'Ribeye of the sky?' House recommends sandhill crane hunt in Michigan Hunt advocates say the birds cause a lot of crop damage and are delicious game meat. Hunt opponents say the cranes' recovery is still precarious

Keith Matheny | Detroit Free Press

Show Caption Hide Caption Open season on mourning doves and sandhill cranes? Michigan hunting groups want the state Department of Natural Resources to make mourning doves and sandhill cranes game species eligible for hunting. Some think that's a bad idea.

Beloved by bird-watchers — and perhaps less so by farmers — the sandhill crane may be a step closer to becoming a hunted bird species in Michigan.

The state House of Representatives, in a voice vote and without debate, on Wednesday passed a resolution urging the state Natural Resources Commission to establish a sandhill crane hunting season in Michigan.

More: Despite pushback, Michigan hunters take aim at cranes, mourning doves

The resolution's sponsor, Republican State Rep. James Lower of Cedar Lake, said in a statement that he's hopeful the commission will move the idea forward.

"The establishment of a hunting season will help control the population and limit damage to local farms, where corn and wheat plants serve as a food source for the birds," he said.

But hunt opponents say there are better ways to resolve conflicts on farms than a widespread hunt.

"They've been protected in Michigan for 100 years — they were near-extinct here from hunting and habitat loss," said Julie Baker, director of the nonprofit Michigan Songbird Protection Coalition.

"We enjoy them in our backyards; we feed them; we watch them."

Waterfowl hunter Kenn Frank of Saginaw wants to enjoy the birds in a different way.

“They’re known as The Ribeye of the Sky,” he said. “Their breast meat is incredibly delicious.

“We enjoy the hunt; the taking of the game; the preparation, cooking and eating of the game. But the hunt also serves to assist the local farmers with the predation issues they have been dealing with.”

Cranes uproot young shoots of corn in the spring and eat the kernels, and also eat winter wheat seeds. The birds are protected under the federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act, but farmers can apply to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for special permits to eradicate birds damaging their crops.

The number of farmer nuisance permits granted by the service to kill sandhill cranes in Michigan increased from 13 permits in 2006 to 85 permits in 2013 and 2014, according to a DNR analysis of statewide sandhill crane populations published in February.

About 2,000 sandhill cranes were federally authorized for killing under the Fish and Wildlife Service's permits issued to Michigan farmers in 2013, with 1,216 of the targeted birds killed.

"Despite the growth of cranes under permit, the Michigan crane population grew at a rate of 8.2% over the period 2003-2013," the DNR report states.

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The Michigan United Conservation Clubs, at its June convention, also recommended the Natural Resources Commission establish Michigan hunts for both sandhill cranes and mourning doves.

Michigan Audubon, however, opposes the hunt.

“While we recognize that Sandhill Cranes inflict crop damage, an open hunting season is not the solution,” Michigan Audubon executive director Heather Good said in a statement.

“Opening a fall season to hunt sandhill cranes won’t address farmers’ concerns — a localized, site-specific issue — in the spring. Recently-seeded corn fields are an attractive food source for cranes, and broadly reducing the population does not change that. Newly developed, non-toxic chemical seed coatings have the potential to redirect Sandhill Cranes to consume insect pests in corn fields and avoid the seed, resulting in a win-win for farmers.”

The state Natural Resources Commission has not scheduled any action to consider establishing a sandhill crane hunt, but “the DNR continues to monitor sandhill crane populations in Michigan and to provide information to the commission regarding the species,” DNR spokesman Edward Golder said Wednesday.

Hunters want to see sandhill cranes in Michigan skies and marshes as much as hunt opponents do, Frank said.

“If I hunt a bird or animal to the point of extinction, I don’t get to hunt it anymore,” he said. “I have two boys who I hope someday will be hunting with me. If we don’t hunt with practices that ensure these birds will still be around, then my children will never get to know what it’s like to hunt them.”

Contact Keith Matheny: 313-222-5021 or kmatheny@freepress.com. Follow on Twitter @keithmatheny.