Snapshots

Compiled by Ed Carroll

There may be 12 million mourning doves in Minnesota, but hunting opponents are organizing an effort in the Legislature to make sure that all of the birds are protected from sportsmen. At press time bills had been introduced in the House and Senate that would repeal the hunting season, which in 2004 occurred for the first time in 46 years.

The dove season enacted by Michigan legislators last year is also under attack, where opponents have gathered more than 250,000 signatures to put the issue out to voter referendum in '06. This effort is clearly the work of the well-monied Humane Society of the United States, which recently merged with the Fund for Animals and has committed a fund-raising campaign to the effort.

In 2000 Wisconsin became the 39th state to approve a dove hunt, although opponents there blocked the hunt in a court battle until '04.

For information on the politics of dove hunting and what you might do to bolster hunting rights, visit the Website of the US Sportsmen's Alliance at www.ussportsmen.org

Also in Minnesota, the Department of Natural Resources has released a long-term plan that it hopes will add more than 1.5 million acres of pheasant habitat and boost fall bird numbers to 3 million. The plan includes spending $1.6 billion in federal, state and private funds over 22 years for habitat improvement and land acquisition, with the goal of having a ringneck population that could sustain a harvest of 750,000 roosters by 2025.

The state's pheasant population reached about 4 million by 1931 and sustained harvests that averaged 1 million roosters from '31 to '64. A dramatic change in land use and loss of habitat-mainly through intensive agricultural practices-led to a population crash in the mid-'60s from which the birds have never fully recovered.

The plan was developed in a cooperative effort between the Minnesota DNR and Pheasants Forever. It can be downloaded and read from the DNR's Website at www.dnr.state.mn.us/hunting/pheasant/index.html.

Sportsmen's groups were pleased with the mid-March appointment of Matthew Hogan as the Acting Director of the US Fish and Wildlife Service. Hogan, 37, started with the agency in 2002 as Deputy Director and will lead the agency until a new nominee for Director is approved.

Hogan has built his career representing the interests of sportsmen. He was the conservation policy director of the Congressional Sportsmen's Foundation for four years, serving as a liaison between the hunting, fishing and conservation communities and the Congressional Sportsmen's Caucus. Prior to that, he was the government affairs manager for Safari Club International.

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