Free Press: Mourning Dove Editorial
 

Published September 10, 2004. Detroit Free Press. Editorial.
New hunting program should be closely monitored

Blast! Mourning doves come under the gun today in six southern Michigan counties. Thus begins a three-year pilot program for hunting a small bird that seems more attractive for target practice than for the little sustenance it offers.

The new season for doves, a compromise of sorts in a state where they'd been spared, received formal approval Thursday from the Natural Resources Commission. Opponents promise to put a proposal for a dove-hunting ban on the 2006 Michigan ballot, having failed to convince the Legislature and governor to keep the doves from the eligible-for-hunting list.

Mourning doves are abundant. They're said to be tasty, and they're exciting to shoot because they're fast and erratic in flight. In the 40 states where they're listed as game, they're the most frequently hunted bird.

But there are downsides, which the Department of Natural Resources needs to be monitoring if it intends to make this a pilot program in more than name only. Chief among them: how much lead shot ends up scattered in fields. Different kinds of shot are required for waterfowl but not for other birds. Unfortunately, the alternatives are more expensive and would crimp the very people a dove season may benefit most: those for whom hunting puts needed food on the table. But if too much lead shot ends up on the ground, the NRC needs to be prepared to ban it.

The pilot program probably won't change emotions, pro or con, about dove hunting. But it will certainly help the argument for a dove season if the responsible majority of hunters keeps pressure on the so-called slob hunters to live up to the ideals of the sport by not shooting birds on or near utility lines and not leaving wounded animals on the ground