The Morning Blend
Welcome
Complete Media Kit
SIERRA VISTA — Teaching young people about conservation is one of the core missions of Huachuca Gould’s Chapter of the National Wild Turkey Federation.
That’s why the Huachuca chapter is proud of 18-year-old Brielle Eaton, who won local and state essay contests and $1,500 in scholarship money.
Five hundred of those dollars came from the local chapter in its new scholarship program, which it plans to continue annually, said chapter president John Millican.
“(Wildlife conservation) is a skill that is getting lost with this generation,” Eaton said when contacted recently by the Herald/Review.
  
|
Eaton has enjoyed getting outdoors since she was very young.
She is an avid hunter, who has learned from her father, Dennis, and older brothers, Branden, 24, and Brisden, 20.
“I hunt anything from small game — rabbit, dove, quail, squirrel, prairie dog — to large game — elk, javelina, deer and turkey,” Eaton said, noting she has not yet bagged an antelope.
Eaton was home-schooled, played volleyball for Buena High School and has accepted a volleyball scholarship at South Mountain Community College in Phoenix. She will start there in August and admits she is “a little nervous.”
She plans to study nursing.
People who attend Saturday night’s annual Gould’s fundraising banquet at the local Knights of Columbus will have an opportunity to meet Eaton. She plans to be there.
Eaton is grateful for the $1,500 in turkey-conservation scholarship money that will help defray her education expenses.
“It’s really good to have the support of local hunters behind me,” Eaton said. “That’s what feels best.”
Southeastern Arizona has produced young conservation heroes in the past.
Millican said Brad Herrin won the state scholarship in 2002. He also won at the national level — a prize of $10,000.
Millican, a wildlife manager for the Arizona Game and Fish Department, explains the success of the local conservation efforts.
“It all started in 1985 and 1987, when we had re-introduction of the Gould’s turkey, which wasn’t found anywhere else in the United States,” Millican said.
“There might have been a remnant population in southwestern New Mexico. But other than that, there was nothing in the United States, and they were brought from Mexico.”
The Huachuca Gould’s Chapter got involved with the conservation efforts, “and the Huachuca Mountains became the first viable Gould’s turkey population in the United States.”
The success became apparent in the 1990s.
After this, conservationists were able to capture and translocate the birds into other Southeastern Arizona mountain ranges.
“We estimate right now that in the Huachucas it’s anywhere from three-to-four-hundred birds,” Millican said.
“Since 2002, we have captured and translocated 140 turkeys from the Huachucas and placed them in five other mountain ranges in Southeastern Arizona.”
Those ranges are the Chiricahuas, Pinaleños (Graham), Galiuros, Santa Ritas and Catalinas.
“They’re doing exceptionally well,” Millican noted.
Conservationists learned that Merriam’s turkeys never seemed to do well in the Sky Islands of Southeastern Arizona, mainly because they’re really dependent on pine forests.
“And we don’t have a lot of pine in these Sky Islands in Southeastern Arizona,” Millican said.
Gould’s were believed to be indigenous, because they were right across the line in Mexico.
As the Merriam’s disappeared, Arizona Game and Fish began to re-introduce the Gould’s.
Biological analyses ruled out the suspected possibility that there was some hybridization happening between the Merriam’s and the Gould’s.
It was “found, through DNA, that these were a pure strain of Gould’s turkey,” Millican said.
The Gould’s can make their home at the top of a 9,000 peak “all the way down to the bear grass thickets around Sonoita,” Millican said.
The key habitat is “they have to have roost trees. They have to get up off the ground every day,” Millican said.
The wildlife manager said Gould’s turkeys eat juniper and manzanita berries, insects, grubs, seed heads off of grasses, and flowers when they’re coming up in the spring.
Attend the banquet
The Huachuca Gould’s Chapter of the National Wild Turkey Federation will hold its 10th annual Super Fund Banquet on Saturday at the Knights of Columbus Hall, 156 W. Kayetan Drive.
The event will begin at 5 p.m. Dinner will be served at 6:30.
Single tickets cost $55. Couples can attend for $85, and children under 18 years old will cost $20.
Each ticket covers an annual membership with the national chapter and helps the local chapter raise funds for scholarships and projects that include providing water sources for turkeys, fencing and installation of escape ramps in livestock troughs. Volunteers provide labor.
Contact John Millican at 508-4272 or Steve Brown at 266-2282.
Herald/Review City Editor Ted Morris can be reached at 515-4614 or by e-mail at cityeditor@svherald.com.
BKE wrote on Jul 30, 2008 8:51 AM: