Posted on 05/08/2017 11:07:20 AM PDT by SJackson
Hunting sandhill cranes would be just plain unsporting, according to one speaker at Monday’s Columbia County session of Conservation Congress.
On the contrary, said another speaker. The crane population is strong -- so strong that many breeding pairs can’t find places to nest.
Of the dozens of topics raised at the session at Portage High School, the proposal for a sandhill crane hunting season in Wisconsin drew the most extensive discussion among the approximately 60 people who attended.
One of the questions from Joy Eriksen of Poynette was, “Why?”
Eriksen said she coordinates Columbia County’s annual crane count, which is scheduled to take place Saturday.
Why, she asked, does the issue of a crane hunt in Wisconsin keep coming up over and over?
In this context, it’s because a majority of voters at another county’s Conservation Congress last year wanted the issue raised again, said James Burmeister, vice chairman of Columbia County’s five-member Conservation Congress delegation.
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources held Conservation Congress public hearing meetings Monday in all 72 of Wisconsin’s counties. Attendees were given a booklet listing of 112 issues -- mostly related to hunting, trapping and fishing -- on which all attendees were invited to vote, on color-coded ballots.
In Columbia County, attendees also voted on five resolutions that originated from citizens.
The crane hunt question was No. 24 in the array of questions that had been approved at previous Conservation Congress sessions in various counties.
“Sometimes this can be quite frustrating,” Burmeister acknowledged. “But just because an issue is passed on to us, that doesn’t mean it’s going to become law. It just means some people want to keep trying.”
Ultimately, it would be up to the federal government whether a sandhill crane hunting season is inaugurated in Wisconsin, said DNR Conservation Warden Mike Green. And, if a hunting season were initiated, its parameters would be based on controlling the overall population of the birds -- apart from efforts on the part of some farmers to curb the damage that cranes can cause to crops.
Cranes like to eat young corn.
Green said that in Columbia County, 14 permits were issued in 2014 to landowners, with authorization for harvesting up to 96 birds.
And, they taste nothing like chicken.
It’s much better!
My hunting buddy calls them “Rib-eye from the sky”. Never tried them myself.
The question shouldn't be why, rather why not. Given the fact that 16 states have a crane season, not sure why the federal government needs to weigh in. Tribal members in WI can hunt them.
We have them by the thousands when they migrate. Of course, that is in Indiana.
Never had them either but I'm told they're very good.
They're around in WI all summer, but that's where the feds come in, regulating migratory species.
Texas farmers would like to see WI kill some of these feathered pests. When these behemoth birds land in grain fields on the southern edge of the Great Plains in TX on their autumn migration, they gobble up lots of ripened grain and make a general mess breaking down the stalks. It’s difficult to see why they were ever considered “endangered,” unless some bureaucrat confused them with Whooping Cranes.
They were endangered at one time. Canada geese were too. But no longer, WI is at full summer capacity for breeding pair, which it seems to me is the time a hunt should be considered. Whooping Crane confusion is an issue mentioned here, there being a population in central WI. But it seems to me that’s a hunter problem. Deer hunting isn’t banned for risk of a hunter shooting an Elk.
Like anyone in Colombia County Wisconsin owns any of the sandhill cranes that will be hunted.....
When I lived in Florida, sandhill cranes were a common sight in certain neighborhoods near Orlando. I can testify they aren’t afraid of people. Once a pair of them chased me, and at a couple workplaces, like the power plant and the Lockheed Martin facility, two of them would hang out by the entrance to see who was coming in.
About 4 years ago I was pheasant hunting up in the thumb area of Michigan when I saw my first cranes. They were flying high and heading south and neither my buddy nor I knew what they were, we thought they were great blue herons........
Its not sport. Its like shooting a hot air balloon. They like to be in open fields where you can see the 5 foot tall birds a half mile away. Also, cranes don’t run from you. They sit there and bark at you, opening their wings to try and scare you away. Even if you are in a car. We have pheasant and turkeys running everywhere in Wisconsin now. I agree that the sandhill cranes are more populous every year. But you can more easily wipe them out as well.
Cranes are not like turkeys or deer. They mate for life in pairs. You kill one, you might as well kill two. And they breed every year. So little ones are flying south with parents.
If you were to shoot them, it should be done in Texas, not in Wisconsin. Frankly I think your better off taking down a tom turkey, far more meat. A crane is made up of wings, bony legs and fathers. Something that can fly from Texas to Wisconsin just is not going to be as good as something that can barely fly a football field.
Just like the cranes, the nasty cormorants are protected under the migratory species act........
Well, I guess it's a good thing that I never had any kids ...
I figured someone would catch that.
You have never hunted sand hill cranes.
They are a renewable resource, like deer or turkeys.
Like most game they quickly learn about hunting and hunters.
Many have reported on Cranes excellent culinary properties.
The whole idea of regulated hunting is to harvest the surplus of birds that occur every year.
Canadian Geese are also monogamous. They also have become so numerous in Wisconsin as to become pests. They are hunted under federal regulation because they are migratory species.
In the old days crane was eaten when available. It is said to give you
lift
Feds have treaties regarding migratory birds. That would be their stake.
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