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MARKETPLACE Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Classifieds Place an ad eSouthernOregon Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar CUSTOMER SERVICE Frequent Questions Advertising Information Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Network Affiliate Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend January 16, 2005 Turkeys wait to be tagged after being captured in a rocket-powered net in a small valley north of Grants Pass. Mail Tribune / Jim Craven They’ll be moving east: Wild turkey-netting operation will thin a growing flock near Grants Pass By MARK FREEMAN Mail Tribune GRANTS PASS — Cindy Bright and a host of volunteers stand motionless in a nearby garage, waiting silently for a few more wild turkey hens to strut into range. Already about 50 birds mill about in Len Swanson’s grassy backyard in the Colonial Valley area, where these turkeys have become noisy, messy and continually unwanted visitors. Bright breaks the silence by tripping a firing mechanism that rockets a large net skyward, capturing the startled turkeys when it falls to earth. "Run, run run!" Bright barks to the volunteer "muggers," whose job is to sprint to the captured birds and calmly hold them down before the turkeys are untangled and placed in cardboard boxes for shipping. "The lead hens tend to be the lookouts, so you really need to be careful about them," says Bright, a technician with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. "But getting 30 birds in one shot is pretty good." Advertisement Though trapping wild turkeys isn’t rocket science, the rocket-propelled nets represent the most effective way to capture flocks of birds making nuisances of themselves in some rural communities: The birds tear up lawns and poop on driveways. Despite its effectiveness, however, ODFW biologists plan to down-size future rocket-netting efforts. Instead, they will focus their turkey-damage program on expanded hunting opportunities and educating landowners on how not to attract gobblers in the first place. The changes mark a shift in turkey management from the decades-long focus on expanding flocks of these non-native turkeys across Oregon toward managing turkeys in the suitable habitat they currently use. That means the agency will address public complaints and damage problems with more hunting, more public education, the use of smaller "walk-in" nets, hazing permits to scare offending birds away, and even permits to kill turkeys. "We have a lot of tools at our disposal and this is one of them," says Steve Denney, manager of the ODFW’s Umpqua Watershed, where Bright and her rocket nets are based. "We’ll still be doing some trapping because it’s a good way to get lots of birds at one time," Denney says. "We’ll just do less of it." For the past 20 years, ODFW biologists have used explosives-powered nets to capture, transfer and release about 10,000 wild turkeys across Oregon. Bright, a self-professed "bird nerd" — has done it the past three years, focusing primarily in the turkey-rich Douglas County area. She came to the Colonial Valley last week to thin out the flock that has grown from a handful of turkeys five years ago to a flock of more than 150 birds, mostly juveniles. "They’re wonderful creatures to watch," says Swanson, whose three acres of grassland is a favorite haunt. "They’re amazing to watch and amusing, too. But when there’s 150 out there (defecating) on the grass, that’s just a huge mess. "It’s gotten to a point where it’s become too much of a good thing," Swanson says. Swanson admits to feeding the turkeys once three years ago to ensure a few birds were around for out-of-state visitors. Other neighbors still actively feed them, he says. But everyone ends up fighting the dung, the noise and the scratched grass. "They’re like a Rototiller when they go through the yard," neighbor Jim Pankratz says. But not this time. Bright has set the 75-foot-long net on a piece of lawn in full view from the garage window. The net sports five metal rockets wired to a trigger Bright has in the garage. Well before dawn in the frigid fog, Bright uses an electronic turkey call to mimic the gobbles and putts of the turkeys in hopes of luring them into range. After Bright fires the charges and the turkeys are mugged by the volunteers, each bird is banded, sexed and boxed for shipment — this time to some under-used habitat near La Grande. Every fifth bird is disease-tested. Bright’s work, which is part-time and seasonal, is paid annually by a $11,500 grant from the National Wild Turkey Federation, with the ODFW outfitting her and providing transportation. Greg George, president of the NWTF’s Grants Pass chapter, would prefer to see much more of Bright, not less. While waiting for biologists to band two turkeys he has stuffed under his arms, George said he wants the ODFW to expand its netting and transferring as the preferred way to get turkeys out of backyards and into huntable territory. "I don’t see how educating residents about not feeding turkeys is going to end the problem," says George, of Medford. "I think they need (the NWTF) to be a bigger part of this program." Hunters couldn’t safely shoot birds in the Swanson’s densely housed neighborhood, George says. It would be better to transfer the birds to better shooting locales, he says. "We need to look at how we can open up more hunting opportunities to keep these nuisance birds in check," George says. But Bright likely isn’t coming back to the Rogue Valley with her rocket nets. "This isn’t the new damage policy, for sure," says ODFW biologist Steve Niemela while banding captured turkeys. "The main thing is to get people to stop feeding them." WILD TURKEYS NAME: Meleagris gallopavo intermedia, one of six subspecies, four of which are in the United States and two in Mexico. FEATURES: Males sport a long beard; 90 percent of females are beardless. Males have spurs on their legs, but females do not. Males’ heads are virtually feather-free and often sport blotches of red, white and blue. RANGE: Native to most of the East and South, but introduced widely. In Oregon, present in all but Clatsop, Gilliam and Washington counties. POPULATION: Estimated at 25,000 to 30,000 in Oregon, mostly from birds trapped in southwestern Oregon and relocated. SIZE: Hens range from 8 to 12 pounds. Toms run 14 to 25 pounds. FOOD: Prefer nuts, berries, acorns, grass, insects and fruit. MATING: Males puff up feathers to court females. Mating usually occurs in March and April, with the hens laying nine to 12 eggs that incubate for four weeks. QUOTE: "I wish the bald eagle had not been chosen as the representative of our country. ... The turkey is a much more respectable bird, and withal a true original native of America." — Benjamin Franklin, 1784 Reach reporter Mark Freeman at 776-4470, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life | Opinion AP News | Archives | Site Map | Community | Classified Copyright © 1997-2005 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions | Website Feedback Student Loan Consolidation Conference Calls - $50/Month Home Security Systems Trunks, Footlocker, Trunk, Footlockers Advertisement s