Photo by Gwyn Calvetti
The Minnesota Nongame Wildlife Program made another beloved
species, the Sandhill Crane, their actual poster child for the nongame program in the northwest region. This is ironically the exact region where the DNR
opened a Sandhill Crane hunting season in 2010. Three seasons of crane hunting
have come and gone, yet the Nongame Wildlife Program keeps that photo of a
Sandhill Crane on that region’s nongame web page. Back when we started
donating, Sandhill Cranes were a hotline bird hardly ever seen in northeastern
Minnesota. Thanks to research and conservation work by non-profits such as the
International Crane Foundation and by nongame wildlife programs, the Sandhill
Crane is flourishing again. We didn’t realize that the end result of our hard
conservation work would be to re-designate cranes as game birds—their status
before their populations were wiped out, partly by overhunting, in the first
place. I particularly hate the idea of hunting cranes because they are so
bonded to their lifetime mate.
The DNR first betrayed supporters of the nongame wildlife
program in 2004, when they opened a Mourning Dove season. Sadly, anti-hunters
showed up at hearings, unfairly and even viciously attacking hunting and
hunters, dooming a fair scientific evaluation of the proposal. I talked to
several hunters who told me they personally were opposed to hunting doves until
they heard the mean-spiritedness of the opposition. Duluth Audubon and I had
made two requests regarding the season. First, we wanted the hawk migration
pathway along the North Shore of Lake Superior closed to dove hunting. Even in
states with longstanding dove hunts, hunters mistake a lot of birds for doves.
One Texas case made national news when a TV news team followed a hunting party
as the leader winged a bird. It was still alive when he picked it up and wrung
its neck. None of the experienced hunters nor the TV crew noticed that the bird
wasn’t a dove at all—it was a Killdeer—until it aired on the evening news. At
Hawk Ridge, I’ve heard fairly experienced birdwatchers mistake flying doves for
our two small falcons, American Kestrels and Merlins, and I’ve seen experienced
birders confuse kestrels and doves when one is sitting on a power line at a
weird angle. Since the hunting season coincides with the peak of falcon
migration along the shore, we thought restricting hunting in this unique area
of international importance was justifiable, especially because dove numbers
are so much lower here than in other parts of the state anyway. Our other
request was that they limit this new hunt to non-lead shot. But the DNR refused
to even consider these requests.
![Mourning Dove](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_tCUby7hm0OlB8aGz2wvyn0-K4KigghhBQfdV-kogbtcNPuje3tH_lmvB-U-357rvuEqgSdIOh_8LLJb3dDNCn3LflQHPPwYSoeR_XB3yOH_8SalKXku7wRZm-TC_ck7g=s0-d)
So as 2012 draws to a close and Russ and I work out how much
we can afford to donate to good causes, the Minnesota DNR has made one decision
a no-brainer. I feel sad abandoning a program that still does a lot of good for
wildlife. But this new wolf season and that Sandhill Crane photo still gracing
the Minnesota Nongame Wildlife Program’s northwest region webpage are ample
evidence that this program has jettisoned its original mission and left us behind.