Please kill all the Turkeys

[Hilltop123]

Anyone that had any history with the Wilbur area will tell you, what killed off the pheasent was loss of cover. When farmer started farming clear to the pavement edge, and wiping out the fence rows??? Some of those fence rows has over 20 foot wide swaths of cover that went for miles, and that was both sides of the road. Loss of habitat, spraying and changes in ag. practices, not gobblers..............

[Wacenturion]

Anyone that had any history with the Wilbur area will tell you, what killed off the pheasent was loss of cover. When farmer started farming clear to the pavement edge, and wiping out the fence rows??? Some of those fence rows has over 20 foot wide swaths of cover that went for miles, and that was both sides of the road. Loss of habitat, spraying and changes in ag. practices, not gobblers..............

Ding...ding....we have a winner.  Right on!

[270Shooter]

I'd be happy to kill 2 of them for ya

[BOWHUNTER45]

Close but it was actually Olympia- Everett - North sound then the rest .. Yeah I always seem to screw up something but it has been a few years ... 

[BOWHUNTER45]

HEY for one this is why I gave up on this stuff because no one could come together and get things done ... most chapter presidents are going to tell you the same thing .. I never spent hours and hours years and years just running my mouth ..I did what I had to do to support the cause .. I also know what type of sub species of turkey to plant in our type of climate... Being from a state that has more turkeys than you can try to call in "
 like Pennsylvania ....I could go on all day !! like a few guys I know who planted turkeys one year and then the next year go there a shoot them and tell me they  just shot a bird that weighed 22 lbs and has a band on it .. whatever .. I dont run that way .. there is so many negitive issues relating to this subject that I need to just tuck my tail and go hide in the corner !!!!!!!!

[Wacenturion]

Close but it was actually Olympia- Everett - North sound then the rest .. Yeah I always seem to screw up something but it has been a few years ... 

Sorry...but wrong again.

[Wacenturion]

HEY for one this is why I gave up on this stuff because no one could come together and get things done ... most chapter presidents are going to tell you the same thing .. I never spent hours and hours years and years just running my mouth ..I did what I had to do to support the cause .. I also know what type of sub species of turkey to plant in our type of climate... Being from a state that has more turkeys than you can try to call in "
 like Pennsylvania ....I could go on all day !! like a few guys I know who planted turkeys one year and then the next year go there a shoot them and tell me they  just shot a bird that weighed 22 lbs and has a band on it .. whatever .. I dont run that way .. there is so many negitive issues relating to this subject that I need to just tuck my tail and go hide in the corner !!!!!!!!

No the reason you and others gave up on this is because it's a scam, and when one realizes they've been used, told they didn't do a good job and raise enough money for the cause in South Carolina, or whatever other demeaning statement NWTF staff can throw out there at you....people quit.  Plain and simple.  Kind of like dealing with an obnoxious used car salesman. 

As I said previously....turkey introductions done by WDFW, and not the NWTF, created the interest to give birth to the chapter system.  Years later when other powers to be at WDFW, who by the way never wanted turkeys, took control of the turkey program, it ceased, and with it the eventual slow death of the chapter system as we knew it set in.

Out of curiosity if you were involved in the Whatcom fiasco, did you support Rio's?  If you did...then you other statement relevant to appropriate subspecies is also inaccurate.     

[runamuk]

Anyone that had any history with the Wilbur area will tell you, what killed off the pheasent was loss of cover. When farmer started farming clear to the pavement edge, and wiping out the fence rows??? Some of those fence rows has over 20 foot wide swaths of cover that went for miles, and that was both sides of the road. Loss of habitat, spraying and changes in ag. practices, not gobblers..............

Ding...ding....we have a winner.  Right on!

pheasant are really reactive to cover I took some ground in Idaho and in my fencing and planning created escapement for the pheasants and in less than 3 years we had probably tripled our population just on our 10 acre property and the surrounding 100 acres also saw an increase.... habitat is where its at   I dont know much about turkeys other than they are odd birds and kinda freak me out 

[Bluemoon]

Bowhunter and others.  My intention was not to stirr up bad memories it was to have a little fun now that the spring season is underway.  I do not hunt Turkeys in this state for the main reason I can't use my dogs.  It is a thrill to have your dog on point, walk into flush a pheasant and have a gobbler get up at your feet.  Or watching my Springer quartering back and forth watching the grass wiggling in front and have 20 turkeys explode in front of him.  That is what turns me on...
The area I originally was talking about I still believe the turkeys ran the pheasants out of.  It is a very unique piece of property with trees, cover, feed and water all told about 200 acres or so.  You can't even find a hen pheasant in there now if you tried.  Drive a mile down the road and you will find both coexisting. 
I grew up in Eastern Washington and have hunted all parts of it for the past 40 years, so I think I am qualified to say I have seen the changes of wildlife and habitat.  I can appreciate yours and everyone Else's passion for the outdoors  and the programs we have all worked hard on just to watch this Fish and Wildlife Dept. flush it all away. 

Regards

[BOWHUNTER45]

DUDE dont worry about it .. I have been in a bad mood lately and have been going off about everything ..proberly have less friends now but i speak my mind ...Sorry if I stirred up some BS ... I need to start calming my butt down .... I need to just comment on the positive notes and I will for now on !!! PEACE EVERYONE !!!  and for the record the Whatcom clan was at once part of north sound until the NWTF had an Idea to have another chapter north of me .. so I hear you on that part and they were the ones wanting Rio 's just because they thought they deserved something for the hard work they put into it in 1 or 2 yrs .. I battled with the Wdfw BIO for at least 6 yrs to get something done but they said no way in Skagit co so thats how it got started wanting to go to whatcom co.  and NO I did not want Rio's ... I would hope anyone with knowledge knows the eastern is the tougher bird... Now we done with this one .... peace and go kill a turkey because I am ... hopefully !!!! 

[Curly]

I've sometimes wondered about grouse and turkeys coexisting. 

Interesting article on Turkeys competing with grouse:

http://www.consulting-foresters.com/?id=turkeys_ruffed_grouse

another:  http://www.esf.edu/communications/news/2002/12.12.birdrivalry.pdf

[jbeaumont21]

I have heard some reports of turkeys eating pheasant chicks and even being very territorial with other upland birds when it comes to feeding grounds.  On the other hand it has been rumored that pheasants are carriers for the black head disease which turkey chicks are suspected of being vulnerable to whereas other upland birds are not.  Just what I have heard so don't shoot the messanger.

[BOWHUNTER45]

turkeys eat a variety of things .. this is the problems we had way back when about snails frogs and on and on ... the whole pheasant thing is throwing me off... pheasants do not usually live in the woods  but maybe in the southeast corner the RIOS tend to use alot of the same open areas but I need more evidence to blame in on the turkeys ..HOW ABOUT PESTICIDES LACK OF COVER AND BIRDS OF PREY ....

[Phantom Gobbler]

There are areas where we hunt in NE WA where the number of pheasants and turkeys are both at very good numbers.  In the SE (as in many areas) there are probably a number of reasons that have resulted in plummeting pheasant numbers.  Habitat loss/changes, predators, high tech and efficient farming practices, lack of support/funding from WDFW etc. etc.  In general, the wild upland bird populations in Eastern Washington are greatly diminished from when I grew up hunting pheasants and other species of upland birds in the 70's. Limits of roosters used to be the rule rather than the exception.  We can turn this trend around, but we need to start by getting the sportsmen and women on the same page and start lobbying agressively for our tax payer rights. 

[Wacenturion]

There are areas where we hunt in NE WA where the number of pheasants and turkeys are both at very good numbers.  In the SE (as in many areas) there are probably a number of reasons that have resulted in plummeting pheasant numbers.  Habitat loss/changes, predators, high tech and efficient farming practices, lack of support/funding from WDFW etc. etc.  In general, the wild upland bird populations in Eastern Washington are greatly diminished from when I grew up hunting pheasants and other species of upland birds in the 70's. Limits of roosters used to be the rule rather than the exception.  We can turn this trend around, but we need to start by getting the sportsmen and women on the same page and start lobbying agressively for our tax payer rights. 

You are pretty much right on.....habitat loss and failure to account for it is the main reason.  That in itself amplifies all the other issues such as predation, weather etc.  It pretty simple to actually fix in principal, but requires hands on efforts, something the current staff at WDFW is lacking in.  They tend to be go to meeting, act important, make excuses for why they can't do anything types. 

Fact is in the 90's there was an active new program that dealt with hunter access and habitat restoration statewide.  There were 23 staff with equipment (tractors, trailers etc.) that in the program's short history did incredible things.  One being turkey releases and trap and transfer.  In addition over 1300 landowners statewide were signed to cooperative agreements providing just over 3 million private acres available under different types of access programs.  Much more was accomplished, but it would take several paragraphs to describe it.

When reorganization occurred in 1999 under the previous Director....wildlife management took over control of that program.  They quickly destroyed it eliminating positions and having remaining position do other things taking away some if not a lot of their ability to service landowner agreements.  When I hear Wildlife Management tell us the new application process will provide revenue to add private lands access I cringe...what a freaking joke.

Before we got millions of acres basically for free or for the cost of improving habitat on said lands.  Now we are going to pay a select small group at the expense of pissing off the landowners that did it for nothing.  Oh yeah that's certainly a way to increase acreages.  For every one we pay, we'll loose several.

Pretty damn sad...........that agency needs a giant flush so it can get back to basics.