All Outdoors, August 20, 1999

1. Hunters can contribute to dove management
2. Part of Duck Creek CA closed to duck hunting
3. Congress considers trapping restrictions
4. Outdoor Calendar

Available via Internet at: http://www.mdc.mo.gov/news/out

"Hunters celebrate their evolutionary heritage and stubbornly refuse to be stripped of their atavistic urgesthey refuse to be sterilized by modern culture and thus finally separated from nature." Ann S. Causey, "Is Hunting Ethical," from A Hunter's Heart

1. Hunters can contribute to dove management

Wildlife managers need to hear from hunters who see sick or exotic birds.

JEFFERSON CITY--Missouri dove hunters should find about as many birds on opening day this year as they did last year. For the second year in a row, hunters are being asked to contact the Missouri Department of Conservation if they encounter sick doves or a new species of dove that is spreading throughout the state.

Dove season is split into two segments this year. The first is Sept. 1 through Sept. 30. The second segment is Nov. 1 through 30. Shooting hours are one-half hour before sunrise to sunset. The daily limit is 15, with a possession limit of 30.

Federal regulations regarding baiting of migratory birds have changed this year, but the changes don't affect dove hunters. Baiting doves remains illegal, under the same rules as in recent years. If you have questions about what constitutes baiting, contact a conservation agent or the nearest office of the Natural Resources Conservation Service.

Wildlife Research Biologist John Schulz is the Conservation Department's dove specialist. He says dove population surveys show that Missouri's dove population is about the same this year as it was last year. "Birds are beginning to concentrate on conservation areas where we have created favorable conditions for them," says Schulz, "so opening day should be pretty good."

Schulz noted that while Missouri's dove population seems to be stable at this time, dove numbers throughout the central United States are down significantly for the fourth year in a row. He said this follows a long-term trend in dove numbers.

"The measures we have of dove numbers present a paradox," says Schulz. "Doves remain among the 10 most abundant birds in annual breeding bird surveys, yet our population indices continue to show long-term population declines since 1966. It's a situation that we are watching very carefully. We are looking at the way we measure dove population and discussing how we might adjust our harvest management strategy."

The Conservation Department is in the second year of a four-year research project, attempting to learn how trichomoniasis may affect dove populations. Researchers gathered samples from hunter-killed doves last year and will continue to do so through 2002. Samples also will be taken from infected doves found at bird feeders across the state.

Hunters who encounter doves that have difficulty flying, act listless or have swollen necks are asked to save the birds for the Conservation Department. Dead birds should be placed in plastic bags and kept cool, but they should not be frozen. Freezing renders them useless for diagnosis. The disease does not pose a health threat to humans.

If you find birds with trichomoniasis symptoms, call Schulz at 573/882-9880 ext. 3218.

The Eurasian collared dove, native to the Middle East, turned up in Missouri last year in Cape Girardeau, St. Louis and Marion counties. Schulz says the birds now might be sighted anywhere in the state at backyard bird feeders, grain elevators or crop fields. They are adaptable and have been known to nest in the middle of cities.

Dove hunters in particular are likely to encounter collared doves and should have no difficulty distinguishing them from Missouri's only other common dove species, the mourning dove. Collared doves are larger than mourning doves. As their name implies, collared doves have dark gray bands on the backs of their necks. Their tails are square at the end, rather than pointed, like a mourning dove's. In contrast to mourning doves' overall buff color, collared doves are gray-brown, with purplish buff throats.

The collared dove is similar to the ringed turtle dove, a common pet-shop species that frequently escapes from captivity. The turtle dove is smaller and not as gray as the collared dove.

One of the best clues to a collard dove's identity is its vocalizations. It often squawks in flight, while mourning doves and turtle doves do not. Its call is three syllables, "kuk-koooo-kook."

Collared doves aren't known to cause any ecological or economic problems, but Schulz says the arrival of any exotic species warrants watchful attention. If you see one, notify the Conservation Department by calling (573) 751-4115, ext. 196 or (573) 882-9880, ext. 3218.

Schulz is interested in receiving specimens of collared doves. If you shoot or find one, do not freeze it. Freezing destroys evidence of parasites and disease organisms. Keep specimens refrigerated or at room temperature, and call the nearest Conservation Department office as soon as possible.

The Conservation Department doesn't need to know about sightings of turtle doves. These birds don't survive well in the wild and are not likely to establish a permanent population in Missouri.

- Jim Low -

2. Part of Duck Creek CA closed to duck hunting

Changes in management will help maintain quality hunting conditions at the popular waterfowl area long-term.

PUXICO, Mo.Hunters who have come to rely on Pool 3 at Duck Creek Conservation Area (CA) for good waterfowl hunting each year will be sorry to learn that the pool will be closed to waterfowl hunting this year. The good news is that the change in management will help maintain hunting there for years to come.

Pools 2 and 3 make up what is known as the "green-tree reservoir" at Duck Creek. They are popular duck hunting spots, but this year Pool 3 will be kept dry.

Duck Creek was one of Missouri's first manmade wetland areas. Since 1952, the Conservation Department has used levees and other water-control structures to preserve remnants of the wetlands that once covered virtually all of southeastern Missouri. The 6,072-acre area includes 1,200 acres of bottomland hardwood forest and 2,400 acres of reservoirs and seasonally flooded pools.

Reliable flooding of the pools has made Duck Creek a popular place for waterfowl and waterfowl hunters. But over the years the trees that made Pool 3 a Mecca for ducks and hunters have suffered from lack of natural fluctuations in flooding. The trees need year-to-year variations in depth and duration of annual floods. Early, prolonged flooding each year is taking a toll on the health of the bottomland forest.

Acting on lessons learned at other "green-tree reservoirs," the Conservation Department plans to vary water levels in Pools 2 and 3 to ensure that the trees survive for many more years. Keeping the pools dry in some years and flooding them later in some years also will permit the growth of seedlings to replace the older trees when they die.

While Pool 3 is dry, the Conservation Department will repair and replace aging water-control structures. It also will dredge accumulated mud from boat lanes and drainage ditches. This will improve accessibility for users and allow better control of water levels.

"I know this will be a disappointment to some hunters," says Duck Creek CA manager David Wissehr. "But we have to make a small sacrifice now if we want to avoid killing the timber and destroying the characteristics that have always made Duck Creek such a magical place to hunt. If we allow the trees to die, it will be 25 to 35 years before oaks large enough to produce acorns will once again stand in Pool 3. Our children and grandchildren deserve to experience the same wonders we have enjoyed at Duck Creek."

- Jim Low -

3. Congress considers trapping restrictions

Banning traps on federal lands could prevent wildlife managers from protecting endangered species, safeguarding property and preventing disease outbreaks.

WASHINGTON, D.C.--The U.S. House of Representatives has approved language amending the Fiscal Year 2000 interior appropriations bill (HR2466) that would restrict the use of leg-hold traps and neck snares on national wildlife refuges. A biologist with the Missouri Department of Conservation says the language would deprive wildlife management agencies of a valuable tool for protecting land, habitat and property and make it more difficult to manage outbreaks of wildlife diseases.

Wildlife Research Biologist Dave Hamilton, who works at the Conservation Department's research facility in Columbia, says the amendment would undermine the ability of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Conservation Department to conduct scientifically sound wildlife management on national wildlife refuges nationwide. Missouri has three such refuges, Swan Lake National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) in Chariton County, Squaw Creek NWR in Holt County and Mingo NWR in Stoddard County.

More than half the areas in the national wildlife refuge system use closely controlled trapping to regulate populations of furbearers, such as beavers, minks, otters, raccoons, foxes and coyotes. In some cases, trapping serves to keep furbearer populations in check in the absence of natural predators. State and federal agencies also use regulated trapping to protect endangered species, such as the interior least tern, from predators that otherwise would decimate their nests.

The National Audubon Society currently is suing the state of California for banning the use of foothold traps. The Audubon Society wants trapping to be available as a tool to protect least terns from foxes. It is using provisions of the Endangered Species Act to fight the trapping ban, which was approved by California voters through a ballot initiative.

"The Wildlife Refuge Improvement Act of 1997 recognizes trapping as an integral management tool of the refuges," says Hamilton. "The Senate passed this act by unanimous consensus. The move to change that stance is based on emotional appeals from animal-rights groups that don't care about science-based wildlife management."

Hamilton said animal-rights activists either don't understand or don't care about the effects their actions have on wildlife populations. He says that taking the tool of trapping away from wildlife agencies ties their hands when it comes to preventing outbreaks of rabies and distemper or preventing the loss of an endangered species like the interior least tern.

"Trapping on national wildlife refuges is important to the success of states' wildlife management programs," says Hamilton. "Trapping enables state wildlife agencies to regulate numbers of furbearers that are primarily under state jurisdiction."

Hamilton said trapping also serves a variety of valuable functions that are compatible with managing wildlife resources on the refuges themselves. At Mingo NWR trapping enables wildlife managers to minimize damage to private farm land and public wildlife habitat by beavers.

Beaver damage can be direct, when they cut down desirable trees, or indirect, when their dams inundate crop land and roads, or when flooding causes trees to die.

"Humans have altered the ecology of the land so beavers' natural enemies no longer keep their numbers in check," says Hamilton. "Without trapping, it is nearly impossible to prevent enormously expensive damage to private and public property. People created this situation, not nature, and we have to take responsibility for controlling it. Missourians expect the Conservation Department and the Fish and Wildlife Service to protect the state's resources, and we can't do that without tools."

Hamilton said the Senate will discuss the proposed trapping ban when it considers Interior Department appropriations, probably in September. He urged Missourians to contact their congressional representatives and express their desires about the use of trapping on national wildlife refuges.

- Jim Low -