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Committee studying how to control Wisconsin sandhill cranes
By AP,
11 hours ago
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A group of legislators, farmers and waterfowl conservationists studying how to control Wisconsin’s sandhill crane population is set to hold its first meeting next month.
The Joint Legislative Council is made up of the Legislature’s attorneys. The council puts together committees to study issues every even-numbered year with an eye toward recommending legislative changes in the next session.
The sandhill crane committee has been tasked with coming up with ways to manage the state's sandhill crane population and reduce the crop damage they cause, including seeking federal approval to establish a hunting season.
Tens of thousands of sandhill cranes breed across Wisconsin or migrate through the state each spring and fall, according to the International Crane Foundation . But they feed on germinating corn seeds after spring planting and can cause significant damage to the crop, according to the foundation.
Multiple states, including Colorado, Kansas, Montana, Texas and Wyoming, hold annual sandhill crane hunting seasons, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Wisconsin lawmakers introduced a bill in 2021 establishing a sandhill crane hunt but the measure never got a floor vote.
The International Crane Foundation opposes hunting sandhills largely because they reproduce very slowly and hunters could kill endangered whooping cranes by mistake. The foundation has pushed farmers to treat their seeds with chemical deterrents.
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In this Nov. 27, 2012 photo, endangered Mississippi sandhill cranes stand in their holding pen at the Audubon Species Survival Center in New Orleans, before they are transported to the Mississippi Sandhill Crane National Wildlife Refuge in Gautier, Miss. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
FILE - In this March 23, 2011 file photo, a sandhill crane spreads it's wings in a corn field near Gibbon, Neb. Audubon Nebraska said in an announcement Wednesday, July 2, 2014 that it has bought nearly 600 acres that will be protected as a rest stop for migrating sandhill and whooping cranes, and other waterfowl. The land sits along the Platte River at the Rowe Bird Sanctuary near Gibbon in south-central Nebraska. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik)
In this Friday, Feb. 6, 2015 photo, sandhill cranes feed in the farm fields in the vicinity of a roosting location along their winter migration route in Cecilia, Ky. According to counts made by biologists with the Kentucky Fish and Wildlife Resources, about 12,000 of the birds have stopped in Cecilia this week during their winter northward migration on their way to their nesting grounds in the Great Lakes region. (AP Photo/David Stephenson)
Sandhill cranes brave the snow inside a fenced field near Bernalillo, N.M., on Tuesday, Feb. 1, 2011. A winter storm blasted much of New Mexico with snow, wind and freezing temperatures, forcing authorities to close some icy roads. (AP Photo/Susan Montoya Bryan)
A group of sandhill cranes hold their heads back as they make their distinctive call early Sunday morning, Jan. 18, 2009, near Gainesville, Fla., where they are gathered at a field to feed. The birds have migrated to this area by the thousands. (AP Photo/Phil Sandlin)
FILE -In this file photo from March 18, 2011, sandhill cranes fly in front of a nearly full moon, near Alda, Neb. About half a million sandhill cranes stop along an 80-mile stretch of the Platte River for three to four weeks each spring in March and April before continuing their journey to Canada, Alaska and Siberia. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik)
Sandhill cranes gather in the Platte River in Grand Island, Neb., Monday, March 20, 2017. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)
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