....Game biologists will tell you that turkeys don't have a negative impact on grouse. And, in general, DNR's like to point to the reintroduction of wild turkeys as a modern day success story in wildlife management. (Turkey hunting is also in the best interest of state wildlife agencies, because there are special licenses involved, which = additional revenue.) But those same biologists didn't expect turkey numbers to explode the way they have . . . nor, for example, that turkeys would inhabit parts of the country (like northern WI/MN and the UP) where they either were not found historically or else were only present in very limited numbers. So it's gone beyond what they expected to see from the reintroduction....
To me that says a lot Larry. Maybe, only so many critters can fit into a patch of woods, and the ones that show increases are probably doing so at the expense of others, regardless of complexity.
The part I couldn't help but ask about, are these the same authorities doing the research and writing the expert reference publications? How could they have possibly been motivated by money and blind sided by unintended consequences? And yet, they hold the same conclusions, or at least will tell the same stories?
Oh well, I'm sure there's some way to tell that this is an isolated example, and they are ready to tackle more complex issues.
