At 09:15 PM 10/6/97 -0700, you wrote:

>A colleague of mine who is a zooarchaeologist, if I remember correctly, says
>there is no evidence of Wild Turkeys anywhere in the Pacific Northwest in
>prehistoric middens, etc.

Though I don't have Gene's specific info, it has always been my
understanding that
they aren't native. Peggi, can you provide more details? Since you have
one foot
in rehab and another here in tweeters, hopefully you won't be offended by
my observation
that I've seen arguments that certain species (not turkeys, others) are
native offered by
AR folks (who are common in the rehab world) without any real evidence
(mountain goats
in Oly NP are a good example), but with the real intent of getting them
treated as native
species regardless.

While I certainly wouldn't dream of assigning such a goal to you, given the
fact that
you do rehab stuff makes me wonder if you didn't stumble across something
written by a
(pardon my directness) blantant liar willing to subjagate truth in order to
promote a
political end (i.e. acceptance of turkeys as native).

Personally, I have not problem with accepting turkeys as introduced species
where they're
not objected to, as in Mt. Tom in Oregon (nice, catchy, relevant name,
no?). But the "oh,
they're really native!" line seems to be congruent with the politics of
those who'd argue
against removing of unwanted turkeys.



- Don Baccus, Portland OR <donb at rational.com>
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http://donb.photo.net