FEEDERS FOR THE FUTURE

By Linda E. Gallagher 

If you’ve listened to the television or radio, or picked up an outdoor magazine or daily newspaper anywhere in the state in the last year, you know that Michigan’s whitetail deer are facing a crisis-bovine tuberculosis. What you may not be aware of is the fact that, as a result of this affliction which has struck so cruelly into the heart of northeastern Michigan, we may be facing a crisis of another sort as well.

Also close to the heart of Michigan’s sportsmen and women are our wild turkey populations, more than 50,000 of which call northern Michigan home. With the possibility of an old-fashioned bitterly cold and snowy northern winter at the door, thanks to the effects of El Nino and his sister, and much needed restrictions on supplemental feeding of wildlife now in place throughout much of the north, northern Michigan’s wild turkeys may be facing a disaster.

Never native to northern Michigan, wild turkeys introduced to the area have always been dependent on the human hand for survival during typical winters, finding refuge on the farmer’s manure and silage piles, homeowner’s bird feeders, and yes, feeding stations set out by sportsmen for both whitetail deer and turkeys.

So what is to happen to our wild turkey populations if dire forecasts for this season come true? Do we sit back and watch as one of this state’s finest wildlife resources simply disappears from our horizons? Will the extirpation of the wild turkey in northern Michigan come as an inadvertent and tragic side effect of our efforts to eradicate the scourge of TB?

Not if the Michigan Wild Turkey Hunters Association and other dedicated conservation groups in northeastern Michigan can help it. Long a proponent of winter supplemental feeding programs for the survival of the wild turkey, the success of the Traverse Bay Chapter of MWTHA’s winter feeding is obvious-an estimated 12, to 15,000 of the big gamebirds now call the five-county area the chapter covers home-five counties of northwestern lower Michigan that had no wild turkeys at all thirty years ago, when Michigan’s wild turkey stocking program first began. The several hundred members of the group, which overlaps into several northeastern Michigan counties, are all in agreement on one point-that while the threat to our deer and other wildlife must be faced and conquered, our wild turkeys must also survive.

Not that these groups condone or promote the feeding of whitetail deer and elk-far from it. In fact, many of the individual members would like to see all forms of deer and elk feeding and baiting done away with entirely, stating that as native species our cloven hoofed wildlife is naturally suited to the climate, and the law of survival of the fittest is needed as a tool to further improve the species. And all of them know what supplemental feeding of deer entails all too well-said Rick Riley, president of the chapter, "It’s just too expensive-and we are only attempting to get our turkeys through the winter, not fatten them up, and a deer will eat in one night what a turkey would eat in a month."

$13,000 during an average winter to feed approximately 10,000 wild turkeys is enough, says Riley, and as a result the chapter actively avoids the feeding of any deer or elk at all. During the course of the past year, the MWTHA has worked closely with the DNR to develop programs that will meet the requirements of the enforced restriction order that is in force throughout the five-county TB area of Alcona, Alpena, Montmorency, Oscoda, and Presque Isle counties, as well as the buffer zone in portions of six other northern Michigan counties.

Aware that some supplemental feeding of wild turkeys is necessary in the north country, and with the knowledge that bovine tuberculosis cannot be contracted by avian species, DNR wildlife biologists worked very closely with the five government agencies involved with the creation of the Michigan Dept. of Agriculture order, signed by Director of the MDA Dan Wyant, part of which reads as follows: "Effective May 1, 1998, a person may feed wild birds or other wildlife if done in such a manner as to exclude wild, free-ranging whitetailed deer and elk from gaining access to the feed."

With this guideline in mind, a variety of wild turkey feeders have been designed and put together by members of the MWTHA and other interested individuals, many of which will be in use by mid-January.

These feeders will also continue to allow access to other songbirds, gamebirds, and small animals, but will halt unwanted intrusion from both elk and deer. One design has already been in use for several years.

This particular design is popular not only because of its effectiveness against deer, but also because it is inexpensive to construct and if necessary, portable. The feeder consists of clean 55 gallon barrels, either metal or plastic, that formerly contained non-toxic substances such as honey or cooking oil.

Five or six holes are cut around the barrel with edges bent inward, about two inches off the bottom. False bottoms are constructed to fit inside the barrels, preventing sudden flows of shelled corn, the primary grain used in the feeders.

Barrels are then elevated six to seven feet above the ground on a solid plywood platform built with two by six timbers for strength. The plywood platform, if extended at least two feet beyond the edges of the barrel, will stop any corn or other grain from falling to the ground and allow wild turkeys to fly up and stand on the platform. Platform legs are sunken into the ground four to five inches; a foot or so of snow provides all the additional support and strength needed. Human access to the feeder is gained by a small ladder built on one side.

Other designs used include the building of a fence around the feeding station which is open at the bottom to allow access of turkeys and small animals . This design is another viable possibility, and may be a preferable option to older people or those afraid of heights.

For any wild turkey feeder to work, it must be where the turkeys are. Simply setting the feeder out somewhere in the woods may not work. Where you have birds in July is not necessarily where the birds will be in January-and in very rough weather, turkeys move very little, usually taking refuge in thick thermal cover; which means that the feeder must go to the turkeys-hence the need for relative mobility. Many feeders are moved on sleds pulled by snowmobiles or someone on a pair of snowshoes.

Feeders are normally in use from mid-December until mid-March, depending on winter severity. During the very mild winter of 97-98, there was little or no need for supplemental feeding of turkeys at all in many areas of northern Michigan; weather forecasters doubt we’ll be as fortunate this year.