The Star - News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area

More than half the power outages in the city of Coulee Dam last year were caused by wild turkeys that roam the town freely.

Last year the town, which operates its own electric utility, suffered nine power outages, the last five all because of the big birds, said Mike Steffens, the city superintendent who gets to deal with such emergencies.

Each time, that takes a minimum of two employees spending a couple hours walking the lines, arranging for upstream power to be shut off, then reconnected, and possibly contracted linemen from Nespelem Valley Electric bringing a truck in to help.

"Does this put us in a position to go to the state (Fish and Wildlife Department) and say these things are messing with our infrastructure and it's time to get them out of here?" asked Councilmember Fred Netzel in a discussion on the problem during a Jan. 8 council meeting.

The turkeys, which roam west Coulee Dam in a flock of about a dozen, fly into powerlines from a roost near city hall, touching more than one line and causing a phase-to-phase fault.

Steffens finds them on the ground when responding to the outage so caused.

Steffens said he'd approached state Fish and Wildlife officials about solutions, but there's no money for a relocation effort.

Netzel asked if the city could pay for the hiring a marksman to come in.

Steffens said he'd uttered similar words while talking to state wildlife officials about the problem.

"It was like saying 'bomb' on an airplane," he said.

Councilmember Dale Rey said the golf course had found similar difficulties dealing with geese that eat the greens, and turkeys are also game birds, falling under similar regulations.

"Anybody got a pet fox? joked Mayor Bob Poch.

Steffens said one answer might be to coordinate with the Colville Tribes on a relocation effort.

Poch and Rey said they'd explore that approach.

The birds were the benefactors of sportsmen's population efforts several years ago.

They are now seen as a problem for utilities everywhere, Steffens said.