By - Linda Gallagher


 

In 1996, Proposal D  was placed on Michigan's public ballot, a bill that would have banned bear hunters from using either dogs or bait as a bruin hunting tool. Despite the fact that very few people in our fair state choose to hunt bears, that bill was put right where it belonged by the good people of the state of Michigan - in the trash can.

Even my mother-in-law, who has never seen a wild bear in her life, voted against Proposal D. Even my mother-in-law chose to support the right of the people to have wildlife species managed by the people who SHOULD manage our wildlife-people trained in wildlife management, in Michigan's case, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.

She said, simply, "They know what's best."

In 38 states, it has been decided that the mourning dove should be managed by people trained in wildlife management - the 38 state game agencies in each of those states. They've done an excellent job of it, and today, the mourning dove is the most common gamebird in the country. This year, Wisconsin became the 39th state in the country to authorize their state game agency to manage the Badger state's mourning dove populations.

They hunt mourning doves in all of those 39 states, something that every one of those 39 state game agencies endorse and avidly promote as a sound method of management.

But in Michigan, because the mourning dove is designated as a songbird, the birds  are being managed by the Michigan Legislature, a body of people with no training in wildlife management at all. Translate that to mean there is no management of mourning doves in Michigan at all.

And yet the people of Michigan have resisted all efforts, until now, to have the mourning dove re-listed as a gamebird. 

Rep. Sue Tabor, R., Lansing, has proposed, once again, to change that mistake in judgment on the part of the people. She has given us another chance to do what is right for our wildlife, and do our part to support the future of our natural environment.

In other states, public dove management areas are often barren fields turned over to food plots that will provide food and resting area not only for mourning dove, but a wide variety of other big game, small game, gamebirds and sub-tropical songbirds.

In other states, mourning dove banding programs conducted by state game agencies in cooperation with the US Fish & Wildlife Service have provided much needed data on the migratory patterns and behavior of not only mourning doves, but a wide variety of other birds, such as the endangered whooping crane, and a host of sub-tropical songbirds, many of which are also approaching threatened or endangered status.

In other states, dove hunting is promoted as a healthy recreational sport that has proven very attractive to young people, who are the future of our natural environment.

Yet here in Michigan, nothing is presently being done to promote mourning dove management. As we know from the lesson of the now-extinct dodo bird, the recovering whooping crane, bald eagle, and a number of other birds, protecting a species from hunting does not necessarily mean they are safe, nor that they'll be here forever.

Management and research by our state game agencies means they will be here forever.  And as even my mother-in-law knows, they know what's best.

Support HB 5029, which will be heard soon by the House's Conservation and Outdoor Recreation Committee, and the future of our mourning doves will be secure. Without management, there may come a day when the mourning dove, the commonest gamebird in North America, will go the way of the dodo bird.

To contact your legislative representative, go to the Michigan House of Representatives web site at: http://www.michiganlegislature.org, click on "Related Sites," then "Find Your Legislator."