Goin’ up Turkey Creek to see my bird?

I heard about Turkey Creek, Mississippi on the Daily Show the other night. It reminded me of the old folk song “Goin’ up Cripple Creek to see my girl”. Turkey Creek is far from having a song written about it. According to a USA Today article “When freed slaves founded the community of Turkey Creek in 1866, there was nothing here but swamps, oak trees and a muddy creek.”: The area later became a "dumping ground" for the kinds of hazardous or undesirable development no one wants to live next to: a sewage treatment facility, a chemical plant (which caught fire, leaked waste and closed), the city airport, and so on.


By 2005, many of the area's wetlands had been paved over, leaving Turkey Creek especially vulnerable to flooding when Hurricanes Katrina and Rita hit the Gulf Coast. Turkey Creek is now a suburb of sprawling Gulfport and a large apartment project paved over an old cemetery that had wood markers on some graves. Derrick Evans, a community activist, says repeated appeals to local officials to halt harmful projects went unanswered. He says "things finally started going our way" when he realized that Turkey Creek was a haven for tropical birds, and he reached out to conservation groups such as the Audubon Society that he says had the legal resources to help. "It's as if people cared more about birds than African Americans," Evans says. "It shouldn't have to be so hard."

Those birders have so much clout and in this case the outcome was a win – win. Not so in Michigan if you’re a hunter or snowmobiler. A lawyer from Novi has sued the US Forest Service to close 66,000 acres of Huron-Manistee National Forest land to hunting or snowmobiling. The reason, discharging of firearms and snowmobiling noise reduces the enjoyment of hikers and birders. A frivolous case? That’s up to you and the judges. If you don’t agree with banning of hunting and snowmobiling contact Lee Evison at Manistee National Forests, 1755 S. Mitchell Street, Cadillac, MI, 49601 or send an email mail to:comments-eastern-huron-manistee@fs.fed.us, Comments sent via e-mail should contain the subject line: “Forest Plan SEIS”. Public meetings will be held to answer questions and the only one in this area is February 1, 2011 – Hilton Garden Inn, 26000 American Drive, Southfield, MI, from 4-8pm.

This Michigan suit is just another anti hunting, anti public land use ploy by groups that have a lot of money and pick their spots to promote their agenda. The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), PETA and many others like the Audubon Society are non-profits that use their clout to sue federal and state land use and wildlife agencies regularly because they know these agencies don’t have the money to fight back. I read a few years back, that the HSUS and PETA, essentially the same organization, receive more donations than all of the churches in America. I guess it’s those heart wrenching commercials with the sad eyed dogs begging for money to help take care of them. Too bad neither organization is involved in helping with abandoned or unwanted pets.

They’re experts now at keeping animals on the endangered species list. Even the mention of a lawsuit stops state agencies for attempting to delist those animals. The one that’s front and center now is the wolf. At least 6 states want to delist the wolf but when they get the ok from the federal government the lawsuit ensues and the states drop out. Email Lee free to put in your 2 cents on the Michigan suit.