EDITORIAL: Turkey takedown

Piles of turkey poop have provided taxpayers with more evidence that wildlife managers do not have all the answers.

The tasty birds have taken over the Lehman Caves Visitor Center at Great Basin National Park. They’re particularly fond of roosting in a tree at the center’s entrance, which leaves the lawn and sidewalks covered with droppings. There are so many turkeys in the park that predators can’t dent the population.

The problem has left park officials imitating the royal subjects in the classic children’s book, “King Bidgood’s in the Bathtub”: “Who knows what to do? Oh, who knows what to do?”

You see, as reported by the Review-Journal’s Henry Brean, the turkeys were imported from Idaho to White Pine County about a decade ago in the hopes of establishing a population for hunters. But — who could have seen this coming — the turkeys quickly found their way to a place where there’s no hunting.

As with many problems under federal jurisdiction, the solution is so obvious it can’t be accomplished: Shoot the birds. They were supposed to be hunted anyway!

So add the wild turkey to Nevada’s Wildlife “Management” Boondoggle Hall of Fame, alongside the desert tortoise, wild horses and the Devil’s Hole pupfish, where threatened species prosper, government protection campaigns cause needless suffering, and unintended consequences rule.