? No they were in fact an obstacle at times with their middle man mentality....to over simplify, all the NWTF did was pick our pockets and take all the credit.
That's not to say that volunteers like yourself didn't work hard to be a part of the overall effort the last few years in the 90's before everything came to a halt. Unfortunately those same volunteers also got used.
As far as the statement.......
"our last meeting a couple years ago was in Acme Wa. up north and the public shut us down again on making more plants in this area due to what they call crop damage .. Berry farmers ect ..."
It was ill conceived from the start. First the idiots in WDFW let NWTF bio's from back east sell Rio's as the obvious choice since they did so well in Oregon and California....like Acme is so like Roseburg. Those nitwit NWTF bio's said WDFW was premature in putting Easterns out in western Washington...a mistake. Bull puckley...they don't have a clue.
Rio's travel in large flocks and go where the easy food is...toward I-5 and the small organic farms. Would have happened. Easterns on the other hand would have disappeared like they do in other areas of western Washington...Pillchuck, Capitol Forest, Rose Valley..on and on. They would have gone the other direction....to the woods...timber and the fringes. No damage....none.
Those farmers had every right to question it and WDFW and NWTF could not answer the potential damage question. Easterns would have been an easy sell....supply phone numbers of landowners where they exist...landowner telling landowner that no damage occurring.....done deal.
Add on the rush by local chapter up there to get anything released....even if wrong for the area. Also ill conceived. I for one am glad it got dumped, as it would have given turkeys a bad rap, because of poor decision making on the wrong subspecies. Now nothing will get released up there. You can blame the NWTF bio's and the local chapter for that....no one else.
Not to jack the thread, but needed to clarify things.
Oh...and turkeys are not the problem with pheasants.
