Wild turkeys have thrived in Baker County since the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife released the first flock here in 1988. (National Wild Turkey Federation photo).

By JAYSON JACOBY

Baker City Herald

If you prefer to stalk the centerpiece of your Thanksgiving dinner through the wild woods rather than down the tame aisles at the grocery store, then you’ll be pleased at what’s planned for Baker County this autumn.

The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife wants to let 100 people hunt wild turkeys in the county this fall twice as many as in years past.

But there’s more to the agency’s gift.

ODFW also has proposed to expand the area for Baker County’s fall turkey hunt from a comparatively small chunk Pine Valley to the whole of the county’s four units: Sumpter, Pine Creek, Keating and Lookout Mountain.

That’s several hundred thousand acres of additional ground.

Officially, ODFW’s idea is only a proposal.

But the Fish and Wildlife Commission, which has the final say, isn’t likely to tinker with the agency’s suggestions when commissioners meet Friday in Salem.

In addition to the proposed changes in Baker County, ODFW wants to sell more turkey tags and expand the hunting areas elsewhere in Northeastern Oregon this fall, including Wallowa and Union counties.

ODFW’s purpose in proposing the more liberal hunting seasons is to slow the growth of the region’s turkey populations, said Dave Budeau, the agency’s upland game bird coordinator.

andquot;We’ve seen a pretty dramatic increase in turkeys in the northeast part of the state,andquot; Budeau said. andquot;We probably had some mortality in turkeys last winter due to the heavy snow, but the (population) trend has certainly been up.andquot;

Fall turkey hunts reduce populations more effectively than the statewide spring hunt because during the autumn hunters can kill either a male or a female turkey.

Female turkeys are off limits during the spring hunting season, which runs from April 15 to May 31.

There’s another significant difference between the spring and fall hunts.

Fall seasons are controlled hunts. That means hunters have to apply for a tag, and ODFW’s computer picks the people who get the chance to buy a tag.

The spring turkey hunt is a general season, open to anyone who wants to buy a tag.

Budeau said ODFW officials want to control the turkey flocks, not decimate them.

To that end, hunters can kill only one turkey during the fall season.

andquot;It’s pretty conservative the way it’s set up,andquot; Budeau said.

ODFW surveys show that about 40 percent of turkey hunters kill a bird.

Last winter some Northeastern Oregon ranchers reported seeing as many as 300 turkeys on their land, Budeau said.

The birds can ruin haystacks by defecating on them.

Although turkey populations are in general higher in Union and Wallowa counties than in Baker County, the birds did make nuisances of themselves last winter in parts of Baker Valley where in the past they were rarely seen.

A flock of about 60 birds took roost on Delbert Stephens’ haystacks near Foothill Road, northwest of Haines.

The Oregon Hunters Association bought $1,700 worth of corn to feed beleaguered turkeys in Northeastern Oregon last winter.

ODFW transplanted the first flock of wild turkeys in Baker County in 1988, and the birds have proliferated, and spread across much of the county, in the ensuing two decades.