Smith: Wisconsin's sandhill crane committee moves toward legislation on crop damage and a potential hunt

The Legislative Study Committee on Sandhill Cranes held its third and final informational meeting Tuesday and next month is slated to begin proposing legislation on crane management in Wisconsin.

The drafts of the bill or bills will likely include measures to help farmers with crane-caused crop damage as well as a crane hunting season.

While the 12 committee members may all agree on a proposal focused on assisting farmers, it's highly unlikely they will unanimously favor a crane hunt.

The divide reflects the controversial nature of a crane hunt in Wisconsin and the political and social realities that sunk two previous crane-hunting bills.

The crane study committee includes four legislators and eight public members. It is chaired by Rep. Paul Tittl, a Republican from Manitowoc.

Public members include representatives of agricultural and conservation organizations, including the Wisconsin Corn Growers Association, Wisconsin Potato and Vegetable Growers Association, Delta Waterfowl, International Crane Foundation, Wisconsin's Green Fire and Wisconsin Waterfowl Association.

The group "shall examine population trends and determine whether any changes to state law would effectively address the incidence and consequences of crop damage caused by sandhill cranes in this state," according to the committee description.

The committee met Aug. 1, Sept. 4 and Oct. 1 to hear presentations on the crane population, crane-caused crop damage, crop damage abatement programs and crane hunting.

Sandhill cranes were nearly eliminated from Wisconsin a century ago but thanks to state and federal protections and environmental improvements the birds have increased substantially in number. The 2021 fall count for the Eastern Population of sandhills, which includes birds in Wisconsin, was 90,029 cranes, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Wisconsin hosted an average of 51,000 cranes from 2018-22, according to the USFWS.

The population in the Mississippi Flyway is large enough that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service allows states the option to open crane hunting seasons. Alabama, Kentucky and Tennessee have done so, resulting in an annual kill of about 1,100 cranes. The species is not open to sport hunting in Wisconsin.

While the restored population of the native bird provides enjoyment for wildlife watchers and others it also causes an estimated $1.9 million in crop damage, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Most of the crop damage in Wisconsin occurs in spring when cranes eat newly-planted corn. Other losses occur later in the year to crops including peas and potatoes.

Under current state law, farmers are not compensated for their crane-caused crop losses because the species is not open to hunting.

The committee has discussed various ways to provide compensation or relief to farmers, including allowing a crane hunt, providing funding for Avipel treatment of corn and modifying state law to allow financial compensation to farmers apart from or without a hunt.

Tuesday's meeting was the third to inform members as they pursue their charge and consider legislation.

It featured presentations by: David Scott, Mississippi Flyway representative for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; Benjamin Sedinger, assistant professor of wildlife ecology at UW-Stevens Point; Jeb Barzen, lecturer at the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin; Jennifer Lazewski, executive director of the Wisconsin Society for Ornithology; and Bruce Ross, executive director of the Wisconsin Waterfowl Association.

To allow sandhill hunting in Wisconsin, the Legislature and governor would have to approve a change in state law. Then the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service would have to approve a crane hunting plan for the state.

The process, from bill introduction to federal approval, would likely take several years.

Scott described the parameters of a potential sandhill hunt in Wisconsin. It could be held over 60 days between Sept. 1 and Jan. 31 and by special permit only. The Wisconsin DNR and hunters would be required to provide data via an annual crane hunting and harvest survey.

Wisconsin had a mean of 51,000 sandhills in the 2018-22 fall surveys, according to USFWS figures. Rules state the maximum number of crane hunting permits cannot exceed 10%, or 5,100, according to Scott.

However if a crane hunting season were approved for Wisconsin, it would start under a "experimental season status" and the number of permits would likely be lower than the maximum allowed, Scott said.

Scott shared a hypothetical scenario for a sandhill hunting season in Wisconsin in which 1,000 to 2,000 permits were issued resulting in the harvest of 150 to 500 birds.

He also said any Wisconsin crane hunting proposal would have to address concerns related to whooping cranes. About 65 endangered whoopers live in Wisconsin during the spring and summer and migrate south in fall. The special measures aimed at protecting whoopers could include prohibiting hunting in certain locations or at certain times as well as requiring crane identification training for hunters.

In his presentation, Barzen said anything in excess of a 4% harvest results in a declining population or an unstable population.

About 1,100 cranes are killed in Wisconsin annually under depredation permits and about the same number are harvested by hunters in Alabama, Kentucky and Tennessee. A few dozen sandhills are also killed in Wisconsin each year by Ojibwe tribal members. In 2023 Ojibwe tribal members reported taking 48 cranes in Wisconsin, and the average from 2019 to 2023 was 33, according to data provided by the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission.

Sedinger showed graphs of the populations of the Mid-Continent and Eastern populations of sandhills. Both show increasing trends over the last 40 years even though they are hunted.

In her comments Lazewski said current data is inadequate to support a crane hunt in Wisconsin, a breeding ground for the species. She also expressed the sentiment of state residents who do not see cranes as a game animal. Her slide stated: "The social question to be answered is whether a small number of hunters deserve the privilege of hunting sandhill cranes in spite of the majority opposition of both non-hunters and hunters to such a hunt."

Ross, however, advocated for a "sustainable and ethical" crane hunt in the state. He said 93% of WWA's 7,500 members support a hunt for the species.

The Wisconsin Wildlife Federation is also on record in support of a crane hunt.

But the Legislature hasn't demonstrated much enthusiasm for the idea. Twice sandhill crane hunting bills have been introduced (in 2011 and 2021) and twice they failed to advance to the governor. One didn't make it out of committee.

Notably, the bills were introduced by Republicans in Republican-controlled Legislatures.

The 2021 bill was authored by Tittl.

Much of the material presented to the committee over its three meetings has been hunting-related.

However committee member Sen. Mark Spreitzer (D-Beloit) noted if the state approved a crane hunt it would generate a small fraction of the revenue needed to compensate farmers for crane-caused crop damage.

The state's wildlife damage abatement fund gets its revenue from a $2 or $4 fee on various hunting licenses and $12 from the sale of bonus antlerless deer permits. In 2022-23, the fund had revenue of $3.26 million and expenses of $3.2 million, according to a review by the Legislative Fiscal Bureau.

If legislation authorizing a crane hunt used a similar framework, then 1,000 licenses would yield $2,000 to $4,000. Even if revenue from crane hunting applications was contributed to the damage abatement fund, it would likely total less than $50,000 annually and fall far short of farmers' claims, according to DNR projections.

In 2021 the DNR estimated that as many as 200 sandhill damage claims, with an appraised value of $1.6 million, could be filed annually, more than all other wildlife damage claims made to the program. Such an added burden could soon make the fund insolvent.

And crane hunting also brings political views and public sentiment into play, Spreitzer said. A 2023 study by the University of Wisconsin Survey Center found fewer than one in five Wisconsinites supports a sandhill crane hunting season in the state. The work was funded by the International Crane Foundation in Baraboo and the UW-Madison Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies.

Spreitzer suggested the committee come up with separate bills on crop damage relief and hunting.

“I would hate to end up with nothing getting done because we propose one (bill) that has a hunt and also has stuff for farmers and then that gets bogged down in the political process and we do nothing,” Spreitzer said at Tuesday's meeting. “But I also think that by delinking that a little bit, knowing that even a hunt wouldn't provide (enough) money for it, we can figure out a solution for farmers that doesn't live or die based on the hunt question and then we can figure out what a hunt would look like if we were gonna have one. And then subject that to the political process. Because ultimately it is going to come down to public opinion to some degree and that becomes a political question.”

The committee's next meeting is scheduled Nov. 13. Tittl has said he hopes the committee will have final recommendations for crane management legislation by the end of December.

Note: This article was edited to correct the number of cranes taken in Wisconsin by Ojibwe tribal members.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin sandhill crane crop damage, potential hunt discussed