Quote Originally Posted by Joby View Post
Oops..maybe I spoke too soon. I just talked to a falconer friend of mine from Indiana and he said his understanding was that MI always allowed non resident take of Gos, even eyasses. So, guess it was my mistake. One other thing that he did mention that was a bit disturbing was that all of the Merlins that weren't able to be trapped during the predation efforts last year were "disposed of" in a humane way. What does that mean?
Historically, the only management action taken on merlins at these sites was lethal take (in this case shooting). There's a fairly broad Migratory Bird Permit issued annually by USFWS for taking predatory and scavenging birds from around piping plover nesting sites (plovers are endangered nationally, and there are some fairly aggressive management projects going on across the country to help keep this critter from going extinct). The shooting is done by staff from a federal agency that specializes in wildlife depredation issues (not USFWS).

It was at the instigation of the DNR that take for falconry was put on the table as a tool for removal of some of these birds, and it took us 2 years to get all of the federal agencies involved - there are 3 on this project - satisfied that we'd filed enough paperwork and made a compelling enough argument that this could work that they agreed to a pilot program for 2011 (a few of Michigan's falconers can attest to my love of some of our federal partners since I've subjected them to a couple of choice diatribes about the twists and turns of this process - although I think they found them humorous). It was our hope that the folks we selected as agents would do a good enough job (respond quickly, catch the merlins reliably, comport themselves professionally with both agency staff and the public) that we could make the argument to replace some level of shooting with take for falconry. The folks we used this year certainly did help make the case that this should be seen as a viable management tool.

Karen