Ohioan Who Championed Shooting Symbol Of Peace: Now In State Hall of Fame

COLUMBUS (TDB) -- The animal rights movement fought a pitched battle against state wildlife officials during much of the 20th Century to prohibit hunters from shooting mourning doves in Ohio. For nearly 80 years, doves were protected. From 1917 until 1975 there was a ban, then hunting was allowed in 1976, then it was closed again by court order until 1995. Debate about shooting the songbirds that symbolize peace became so heated by 1998 that Ohio held a statewide referendum. The birds lost.

Now the former Ohio Department of Natural Resources division of wildlife chief who is credited with lifting the hunting ban has been placed in the state's conservation hall of fame. John Pierce, of course, did more than lobby to classify doves as game birds. But that issue generated the most noise -- about 300,000 of the birds are killed in Ohio each year. Save the Doves -- the anti-hunting group -- lost at the polls 60-40 in November 1998.

Pierce's addition to the Hall of Fame -- a group whose prior honorees include Johnny Appleseed (John Chatman) -- was praised in a DNR press release:

"An avid sportsman and dedicated wildlife conservationist, Richard Pierce serves as the chief of the ODNR Division of Wildlife from 1991-1995. During that time increased the division's land holdings by nearly 50 percent, including the major acquisitions of the Egypt Valley and Woodbury state wildlife areas. As an advocated for wildlife diversity, he is credited with supporting innovative work on the research of butterflies and moths, freshwater mussels, peregrine falcons and neotropical birds. Pierce's leadership helped pass landmark legislation to create the first legal hunting season for the mourning dove and Sunday hunting in Ohio. Following his career with ODNR, he served as director of the U.S Sportsmen's Alliance and as the first director of the Great Lakes/Atlantic Regional Office for Ducks Unlimited."

There are about 475 million of so mourning doves in the U.S., and hunting doesn't seem to have hurt their numbers. It looks like the symbol of peace has managed to dodge most of the gunfire. The ODNR's announcement about the new Hall of Famers is here.

For the mourning doves' side of the story, this article in Chesapeake Style describes how the coo-cooing cousins of the passenger pigeon have managed to flourish across the United States.

Ohio DNR Tree Nursery UPDATE: No Buckeyes For Sale In Buckeye State

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- More on the shortfall of buckeye tree seedlings available for public sale at the state nursery in Marietta. This comes from Andy Ware, assistant chief at the Ohio Department of Natural Resources division of forestry. Andy writes the Daily Bellwether that it was a tough year for baby buckeye trees. He explains how the state's crop fell about 4,000 trees short of normal production.

"The quick answer is that we've already sold out of the 1,000 buckeye seedlings that were available this year. In the past 10 years, the Division of Forestry has grown and sold about 50,000 buckeye trees. That's enough to plant an area equal to about 100 football fields. Normally, we have about 5,000 to sell, but this past year saw a lower than normal germination rate for buckeyes. The trees grown for replanting in Marietta are bare-root seedlings and so they are lifted from the ground in late winter and early in the spring while the trees are still in dormancy. Their survival rate is tied to how quickly they are replanted during this dormant period. Unfortunately, buckeye trees are amongst the fastest trees each year to come out of dormancy and that is a key reason that more aren't grown at the nursery."

Andy wrote in response to this item in The Bellwether from two days ago:

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- State forestry officials have started their annual sale of seedling trees from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources' nursery in Marietta, where some two million baby trees will be shipped for planting by April. But a close inspection of the order form discloses that there are no buckeye trees available for purchase. This seems a major slight to the state's namesake tree. One would think Ohio would be working overtime to keep its buckeye stocks overflowing, and that the Marietta nursery would be the Fort Knox of buckeye trees. Is this a budding scandal?

Andy added that the state nursery has done yeoman work to keep Ohio green.

"In the past 80 years, the Division of Forestry has produced more than 500,000,000 seedlings for conservation and reforestation projects. That's enough trees to reforest some 1,000,000 acres in our state."

Ohio's Osprey: Barely Back From Brazil And Already Busy Building A Nest

COLUMBUS (TDB) -- Ohio's osprey is already back home at Alum Creek State Park after completing a nearly 3,500-mile migration from the Amazon rainforest where he winters. The bird of prey wasted no time on a siesta -- it located the female it courted and mated with last year and immediately went to work restoring a nest for this year's breeding season. Babies are probably due in a matter of weeks. State wildlife officials with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources report the osprey -- which has been tracked by satellite for three migrations -- returned five days earlier this year.

Ospreys are cousins of hawks and eagles and falcons, but they live on fish dinners. In Great Britain, the ospreys are stars who are followed on a BBC webcam that will start filming them upon their arrival at a nesting site in a few days. The British nickname for ospreys: Nature's anglers.

Ohio's Osprey: He's Begun Migrating Back Home From Brazil

COLUMBUS (TDB) -- State wildlife officials report that a male osprey who lives at Alum Creek State Park in central Ohio took off from Amazonia last week and is northbound on a 3,500 mile or so journey that crosses the Andes Mountains and the Caribbean Sea. The bird is radio-tracked by satellite and the next report may show he has already made it to Cuba. He left his wintering fishing grounds eight days ago, and travelled 85 miles the first night out.

A map that tracked the bird's route north last year is HERE. In 2006, the osprey left March 7 and crossed the Caribbean on the night of March 16th, exactly one year ago today. He has to cover nearly 400 miles of open water to get from northern edge of South America to Cuba, where he'll spend a few days refreshing and gaining strength on the island's before setting a course for Florida, which is about 170 miles away over Caribbean waters. Ospreys are fish eaters and they fatten up and rest at each stop. If all goes well, he'll be back in Ohio by the end of this month.

There is a lot of information about ospreys HERE. Last year, the male being tracked by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources lost the female who flew south with him in late 2005. She disappeared on March 28 in Venezuela, and is presumed dead. State officials said there is no way the could retrieve her radio transmitter.

The male found a new mate in Ohio last year, but she is not being tracked.

Ohio's Bald Eagles: Eggs Are Now Incubating

COLUMBUS (TDB) -- Ohio wildlife officials say at least three of the state's bald eagle pairs already have eggs in their nests near Lake Erie and are incubating them for hatching early next month. The state Department of Natural Resources released THIS PHOTO along with news that a pair began sitting on eggs Janaury 29 in Huron County. Other loving couples have eggs in Ashtabula and Ottawa counties.

Last year,A CANADIAN WEBCAM got millions of hits a day as curious humans from around the world peeked in to watch eagles care for their eggs in a British Columbia nest. Ohio should try the same thing, a move that would demonstrate to the world it is not a state covered with concrete, rusting factory hulks and utility smokestacks belching black soot and ozone into the into the nation's air. Wouldn't it be nice to be known for eagles rather than acid rain? It would demonstrate that Lake Erie is a productive body of water. It could change the worldview. (And it's probably such a good idea it will never happen.)

Ohio has eagles in 53 of its 88 counties. There were four nesting pairs near Lake Erie 27 years ago. Last year, there were 150 eagle nests that produced 206 chicks, a record.

"Bald eagles continue to do well in Ohio, said Steven a Gray, chief of ODNTR's wildlife division. "We are looking forward to another productive season."

And when will the babies arrive? Plan to get out the cigars March 5. That's the due date.

Ohio's Osprey Wintering in Brazil: What's He Up Too?

COLUMBUS (TDB) -- State wildlife biologists have been satellite-tracking an osprey that flew 3,500 miles last fall from Delaware County to an area of islands in the Amazon rainforest. At last report, the bird was near Tefe, Brazil, over-wintering where the living is easy. But that most recent tidbit was posted on a Web site dedicated to the osprey Jan. 11, though the Ohio Department of Natural Resources promised updates about the migratory bird of prey every two weeks. So fresh news is a bit overdue.

Ospreys live by eating fish. They resemble eagles and hawks, their cousins. A fascinating map tracks the Ohio migrant's flight down to Amazonia, including a bit about his crossing of the Andes Mountains HERE. The latest report says conditions where the bird settled below the Equator are ideal. Daytime temperatures are in the mid-90s. Last year, the transmitter showed the migrating Ohioan started heading back to Alum Creek State Park on March 7, about a month out.

A female FAILED to make it back and disappeared in late March over Venezuela. Wildlife biologists who tracked her are sure she died.

As for the male, we can only hope he is safe, and we can only hope the state gets around to posting some new reports about what he's been up to. This is one of Ohio's least known and most educational programs, a great learning tool.

Information about the Tefe area of Brazil is HERE. Alum Creek, the park in Delaware County where the bird spends its North American summers, is an area rich in Midwestern history. The Delaware Indians had a village where they grew corn, a huge 400-acre cropland that they were forced to give up when white settlers took over Ohio. Then, during the years before the Civil War, slaves on the Underground Railroad would wade through Alum Creek to avoid trackers on their trails. They followed the sycamore trees along the creekbank, trees whose white bark shimmered in the dark nights and created natural signposts for escapees on a flight to freedom.

There is information about Alum Creek HERE. Perhaps there will be news about the osprey in a day or two -- word is way overdue on the bird's Web site.