Making room for turkeys by

[YankeyMCC]

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MY THANKSGIVING prep began in one of those markets where, for a premium, you get a story with your food. Every vegetable, every creature, and every jar of jam comes with its own pedigree and memoir.
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But this week, returning home with my order slip in my purse, I pulled into my driveway and confronted the real thing: the family of five wild turkeys who have adopted my neighborhood as their free range.

Now those of you who do not live in the Bay Colony where the first Thanksgiving was held, the home of Plymouth Rock and Red Sox Nation, may be surprised to learn that in the past few years, we have had either:

(1) a population explosion or

(2) a plague of wild turkeys.

Nationally, the restoration of the wild turkey has been a wild success story, up from 350,000 in 1950 to somewhere more than 3 million today.
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But who knew that these birds would take to urban and suburban life? Who knew that these 4-foot-tall, 20-pounders would be found gobbling around backyards, hanging out near Starbucks, and roosting - look, a flying mattress! - in the trees.
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My tale of two turkeys - the free-range bird on my order pad and the wild turkeys on my block - is an example of the odd evolving relationship between human and other nature.

On the one hand, there is a growing premium on domestic animals that live more naturally. On the other hand, there is an explosion of wild animals living more tamely.

Consider a third turkey, the one at the White House. No, really. On Tuesday, there will be an annual ceremony for a 21-week-old, 45-pound turkey from Indiana.

The creature, raised "using normal feeding and other production techniques" - say what? - will become the 60th of the breed to receive a presidential pardon, although it is unclear what crime he committed.
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When it comes to figuring out our place in nature, I have begun to think that we're all living on the edge. Maybe Ben Franklin was right when he said that the wild turkey - not the bald eagle - should be our national bird.

After all, the eagle, in all of its restored glory, soars majestically above the fray. But the turkey is down here, gobbling, squabbling, and flourishing, while we try to figure out our place in the pecking order.
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http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2007/11/16/making_room_for_turkeys/

[Demeter]

1. Bag It Already and Shut Up About It

This is the plan for survivalists--those turkeys are breeding for a reason.