When the new legislature meets it should take recommendations of the Legislative Council's Study Committee on sandhill cranes with a grain of salt.
The committee was established with the strong influence of the Wisconsin Waterfowl Association which is trying to stuff a proposal to hunt sandhill cranes down the throats of Wisconsinites.
The study committee included the association's vice president, plus representatives of the corn and potato growers' associations. It would have been a miracle if they did not favor a hunting season on sandhill cranes.
The committee took selected testimony from Wisconsin Waterfowl Association Executive Director Bruce Ross and put it in the form of a Summary of Findings, which not everyone on the committee supported. In addition, the committee:
*Failed to heed the comments of past DNR waterfowl ecologist Kent Van Horn who in August said that a hunting season in the fall is no guarantee it would help crop depredations in the spring. Van Horn also made it clear the decision to open a hunting season on cranes is a social decision.
*Heard from invited speakers only, and did not invite hunters against the season to express their views.
*Based their recommendation on the Constitutional amendment that guarantees the right to hunt, fish and trap in Wisconsin. That amendment does not guarantee open seasons on all species in the state.
Opinion: Wisconsin has stable and growing sandhill crane population. A hunt shouldn't cause rancor.
Opinion: Sandhill crane hunting season isn't a fit for Wisconsin. It would further divide us.
*Overlooked that the DNR has not recommended opening a sandhill crane hunting season in Wisconsin.
The committee passed a recommendation for the legislature directing the DNR "to authorize sandhill crane hunting in Wisconsin." This bypasses the normal decision-making by the Natural Resources Board (NRB) to open a season.
Setting seasons by the legislature is bad precedent, which later can't easily be changed and it (intentionally) bypasses the established system of opening hunting and fishing seasons by the NRB. The NRB is where biological and sociological justifications come together and where any decision should be made.
If they had any legitimate intent to do what was right for Wisconsin, they would have recognized that the current crop damage law is flawed. It pays crop damage fees for species that are hunted, theoretically justifying a hunt if farmers are to get reimbursed.
Wildlife belongs to everyone and that law needs to be amended so that damages are funded with GPR funds so everyone can pay for damage to crops.
The question, whether a sandhill crane season should be opened is part biological, but the real question is sociological: why?
Why isn't a sandhill crane season appropriate for Wisconsin? The answer is evident to many who read Aldo Leopold's A Sand County Almanac: "The trumpet in the orchestra of evolution," as Leopold described the call of Sandhill cranes, are special to Wisconsinites.
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Many surveys show that most citizens do not support a season. A season will only further divide hunters and non-hunters, when the opposite is needed. Hunting seasons differ from state to state. Look no further than Nebraska which has thousands of sandhill cranes and does not hunt cranes.
Not every state hunts every species, and Wisconsin does not need, and surveys show that a majority of citizens do not want, a hunting season on sandhill cranes.
Let's bring hunters and non-hunters together so that both carry their fair share of funding for natural resources management, not further divide them.
Tim Eisele is a hunter and freelance outdoor writer/photographer. He has twice been the Conservation Communicator of the Year from the Wisconsin Wildlife Federation and he is a member of the Wisconsin Waterfowl Association. Dave Clausen is a life-long hunter, retired veterinarian and former Chair of the Wisconsin Natural Resources Board. Mark Martin is a hunter, member of Wisconsin Waterfowl Association, and wetland owner with nesting sandhill cranes. He was inducted into the Wisconsin Conservation Hall of Fame in 2023.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: DNR has not recommended opening sandhill crane hunting season | Opinion