Today, January 20, a public meeting is convening in Nashville, Tennessee, to decide the fate of anywhere from 300 to 2,199 Sandhill Cranes, depending on which Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency estimate you look at. In two previous posts, I’ve presented Tennessee’s proposal to be the first state in the Eastern Flyway to hunt Sandhill Cranes. They want to issue 733 permits to hunters, to bag up to three cranes each.
I can’t be at the meeting; Bill’s traveling and I’m caring for our kids and home through closely-spaced winter storm fronts. But three of my women friends are driving there as I write, one of them (Vickie Henderson) to present a carefully researched dissent, and I am cheering for them, eagerly waiting for their dispatches. The journalist in me yearns to be there, just to witness a rare birdwatcher’s uprising (we tend to be a rather placid bunch overall).
Whatever happens when the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency votes on Friday, it’s going to be interesting. I get the distinct impression from their officials’ public and private responses to the flap over crane hunting that TWRA is not used to being challenged on its proposals. Or, apparently, its science. It’s posted some eye-popping figures for the midwinter count of the annual peak population of cranes in Tennessee.
2006: 14,158
2007: 14,698
2008: 12,945
2009: 20,191
2010: 48,505
Wait a minute. Population estimates of all Sandhill Cranes on the entire Eastern Flyway hover around 60,000. So suddenly, in 2010, the average population of 15,498 more than triples, and 80% of the entire flyway is concentrated in Tennessee? No wonder they want to shoot some!
Could the 2010 count be flawed? Affected by weather? Double-counted? Inflated? There are a lot of people who’d like to know.
Beyond that, there are a lot of people—many of you among them, thank you—who have written TWRA, voicing their opposition to the hunt. In an email released to its members on January 17, The Tennessee Wildlife Federation characterizes the flood of letters and phone calls protesting the hunt in this way, typos and all:
“To date the commission has received several e-mails and letters from in and out of state anti-hunters asking that the season not be approved. It is very important to realize that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has given permission for Tennessee to pursue this Sandhill crane season and if we do not take advantage of this opportunity, this permission may not be extended in the future. If the season is not approved, this will embolden the opponents for any future effort, making future approval even more difficult and less likely.
“Those people that would prevent sportsmen and women from harvesting Sandhill cranes hold an intolerant position. Sportsmen and women do not ask that birdwatchers or hikers be banned from using lands for wildlife because they disturb wildlife at the waterfowl refuges? This wildlife resources is big enough for all users to enjoy and for the population to sustain itself and continue to grow.”
Now, it’s not quite fair to describe all of us who protested as “intolerant anti-hunters.” Most of us appreciate the role of hunting in wildlife management. We don’t want to see Sandhill Cranes killed as game birds, and we’re questioning TWRA’s decision to open season on them. We don’t think much of the science behind the proposal, and we wonder how a species in which, by USFWS figures, only one in three pairs is successful in raising a single colt per year, suddenly explodes in population to the point where it needs to be controlled by hunting.
We strongly believe that Sandhill Cranes are worth more alive, as a stunning visual and aural draw for ecotourism, than dead, one more thing to shoot for 733 lucky raffle winners. Nebraska is the lone state on the Central Flyway that bans crane hunting. In 2009, the sleepy town of Kearney, Nebraska, pulled in over 10 million dollars from 15,000 crane ecotourists from every single state and 46 different countries, without a single shot being fired. So much for the assertion that hunters pay for everything.
I’ve corresponded with four dedicated bird hunters who have told me that they can’t imagine shooting one. The latest put it this way:
“I am in fact a bird hunter…Having given the back story, I personally couldn’t kill a crane-the thought of extinguishing one note of their calls is enough to make me think the whole exercise is crazy…Keep up the fight.”
Last weekend, TWRA, Tennessee Wildlife Federation and the Tennessee Ornithological Society came together to celebrate cranes in their annual festival at Hiwassee Refuge. Leaders of all three organizations made a pact beforehand not to discuss the hunt—to keep the focus on enjoying the spectacle of thousands of cranes. TWRA’s information and education specialist broke the pact right out of the gate with a stack of bright blue flyers on the registration table promoting the hunt, and calling for sportsmen to register their support or risk losing the chance to shoot cranes. Staffers manning the registration table had their hands full all weekend fielding the outrage of festival attendees, many of whom were finding out for the first time that their state wildlife agencies consider Sandhill Cranes just another huntable bird.
I’m left scratching my head. How much support did the state expect to garner for opening season on the bird that these thousands of crane enthusiasts had traveled just to see? If I were going to market myself as a prairie–chicken hunting outfitter, I wouldn’t hand out flyers at a prairie-chicken festival. Nor would I walk into a Humane Society function in a floor-length lynx coat. Whatever prompted the move, it couldn’t have backfired any more explosively.
So yes, it’s going to be interesting to see what TWRC decides to do with this hornet’s nest it’s got in its hands. Is it really going to be worth the fight to let 733 hunters fire on the cranes that tens of thousands more just want to admire? Think about it, Tennessee. You might want to give this round to the ecotourists, the birdwatchers, and the tall gray ones they love.
Sandhill Cranes, mated pair
Thank you Julie for bringing this controversy to the forefront. My hopes and dreams are with Vickie as she enters the lion’s den. I know she will do a great job for the concerned birders and environmentalists that have fought this proposal.
I had to laugh out loud when I read your account of the TWF promoting the hunt at the festival. Maybe those brilliant folks should run for congress!
In my younger days when I was a hunter, the one tenet my father always taught me was that you never waste game and you always eat what you kill. It was for this that we never killed bufflehead ducks or similar birds because they tasted fishy, since that’s what they eat. I can’t believe the cranes are any good to eat, based on what they eat. And killing them just to kill them doesn’t sound like any kind of sport to me.
Julie, you are ever the greatest in your ability to describe the issues and I will say again, how much Tennessee has appreciated your support, that of 10,000 Birds, and all your readers. This has been a very emotionally draining process and I am looking forward to seeing and hearing the presentations in Nashville. I had a conversation yesterday that was encouraging and helped restore my confidence in the world at large, so I am hopeful that the outcome of the Commission meetings will again allow us to focus on working together for the benefit of wildlife.
In the minds of readers, I want to re-state the separate organizations, the TN Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA) our wildlife management organization, and the Tennessee Wildlife Federation (TWF), the hunting organization that initiated the hunt petition. TWRA has done an incredible amount of tireless work to restore and protect wildlife and wildlife habitat in our state. They also regulate hunting, which I greatly appreciate, and in doing that they have the responsibility to create hunt proposals that are requested. In TWRA’s defense, they have never dealt with this type of proposal before, one that petitions for a hunting season on a species that has never been hunted before in TN or in the east. They used the traditional method for moving hunting regulations forward in the absence of any other method. The result has been a landslide of outpouring. From a good source, I learned yesterday that Commissioners have received not hundreds, but thousands of emails, phone calls and letters. The passion expressed has been heartening. The stirring of active participation in the process, some of the best I’ve ever seen.
For that I want to thank each and everyone of you for your efforts, your thoughts and your encouragement. This is the energy of change. Our wildlife needs everyone’s passion and participation!
I wish I could go. I’m currently in Nashville but leaving within a couple hours…actually, maybe it’s best I’m not there because usually my passion gets the best of me in cases like that and I get a little too worked up. Good luck! It’s so upsetting that this is even an issue 🙁
I’ll be there!!! Thanks for all you’ve done, Julie 🙂
Carolyn,
I don’t want to appear to be in favor of allowing crane hunting (I’m actually vehemently opposed to it), but from what I hear sandhill crane is quite delicious. Never sampled it myself, but I’ve never heard anyone that didn’t love it. It’s likely most of the hunters that will apply for this “harvest” if it happens, will be eating their kills. The challenge is knocking down the wall of ecological and scientific ignorance many of the hunting lobbies live behind.
cool
Kirby, thanks for your observation. I, too, have been told it’s delicious, with enough marinade. I’ve also been told by one who’s eaten it that it’s much too gamy for most people’s taste.
Meriwether Lewis claimed his men were never in better humor than when they were fed on dog meat. Though some southeast Asian countries have yet to, here in the U.S. we have since found a higher use for dogs than the stewpot. I’d submit that cranes have a much higher use as ambassadors of the wild.
I too am a nature lover thats why I live in the country but it is possable to over due a good thing.take the snow gouse for an example,what do they eat,sandhill crane that I see feed in the grain fields and are really very tasty.
Julie, thank you for helping to give our local cause a bit more of a national flavor. Though I’m unable to attend, my wife Cyndi, whom you have corresponded with on this issue, is there as we speak, along with hopefully many others who appreciate what the Sandhills bring to our area. At this juncture, I remain guardedly optimistic the decision will be favorable for the Sandhills. At the very least, the public has had an opportunity (here at the end) to weigh in on this discussion. We appreciate all you did for us and continue to do regarding wildlife conservation efforts.
our flying ambassadors are free to fly for the next 2 years… we have 2 years to make sure this NEVER happens…. what is it with ” what does crane taste like”?… so grossssss. the Tennessean newspaper has the results of last nights meeting….. i can’t figure out how to copy and paste the article for you all to read. The No’s were in the mid-70’s the yes lo 20’s…. go read…fly free once again dear friends! we WON! this one!!!!good article Julie. we WON!
Thanks, Nita, for your jubilant comment. The Tennesseean article is here: http://www.tennessean.com/article/20110120/NEWS01/110120177/Sandhill-cranes-may-escape-hunting-for-now?GID=5YRPTg+hVbVUvT9SK1hrdEnoXWVvqWISlW85BhiPYEs%3D
The entire commission has to vote today, January 21. It’s expected to take the TWRA Wildlife Committee’s recommendation to table the hunt proposal for two years, but one never knows, which is why I’ve kept my mouth shut.
As Vickie Henderson pointed out, TWRA has received not hundreds, but thousands of letters, calls and emails in opposition to the hunt. Seventy-two percent of the comments that came into TWRA opposed the hunt. 28% were in favor.
What I found most interesting in this article linked above was this year’s early January count of sandhill cranes at HIwassee Refuge. It wasn’t 48,505, the figure somehow arrived at for 2009’s count. It was a little over 11,000.
It appears TWRC needs a few years’ more data before they take steps to contain the “population explosion” in sandhill cranes. I am delighted that the Wildlife Committee recognized this need, and grateful to all who wrote in opposition to the hunt. Let’s wait and see what the whole Commission votes today.