Update: Tuesday, a legislative study group recommended creating a sandhill crane harvest and compensating corn growers whose crops are damaged by sandhill cranes. The study group — composed of state legislators, waterfowl hunters, farmers and conservation organizations — arrived at its final 8-4 vote after three hours of debate. The proposal now heads to the Joint Committee on Finance. According to legislative council, if the JFC decides to advance a bill it would happen next spring. That would then trigger the normal legislation-crafting process.
If you've spotted sandhill cranes soaring across the sky or heard their haunting call, it's something you're not likely to forget.
The cranes' resurgence in Wisconsin over the last two decades is considered a conservation success story. But as their numbers have increased, so have concerns about cranes damaging farmers’ cornfields.
A legislative study committee has been debating whether to establish a hunting season for cranes, along with other population management strategies. The study group’s final meeting is today and will be on livestream at wiseye.org.
Anne Lacy has been studying sandhill cranes since 2000. Right now, she’s trekking to an area abundant with streams and wetlands near the Wisconsin River.
Lacy, who is with the International Crane Foundation, says this area initially served as a training ground. “To teach our foreign colleagues how to put bands on birds, to do research in their own countries. But in the process doing that, it kind of morphed kind of organically,” she says.
Now, it’s a sandhill crane study area.
Over the years, teams have banded cranes and watched them return to nest in the spring. In the course of that research, Lacy and her colleagues have heard complaints from farmers.
“As we would go and say, 'Can we have permission to go out into your fields and capture birds?' they’d say, 'You know, we have a problem with cranes damaging our cornfields in spring. Can you do anything about that?'" Lacy says.
There is one solution some farmers have tried: a treatment that makes corn seeds distasteful to cranes. Lacy says the treated seeds work, but it’s an added cost.
And confusion persists. Even if a farmer makes the investment in the crane-repellent, the birds may continue to hang out in their fields.
For two reasons, Lacy says.
"There’s that one thing they can’t eat, but there’s a plethora of other things to eat – such as insects, other waste grains. A lot of residue is left on the field,” Lacy says.
And once a pair of cranes has staked out its territory, it stays put. Wherever they might winter, the pair returns to that spot year after year.
Tension between sandhill cranes and farmers is not new. Once plentiful in the Midwest, grain farmers and commercial hunters drove crane numbers down dramatically.
By the 1930s, only a few dozen breeding pairs remained in Wisconsin.
The Migratory Bird Treaty Act and determined conservationists gradually shifted the trajectory. Now, an estimated 100,000 cranes populate the Upper Midwest.
The sun is dipping lower in the sky. We’ve reached our destination – a quiet country road on Neenah Creek.
“So this is our counting area. This is where we watch them come into roost,” Lacy says.
Lacy and other International Crane Foundation teams are scattered throughout their study area, each counting sandhill cranes cruising in to roost for the night.
"They’re compelled to roost in water. If they roost just out in the middle of a field or this grass, something could sneak up on them. So, this is their safety,” Lacy says.
These counts will be added to those tallied by teams in crane-friendly habitats in Minnesota, Michigan, and Ontario, Canada – all part of the sandhill crane’s eastern population.
We wait and watch for what seems like an eternity. “So, we always get in place like super early. About a half an hour before sunset is like, and everybody coming in comes in. Everybody’s getting their spot and then it’s done,” Lacy says.
And she’s right. Almost like clockwork, cranes announce their arrival – some in pairs, others in trios and quartets. Today, Lacy will be in Madison. She’s part of the study group that will recommend what sandhill crane management should look like in 2025.
The Legislative Council Study Committee on Sandhill Cranes meets this morning in Madison, starting at 10 a.m. The meeting will also be streamed live at wiseye.org
