Feds: If Michigan asks us for sandhill crane hunt, we'll grant it

A controversial proposal to hunt sandhill cranes in Michigan for the first time in generations would be supported by the agency that gets the final say if state officials ever ask for a hunt: the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the chief of the federal agency's migratory bird program said.

There's federal jurisdiction over the long-legged wetlands birds, as they a migratory species protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. While sandhill crane hunts exist in a number of western states, where there are more of the birds, they've only in recent years gained sufficient numbers to consider a hunt in what's known as the eastern population, generally east of the Mississippi River to the Atlantic coast.

A 2010 management plan for the eastern population included input from states all along the migratory flyway, including the Michigan Department of Resources. The plan lays out the parameters for states in the flyway to establish hunting seasons for sandhill cranes, if their surveyed populations meet certain parameters. And they do, said Tom Cooper, chief of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's migratory bird program.

If Michigan follows the section of the plan laying out the sandhill crane harvest strategy, "the Fish and Wildlife Service would likely grant them a season," he said.

The plan allows hunting if the eastern population of sandhill cranes exceeds 30,000 birds, based on a three-year average of the count in annual fall surveys that Fish and Wildlife helps coordinate, Cooper said.

"The latest 3-year average is north of 90,000 (birds) now," he said. "And that's a pretty conservative estimate; we know it's likely higher than that."

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Sandhill cranes were virtually eliminated from Michigan by the early 1900s due to over-hunting. But the population has strongly rebounded in recent years. A possible hunt pits those who love watching the cranes and want to see them remain a non-game species against waterfowl hunters eager to check out what's purported to be a tasty bird, known as "the ribeye of the sky."

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's position is unfortunate but not surprising, said Julie Baker, director of the Lansing-based nonprofit Michigan Songbird Protection Coalition, which opposes sandhill crane hunting.

"Really, this is a state issue," she said. "This is up to the people of the state of Michigan, whether they wish to continue to protect sandhill cranes as traditional, non-game birds, as they have been for 100 years."

Cranes uproot young shoots of corn in the spring and eat the kernels. 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 2,002 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.

"Farmers are shooting them and leaving them lay. The carcasses are rotting," Nick Green spokesman for the nonprofit Michigan United Conservation Clubs, told the Free Press in June. "If there's that much of an issue, we support allowing hunters to ethically harvest these animals and eat them."

Currently, only Kentucky and Tennessee have sandhill crane hunting seasons for the eastern population. Tennessee issues 400 permits that allow harvest of up to three cranes per permit, for a total of 1,200 cranes. Kentucky issued 336 permits in 2016, each good for one sandhill crane.

But Kentucky's actual harvest, averaged since sandhill crane hunts started there in 2011, is 95 birds a season. Since Tennessee's hunt started in 2013, the state has averaged a harvest of 373 cranes per season.

The management plan for the eastern population allows a hunting take of 12% of the sandhill crane population flyway-wide, if the population is above 60,000 birds. Should enough states seek hunts that their cumulative take would exceed 12%, the plan offers a process for how to divide permits, Cooper said.

One of the major concerns of a sandhill crane hunt is that the endangered whooping crane, that migrates at the same time, might mistakenly be killed. The eastern migratory population of whooping cranes is only around 100 birds. But that possibility has not materialized in the Tennessee and Kentucky hunts, Cooper said.

"Tennessee and Kentucky require hunters to take sort of an online test to show they can identify sandhill cranes versus whooping cranes, before they can get their license," he said. "The only whooping cranes that have been killed, that I'm aware of, have been poachers. They aren't legal hunters accidentally shooting whooping cranes."

A sandhill crane hunt in Michigan would require approval by the state Natural Resources Commission, and no action on a hunt is scheduled.

Baker noted that sandhill cranes have less than one chick per year, compared to Canada geese that can have up to 12 offspring a year.

"A 50% mortality rate and you would still have additional Canada geese next year," she said. "Sandhill cranes are still a vulnerable population, and their slow reproduction is part of the reason why. There is no management need to shoot a sandhill crane hunt, not for recreation."

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