That's less than 1 percent of the approximately eight million mourning doves killed legally east of the Mississippi annually.

But for Julie Baker, the legal harvest of any mourning dove in Michigan is wrong. She's leading an effort to ban hunting of the small gamebirds.

"People do care, whether you are burning an American flag or shooting Michigan's official bird of peace, it's against the very fabric of our culture," she said.

Mourning doves were not on the state list of game animals for 99 years, from 1905 until 2004.

Baker is part of the Lansing-based Committee to Restore the Dove Hunting Ban. The group is trying to collect 225,000 signatures by March 15 on a petition to put the ban to a statewide vote in the 2006 general election.

"We have over 150,000 right now," said Baker.

The group needs 159,000 valid signatures by registered Michigan voters; the additional 66,000 signatures are in case of legal challenges.

And those challenges are a sure bet.

"They have to gather the required number of signatures and, if they do, MUCC and probably every other hunting organization in the state will challenge it," said Sam Washington, executive director of Michigan United Conservation Clubs, and a West Bloomfield Township resident.

Washington calls the petition effort "an unbelievably premature effort," pointing to the limited hunt in Michigan.

The 2004 hunting season was Sept. 10 through Oct. 30 in six counties in southern Michigan - Berrien, Branch, Cass, Hillsdale, St. Joseph and Lenawee counties. The limited hunt was brokered as a compromise by the Natural Resources Commission so that Gov. Jennifer Granholm would sign legislation adding the mourning dove to the state game list.

Those six counties are scheduled to have dove hunts for the next two years.

"The NRC restricted it to six counties on the southern border of Michigan," said Washington. "It was an extremely limited hunt, closely managed and closely observed to make sure it didn't have a negative impact on the species."

Baker and others opposed to hunting mourning doves believe the compromise is little more than a smokescreen for a full-fledged statewide hunt as provided for in the legislation signed by the governor. Such a hunt, she said, would result in 300,000 birds being taken.

"They could do it next year if they wanted, unless we file a petition to wait for the voters' decision," she said. "The law that was signed opens up the entire state of Michigan to dove hunting indefinitely. It's not really a compromise at all."

Mourning doves are managed by the state, by neighboring states, by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and by Canada and Mexico, said Brian J. Frawley of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.

A report Frawley compiled on the 2004 season found 4,981 hunters spent the $2 required in addition to a small game license to hunt doves; 3,068 people actually hunted, killing 28,139 doves or 9.2 birds per hunter.

"It's legal in 40 other states," said Frawley. "Michigan was unique to begin with. It's actually the No. 1-hunted gamebird across the United States because it's distributed across the United States. It's an abundant bird."

Unlike other game birds that are spottily distributed across Michigan, "mourning doves are widely distributed, so potentially they could be hunted anywhere in the state if we had a hunting season in the state," he said.

The DNR's stance is that, scientifically, there is no reason not to hunt mourning doves.

"The reason why we do it is, in most states they are game species and we promote hunting of game species," Frawley said. "There is no biological reason why we would expect hunters to impact the population. They are a very abundant bird."

But, obviously, the mourning dove controversy goes far beyond science. Michigan is being seen in some circles as a battleground between people who want to hunt and people who want to ban all consumptive uses of wildlife.

The proposed ban has attracted the support of national organizations including The Fund for Animals and the Humane Society of the United States.

"We didn't pick this battle," said Doug Jeanneret with the U.S. Sportsmen's Alliance, a pro hunting and fishing lobbying group based in Columbus, Ohio.

"The biologists said it was a viable hunting species, the legislature passed that bill and it was signed by your governor.

"It was animal rights groups that came to Michigan."

Washington said the effort to ban mourning dove hunting is "a general challenge against hunting. They just view this as the low-hanging fruit on the tree.

"It certainly isn't the first time we've had challenges of this nature in Michigan."

Baker, however, said most state residents oppose shooting mourning doves and that the bird's economic impact doesn't come from money spent on shotgun shells.

"The majority of economic benefit for Michigan is feeding it at the feeder in your backyard," she said. "That's the economic benefit for the mourning dove in Michigan."