Where sandhill crane hunting stands in Wisconsin
YE
Last week a Wisconsin Legislative Study Committee on sandhill cranes voted to establish joint legislation for the Wisconsin Assembly and Senate by an 8 to 4 vote. The proposed legislation seeks to provide a reimbursement to corn farmers for the cost of chemical deterrents for seeds, depredation payments, and to lay the ground work for the DNR to work with the USFWS to establish a sandhill crane hunt in Wisconsin.
The committee rejected proposing a stand-alone crop subsidy bill administered under the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection, with a projected yearly cost of $1.9 million for Wisconsin taxpayers. They also rejected standalone legislation to establish a sandhill crane hunt.
Wisconsin still stands a long way away from a sandhill crane hunt. The legislation must pass in the Assembly, the Senate, and have the governor sign it into law. Then the DNR must petition the USFWS to grant permission for a sandhill crane hunt.
The public education over the last few years on sandhill crane hunting and their biology laid the foundation for this vote. Despite the considerable efforts on the part of several groups to provide education on sandhill crane biology, the legalities of hunting sandhills, and the management reasons for hunting sandhill cranes, the opponents ignore the data.
I don’t plan to become a sandhill crane hunter if a season becomes a reality. But I’ll be honest; if a legal harvest opportunity exists when I’m hunting ducks or geese, I’m not going to not take the shot. I admit that enjoying a meal of the “Ribeye in the Sky” intrigues me. Purchasing expensive and specialized decoys doesn’t. Most waterfowl hunters probably fall in this category.
Sandhills often fly over marshes in duck season. They rarely fly over blinds and rarely low enough to shoot at. By rare, I mean like less than once a season. They are wary birds when not hunted. I covered the biology of a sandhill crane hunt a while ago, but I’ll review. The North American population of sandhill cranes exceeded 1.4 million a couple years ago. The seasonal population of sandhills in Wisconsin exceeded 51,000 cranes a couple years ago with a growth rate of five percent per year. Wisconsin lies in the eastern population of sandhills and the USFWS management plan allows for a hunt in Wisconsin when that population exceeds 30,000 cranes. The eastern population currently sits at 107,000. Sandhill crane seasons started in the U.S. in 1962 and currently hunters in 17 states and three Canadian provinces hunt sandhills.
Wisconsin farmers kill about 1,000 cranes each year on depredation permits issued by the USDA, about the same amount that Wisconsin hunters might harvest under proposed quotas. Sandhills killed under depredation permits by law cannot be utilized for human consumption and must be left in the field to rot.
The opponents of a sandhill crane season state that hunters would mistake endangered whooping cranes for sandhills. Consider however, that with farmers killing about 1,000 cranes a year for the past decade in Wisconsin, with hunting seasons in 17 states and three provinces, not once has a whooping crane been killed by being mistaken for a sandhill.
Hunters are currently expected to differentiate between different species of waterfowl and between hens and drakes. They are expected to tell the difference between white-fronted, blue, and Canada geese, between snow geese and swans, and between tundra and trumpeter swans. What data suggests that hunters won’t be able to tell the difference between a sandhill and a whooping crane in Wisconsin? I’ll suggest that the majority of waterfowl hunters already can, and that those who actually see a whooping crane, it becomes a highlight of their season. Just like when a pair of swans’ lands by your decoys. Hunters are waterfowl conservationist.
In recent years the USFWS allowed Alabama, Kentucky, and Tennessee to establish sandhill crane hunts, they are all eastern population states. Just over 800 whooping cranes exist, around 70 in the eastern crane population. They winter in Alabama. How can Alabama hunters be trusted not to mistake whooping cranes for sandhills, but Wisconsin hunters can not?
No biological reason exists not to hunt sandhill cranes in Wisconsin. The DNR is very capable of managing a sandhill crane hunt just like all the other species of waterfowl they manage. This whole thing reminds me of the dove hunt ordeal and where did that end up? With a dove hunt that’s a non-issue.
Good luck if you get out, but please remember, Safe Hunting is No Accident!
CHUCK BY
K OLAR THROUGH A
LOCAL OUTDOORSMAN
