I have been reading and following to some degree the politics and wrangling going on about the deer and elk on California’s Santa Rosa Island. It seems that neighboring Santa Cruz Island has a turkey problem in the eyes of the Nature Conservancy there. Estimates place turkey population at around 1,000 give a take a poult or twenty.
Jim Mathews, outdoor writer for the Daily Bulletin, says that the Nature Conservancy believes that because the wild turkey didn’t survive the last ice age on Santa Cruz Island, it is classified as non-native. So they have hired a company to come in a slaughter all the turkeys.
Matthews brings up a lot of good points and asks more good questions along with exposing the ignorance and hypocrisy of those involved. As he words it, it is “more biased science adopted as policy. A policy gone astray.”
I recommend the read and also check out his added story about the imbalance of funds spent on management of some game species while totally neglecting others.
Tom Remington
