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SANTA CRUZ TURKEYS, UPDATES -- ONS-jim matthews outdoor column -- 13dec06
Nature Conservancy slaughtering wild turkeys on Santa Cruz
By JIM MATTHEWS Outdoor News Service
For at least 50 years there have been wild turkeys on Santa Cruz Island, and unlike wild hogs which are not native to North America, no one has been able to document any environmental problems introduced -- or perhaps more correctly -- "reintroduced" populations of wild turkey have created for native species. None. There's wild, knee-jerk speculation, but no science.
But apparently that isn't stopping the Nature Conservancy from contracting with a wildlife control company to slaughter all of the 1,000 of so wild turkeys on Santa Cruz Island, according to Steve Smith with the California Bowman Hunters. Smith said the slaughter apparently began this past week.
This is more biased science adopted as policy. A policy gone astray. Because there were no turkeys on Santa Cruz since the last ice age, apparently there shouldn't be any. That's the Nature Conservancy's scientists belief. I can understand removing wild hogs, which root up the landscape and decimate native plant and invertebrate populations that didn't evolve with them. But the desire to rid the Channel Islands of all things non-native for the last 500 to 1,000 years doesn't make sense.
Especially not turkeys. Turkey bones are one of the most common things found in the La Brea tar pits, having lived in and evolved with all of the plants and animals that currently live here. Turkeys are native. The fact that they didn't make it through the last cold snap is no reason we can't have them back in this habitat. We just need to get the Nature Conservancy and National Park Service to buy in.
So here's the argument: The last ice age was probably man-made anyway. It happened about the time the human population was booming, and our ancestors probably ran too many herds of mastodon and bison off cliffs, drastically reducing the amount of methane and carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere. That in turn, reduced greenhouse gases, causing the cooling that led to the ice age. If we were really the good stewards we claim, we should try to restore the environment to pre-ice age times, trying to bring back many of the animals that went extinct here because the early man-caused ice age.
Turkeys for example. They were everywhere here in Southern California and our offshore islands. Let's put them back -- or better, let's leave alone the ones that have already been put back.
And if someone can figure out how to re-create saber tooth cats from DNA, I'm all for that, too. And the deer and elk on Santa Rosa Island, that our two Senators in Washington, D.C., want to slaughter, they are probably a darn close genetic match to animals that once roamed on that island in recent times. Let's leave them, too. It makes as much sense as trying to get rid of them -- more sense even, since they're already there and not causing problems. None. Zero. Zip. People can enjoy seeing these pre-ice age relics, and the Conservancy can save all that money they're spending on killing the birds -- and want to spend on wiping out deer and elk.
But we've left the loonies in charge of the asylum.
Nature Conservancy slaughtering wild turkeys on Santa Cruz
By JIM MATTHEWS Outdoor News Service
For at least 50 years there have been wild turkeys on Santa Cruz Island, and unlike wild hogs which are not native to North America, no one has been able to document any environmental problems introduced -- or perhaps more correctly -- "reintroduced" populations of wild turkey have created for native species. None. There's wild, knee-jerk speculation, but no science.
But apparently that isn't stopping the Nature Conservancy from contracting with a wildlife control company to slaughter all of the 1,000 of so wild turkeys on Santa Cruz Island, according to Steve Smith with the California Bowman Hunters. Smith said the slaughter apparently began this past week.
This is more biased science adopted as policy. A policy gone astray. Because there were no turkeys on Santa Cruz since the last ice age, apparently there shouldn't be any. That's the Nature Conservancy's scientists belief. I can understand removing wild hogs, which root up the landscape and decimate native plant and invertebrate populations that didn't evolve with them. But the desire to rid the Channel Islands of all things non-native for the last 500 to 1,000 years doesn't make sense.
Especially not turkeys. Turkey bones are one of the most common things found in the La Brea tar pits, having lived in and evolved with all of the plants and animals that currently live here. Turkeys are native. The fact that they didn't make it through the last cold snap is no reason we can't have them back in this habitat. We just need to get the Nature Conservancy and National Park Service to buy in.
So here's the argument: The last ice age was probably man-made anyway. It happened about the time the human population was booming, and our ancestors probably ran too many herds of mastodon and bison off cliffs, drastically reducing the amount of methane and carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere. That in turn, reduced greenhouse gases, causing the cooling that led to the ice age. If we were really the good stewards we claim, we should try to restore the environment to pre-ice age times, trying to bring back many of the animals that went extinct here because the early man-caused ice age.
Turkeys for example. They were everywhere here in Southern California and our offshore islands. Let's put them back -- or better, let's leave alone the ones that have already been put back.
And if someone can figure out how to re-create saber tooth cats from DNA, I'm all for that, too. And the deer and elk on Santa Rosa Island, that our two Senators in Washington, D.C., want to slaughter, they are probably a darn close genetic match to animals that once roamed on that island in recent times. Let's leave them, too. It makes as much sense as trying to get rid of them -- more sense even, since they're already there and not causing problems. None. Zero. Zip. People can enjoy seeing these pre-ice age relics, and the Conservancy can save all that money they're spending on killing the birds -- and want to spend on wiping out deer and elk.
But we've left the loonies in charge of the asylum.
