Should Wisconsin make it legal to hunt Sandhill cranes? Lately, Wisconsin has been debating whether they should allow hunting of sandhill cranes. I feel that proposing a hunting season on these birds will lower the population to a sustainable amount. This in return will lower the amount of money the state will have to pay out each year to all the farmers that have had crop damage.
The threat of lowering the population to low is always a concern to people against the idea. However, the population should not be an issue. Hunting these birds will be highly monitored and each person hunting them will have a certain number of permits allotted. With a migrating bird the DNR will have to work with the US Fish and Wildlife Service to ensure a beneficial monitoring plan. The DNR also has other animals that have a permit based monitoring system which includes fishers, bobcats, and even turkeys. To be able to hunt sandhill cranes may include applying for tags or perhaps the DNR will allow a certain amount of permits per zone. The DNR will also need to take into account the amount of tags given out to the farmers for crop damages.
Many people are going to have a large political view on this proposal. Even though many people may have conflicting views on this the state will have to look at what is going to be beneficial to please both end of the spectrum. According to an article from the Fond du Lac reporter a resident feels that due to the growing population there needs to be a control option put into place to prevent the damage these birds are creating on farmer’s fields. The farmers are losing more crops which in the long run equal’s a significant loss in profit because the cranes are eating the seeds that were recently planted. Even though these birds are damaging a farmers income there are still hunting activists that have a strong feeling for these birds and feel that hunting these long legged creatures is unethical.
With the rapid increase of the sandhill population there are some considerations that should be brought to the attention of the public. While the residence are opposed to the idea of hunting these birds they need to think about what will happen if the population approaches the maximum capacity. With overpopulation there becomes a great risk of disease which could decrease the population to threatening numbers. The high numbers could also lead to the increasing amount of farmers killing them illegally.
While I do not plan on hunting sandhill cranes right away, l do think that I may attempt it one day and agree to the thought of having the hunting season in place. The hunting season is going to be frowned upon by people that have a love for birds, but I feel that after the season is in place it will be looked past just like mourning dove hunting has. In Kansas there has been a season in place since 1993 and has had great success maintaining sustainable numbers of Sandhilll Cranes. So, in my opinion Wisconsin should allow hunting these creatures and should see great success after doing so.
References:
http://www.fdlreporter.com/article/20120209/FON0101/120208102/Should-hunting-sandhill-cranes-allowed-Wisconsin-?odyssey=nav|head
http://www.kdwpt.state.ks.us/news/Hunting/Migratory-Birds/Sandhill-Crane
1 comment:
I think that a Sandhill Crane hunt is very possiable in the future, however it is important to realize that sandhill cranes area migratory bird and as such the decision to hunt the bird is beyond a state decision. All the states in the states in the flyway must have agree that cranes need to be hunted. From there they will need to decide how permits should be distributed between that states and when they should be hunted. This probelm expands far beyond that fact that cranes are eatign farmer's seeds. Anter point that is important to recoginize is that the cranes that are currently hunted are from a different population and use different migratory routes. Because of this what works out west could be very different then what works with the Wisconsin poplulation. That being said, if a hunt is instated in Wisocnsin it makes sense to distribute the tags more heavily in areas where there is more crane complaints. Along with that there is a good oppertuniti to issue tags to farmers the hunt the birds on their lands. In the interium I think it is important to try to devise a plan to restrict the cranes from depredating fields so tha they are not seen as nusiance wildlife.
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