Clean Water: A Must for People and Wild Turkeys

The river was the garbage dump for the many factories along its banks, symbols of American industrial prowess, jobs and economic success.

This time, though, Time Magazine and National Geographic learned of the blaze. Imagine, water burning! Immediately, the country’s water pollution crisis came to the collective forefront, galvanizing a fragmented environmental movement into a national priority.

A year later, President Richard Nixon established the Environmental Protection Agency, but it wasn’t until 1972, when Congress passed the Clean Water Act that the EPA got the legs it needed to clean up waterways. The Act gave the EPA the power to regulate pollutant discharge, set wastewater standards and fund sewage treatment plants. A decade later, people could swim in their local lakes and rivers without adverse health risks, waterfront property values increased dramatically, fish became plentiful and edible again, and wild turkey populations rebounded.

We know the wild turkey recovery story. By the mid-20th century, turkey populations were in such serious decline that they may have become extinct if it weren’t for the efforts of conservation agencies and the NWTF to improve turkey habitat and relocate birds. Having quality water sources was typically part of the plan. Like all living creatures, turkeys need untainted water to survive.

Did the Clean Water Act contribute significantly to the rebound of turkey populations across the United States, or was it a coincidence that turkeys began thriving after its enactment? The Act did not intentionally address wild turkeys. It added to a general awareness of the need for clean, reliable water supplies.

“It was a watershed moment of environmental consciousness,” said Travis Smith, the NWTF’s western water specialist and chair of the Colorado Water Congress. “To say the recovery of the wild turkey is due to the Clean Water Act is a stretch, but it’s related. Clean water supplies mean healthy watersheds that are good for people and for turkeys,”

Healthy watersheds include habitat that is not specifically aquatic, such as riparian zones, and adjacent forests and grasslands where wild turkeys live. Much has been learned since the CWA was passed more than 50 years ago about how nearby land management practices influence clean water.

“There’s a deep connection between wildlife habitat and water,” Smith said. “In the West, 90% of wildlife are within 1 to 2 miles of that zone. The NWTF supports the USDA Forest Service’s active management of its timber resources. If our forests are not well managed, if we do nothing on the landscape, it’s not beneficial to hydrological conditions in the watershed.”

A lack of thinning and other timber management techniques may lead to a complex chain of events that can negatively impact waterways and turkeys. For starters, turkeys need roost trees that are large enough to hold their bulk. They also require open fields and meadows for foraging and nesting. The more arid the climate, the more likely roosting trees are along water sources.

What’s more, wild turkeys are drawn to riparian areas to eat insects, a critical protein source and a necessity for poult development. Insects are particularly plentiful near water. Whether along a river bank or in an upland forest, a healthy forest is comprised of trees of varying ages and species. When forests are improperly managed, they often become overgrown with small-diameter trees. If drought sets in, this creates a tremendous fuel load, which in turn, leads to larger, more intense wildfires. These monster infernos denude the land rather than regenerate it. Rainstorms then strip it, clogging waterways with excess debris and sediment.

“Catastrophic wildfires are due to the build-up of fuel,” Smith explained. “Instead of 10,000 acres, a quarter-million acres burns. The impact to water supplies and adjacent riparian areas lasts years. All living things downstream are affected. The Clean Water Act was an important moment in time, but over the last five to 10 years, not properly managing our forests has led to a different set of problems related to water.”

According to Smith, the NWTF’s partnership with the Forest Service places an emphasis on developing habitat resilience and preserving water supplies. A by-product is healthier populations of wild turkeys and other wildlife species.

“All conservation work starts with water,” Smith said. “Water brings all stakeholders – communities, conservation groups, foresters and recreational water users, especially boaters, hunters, anglers and wildlife watchers – together. There’s a water and wildfire crisis across the West. Ten years after one of those fires, wildlife and communities still suffer. Sometimes the wildlife never comes back.”

Times have changed since 1972’s passage of the Clean Water Act.

“We now recognize that all uses of water, not just agricultural needs and our public drinking supply but also recreational uses of water and wildlife needs, are important,” Smith said. “We need to figure out how to make limited water work harder to fulfill all of these needs. The NWTF’s strength is bringing these stakeholders together.”

A vibrant turkey population depends on water. What’s good for the bird is good for other living things, too. Certainly, that’s true when it comes to having enough clean water.

• The average adult wild turkey needs about a quart of water per day, perhaps from taking a swig directly from a stream, seep or stock tank, but mainly from the vegetation and insects it eats.
• Riparian areas are precious sources of water for turkeys. “Riparian areas are the most bio-diverse ecosystems of all,” said David Nikonow, NWTF district biologist for Montana, Wyoming and Colorado. “There’s more water, both in quantity and quality, so there’s more grasses and forbs and more insects for turkeys, especially growing poults. It’s not just the water they drink directly, but these indirect elements that play into a turkey’s well-being.”
• For their first few days after hatching, poults get water from an internal yolk sac. When that’s used up, they want their first direct sip; though, by then, they’re already getting water from the food they eat, and dew.
• All wild turkeys need water daily, which is why hens rarely nest more than a quarter mile from a water source.
• Invasive species in riparian zones, such as Russian olive and saltcedar, use more water than the ecosystem can spare, causing native plants to perish.
• In the West, invasive species outcompete native cottonwoods, the most suitable roosting trees for wild turkeys. As a result, new cottonwoods never reach maturity. If there’s no place to roost, there’s no wild turkeys.
• When drought strikes, the production of berries and other soft mass declines, making it tough for turkeys in fall/winter.
• Flooding is not as detrimental as drought to wild turkeys. They might lose a nest, but they can try again if it’s not too late in the spring. One upside is that flooding is a natural process that regenerates riparian flora upon which turkeys depend – flora that evolved with seasonal flooding.
• Turkeys can drink out of mud puddles and ditches without harm, unless the puddle contains “point source pollution,” such as fertilizer, road salt, asphalt oil or pesticides.