Zenaida macroura.
The name alone might not conjure up much emotion, but recently the creature has found itself in the middle of a passionate debate pitting conservation against tradition.
The issue: Hunting mourning doves in Michigan.
Proposal 3 is a state ballot initiative that would make Michigan the 41st state to permit hunting of the bird.
For more than 100 years, the abundant bird — 4 million migrate into Michigan every year — has lived in the state as a nongame species. But on Nov. 7 that could change, and it would not be new to Michigan hunters.
In 2004, an experimental dove season was created by Public Act 160 that allowed dove hunting in six of Michigan's southern counties for the first time since 1905 and created a dove stamp that hunters had to purchase along with a small game license.
The funds raised by the dove stamp were to be divided equally between the Michigan Nongame Fish and Wildlife Trust Fund and the Game and Fish Protection Trust Fund, both of which are used by the Department of Natural Resources to aid in natural resource conservation efforts. As a result of the 50-day experimental season, about 3,000 hunters took to the fields in pursuit of the agile bird. Approximately 28,000 doves were killed by hunters in 2004.
Activists who opposed the new hunting season pointed to the doves' status as a peaceful bird and demanded a referendum be placed on the ballot. In March 2005, after gathering 275,000 signatures, anti-dove-hunting activists effectively reinstated the restriction on dove hunting in Michigan.
The dove debate is a labyrinth of emotion and science. Advocates on both sides have made fervent pleas to the public, but, ultimately, the responsibility is left to voters. Lansing resident Sam Washington is the executive director of Michigan United Conservation Clubs, an organization dedicated to the protection of Michigan's outdoors. An avid hunter, Washington said dove hunting should be legal.
"Dove hunting is an act conducted in 40 other states," Washington said. "Doves are the most abundant game bird in North America. There are more doves than all the species of ducks and geese combined."
The dove is one of the most sought-after game birds in North America because of its abundance and elusiveness, but many anti-dove-hunting activists focus on one issue — that doves are not eaten. Washington responds by saying that many people do eat dove.
"(Dove) is very good," Washington said. "In France, they know it as squab. You can order them frozen."
He said he is worried that opponents' view of dove hunting is mostly based on emotion, not science.
"Forty of the 50 states hunt dove — all we want is the right to choose to hunt," Washington said.
That choice is what Bonnie Moon says belongs on the ballot, but she's not voting for it.
As a volunteer for the Lansing-based Committee to Keep Doves Protected, Moon has been distributing literature around the Lansing area in an attempt to keep voters informed about Proposal 3.
Moon, a 47-year-old Grand Ledge resident, says she is not an anti-hunting activist but strongly feels the dove hunting ban should be restored, adding that the rich tradition of the species is enough to secure its place as a songbird and leave it off the list of Michigan game birds.
"They have been protected for 100 years," Moon said. "There are 40 other birds that hunters can hunt."
Supporters of dove hunting say the money it brings in for conservation efforts is enough to approve the proposal.
Dora Hetrick, 70, another volunteer with the Committee to Keep Doves Protected, sees the issue under a different light.
"I just want to leave them alone," Hetrick said. "I don't like to kill tiny birds for money."
With a plethora of information on dove hunting sweeping op-ed pages across the state, expert Al Stewart works to sort fact from fiction.
Stewart works for the Department of Natural Resources as the upland game bird specialist, a role in which he helps to evaluate populations, develop regulations and create long-term species management plans.
Following the experimental dove hunting season in 2004, the DNR conducted several surveys to collect data on doves.
"We estimate that over 4 million doves migrate from Michigan each fall," Stewart said. "The mourning dove population has remained stable over the last 35 years."
With the dove population steady and a hunting season not likely to affect it, Stewart considers the $2 dove stamp a more important point of the debate.
"The revenue from (the dove stamp) is used for the department to identify, protect manage and restore our native plant and animal species," Stewart said. "The dove stamp provides an important alternative for people to contribute to the management of all of Michigan's wildlife."
With this strategy, Stewart said he is confident that the species' population is under control.
"Doves remain the most common and abundant bird in Michigan and throughout this continent," Stewart said. "Doves are hunted in 40 other states through the (Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918). Under this management, doves remain one of the most common and widely distributed birds in the United States."
