Governor Might
"Compromise" Promise

Published April 21, 2004. Detroit Free Press/Associated Press.
Governor considering compromise on dove hunt season this fall

LANSING, Mich. (AP) -- Michigan hunters might get a trial period to shoot mourning doves under a compromise being considered by Gov. Jennifer Granholm.

The proposal would allow three mourning dove seasons in several counties near the state's southern border -- an area west of U.S. Route 23 and south of Interstate 94. If approved, the first hunt could take place as early as September. After three seasons, the state Natural Resources Commission would study the hunt's effect on bird populations before further hunts would be allowed.

The proposal was submitted to Granholm last week by the Michigan United Conservation Clubs. MUCC Executive Director Sam Washington said the proposal reflects the group's willingness to take small steps toward getting a mourning dove hunt in the state. We see it as a really measured approach to looking at this in a purely scientific manner and taking the emotionalism out of it," he said Wednesday. Granholm is interested in the proposal and is reviewing it, spokeswoman Liz Boyd said.

The southern Michigan hunt would be far more limited than the statewide hunt that would be allowed under versions of legislation passed this session by the state House and Senate.

But the compromise might be the best opportunity hunters will get. Granholm has said she would sign a bill to allow a mourning dove hunt only if it would go to a vote of the people, which it wouldn't do in either the House or Senate version, raising the possibility of a gubernatorial veto.

The possible compromise "is as much as we can hope for from her," said Mike Harvey, a would-be dove hunter from Eagle. "It would be a start. It would show the dove population can sustain a hunt."

But opponents of the dove hunt say Granholm would be breaking a campaign promise if she allows a hunt. "She could not have been more emphatic that she would veto any legislation to allow mourning dove hunting," said Wayne Pacelle, a senior vice president for the Humane Society of the United States.

The sponsor of the original mourning dove hunt bill -- Republican Rep. Sue Tabor of Eaton County's Delta Township -- said she's open to discussing the proposal. But Tabor doesn't want the limited hunt written into law. Those decisions should be left to the Natural Resources Commission," Tabor said. "If they want a season in lower Michigan ... that's what their job is."

NRC Chairman Keith Charters has indicated he would support a trial hunt.

Thirty-nine states already allow a mourning dove hunt. It has been banned in Michigan for nearly a century. At least 4 million mourning doves migrate from Michigan each year, according to estimates. The birds -- which look like slender, streamlined pigeons -- are most prevalent south of a line stretching from Bay City to Ludington.