Photo credits to @joel_bo_jones on Instagram
Did you know that of the 10 states in the Central Flyway, Nebraska is the only one that doesn’t allow Sandhill Crane hunting?1 These limitations on hunters are something that could (and should) be changed to better hunting opportunities in Nebraska as well as better the conservation funds for Sandhill Cranes across the flyway. I feel that this is something that more hunters and lawmakers in Nebraska need to be talking about.
Crane hunting is becoming wildly popular in the United States with a total of 16 states allowing the practice including, Colorado, Wyoming, Kansas, Montana, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah, Idaho, Minnesota, Arizona, Tennessee, Kentucky, Alaska, New Mexico, North Dakota, and South Dakota.2 I believe that with reasonable limitations, cranes could responsibly be harvested during their fall migration in Nebraska as well.
The biggest fear to most, that I am aware of, is how hunting could affect the Sandhill Crane population. However, crane populations have been steadily increasing since the 1960s,3 around the same time that crane hunting and trapping became legalized.1 Also according to allaboutbirds.org, The North American Waterbird Conservation Plan lists the Sandhill Crane as a “Species of Low Concern”.3 So with responsible hunting, there should be no concern about reducing the Sandhill Crane population.
In my opinion, the best way that Nebraska could go about legalizing crane hunting is with the implementation of a lottery system. This would be helpful both by generating money to go towards conservation and also giving the game and parks control over exactly how many cranes have the possibility to be harvested each year. I also believe that people who enter the lottery should have to have some sort of certification, most likely through an online class, to differentiate between the Sandhill Cranes they would be hunting and the highly protected Whooping Crane that has a known population of only 505 as of 2018.4 And hopefully, while seasons and limits on Sandhills should start off short and small, they will grow in the future depending on how successful conservation efforts are and how the crane population is doing as a whole.
What some might not know is that many hunters are already helping conservation efforts through organizations such as Ducks Unlimited, a non-profit committed to wetlands conservation. As of January 1 of this year, DU has protected nearly 15 million acres of land across North America.5 According to Outside Magazine, between the Federal Duck Stamp and Ducks Unlimited, hunters have nearly doubled the population of waterfowl in North America with it reaching about 50 million.6 With around 90% of their estimated 600,000 contributing members being hunters6, it is easy to see that the last thing that hunters would do is disrupt the Sandhill Crane Population.
Overall I believe that with the proper limitations, hunters in Nebraska could responsibly hunt Sandhill Cranes, or as many hunters call them “the ribeye of the sky” as they pass through our state every fall.
Sources
- https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1140&context=envstudtheses
- https://www.realtree.com/waterfowl-hunting/articles/how-to-hunt-sandhill-cranes
- https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Sandhill_Crane/lifehistory
- https://www.allaboutbirds.org/news/whooping-crane-population-hits-historic-high-in-2018/
- https://www.ducks.org/media/_global/_documents/stateFactSheets/NationalFactSheet.pdf
- https://www.outsideonline.com/2272456/ducks-thank-hunter
