restore Turkeys | Kim Smith Films

Dear Friends,

I hope this Thanksgiving finds you well. Hopefully you have a joyful weekend ahead.

I was speaking over the phone with a dear friend who hasn’t visited New England in many years and misses it very much. I mentioned to her how the Wild Turkeys in our neighborhood look so comical when they take off to roost for the night onto tree branches. She said wait, what, Turkeys in your neighborhood? I said yes, of course, they are everywhere, not remembering that when she lived here there was none. She has never seen a single Wild Turkey nonchalantly perusing a city street, let alone gobbling gangs.

Eastern Wild Turkeys were once widespread. An estimated 10 million Wild Turkeys roamed North America, from southern Canada, throughout the continental US to Mexico. As the nation became colonized, the settlers cut down forests as they went. New England was particularly hard hit. The birds lost not only their food supply of acorns and chestnuts, but also their protective cover. Turkeys became extirpated from Massachusetts (no longer living in the state); the last Massachusetts native Wild Turkey was killed in 1851.

As Turkeys became scarcer and scarcer nationwide, many states tried to reintroduce the birds to their historic habitats. According to Mass Wildlife, between 1911 and 1967, at least 9 unsuccessful attempts were made to restore Turkeys to Massachusetts. At first, they tried to release farm Turkeys, not wild ones, but those birds did not survive. “In 1937, the Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act, also known as the Pittman-Robertson Act, provided much-needed funding for wildlife studies and restoration. With the additional resources, wildlife management methods improved and new capture techniques provided a safe and effective means for live-capture of birds (Wild Turkeys) for translocating to new areas.”

Biologists like Jim Carodoza, who led the Turkey Game and Upland Game Project at Mass Wildlife during the 1970s, began to explore the idea of live-trapping Wild Turkeys from southwestern New York. They would sit in their trucks for hours waiting for the Wild Turkeys to follow a trail of cracked corn, oats, and wheat to an open pasture. Once a gaggle of 20 or so had gathered, the biologists fired an enormous 2600 square foot net to capture the Turkeys.

By the early 1970s, 37 Wild Turkeys had been live trapped in the Adirondacks and released in Berkshire County. By autumn of 1978, the Massachusetts Turkey population had grown to about 1,000 birds. Mass Wildlife biologists and volunteers began live-trapping Turkeys from the growing flocks, transporting them to other areas of the state with suitable habitat. A total of 26 releases of 561 birds made in 10 counties took place between 1979 and 1996.

In just over fifty years, the Turkey population of Massachusetts has grown from that first 37 introduced birds to an estimated 30,000 to 35,000 Turkeys!