By David Fleet
Editor
At 7 p.m., July 31, The Gateway, 7150 N. Main St., Clarkston will host the Clarkston-Area Backyard Birders Club.
This month Julie Baker, founder and director of the Michigan Songbird Protection Coalition, who remains on the forefront for the protection of songbirds, including mourning doves and sandhill cranes will discuss her efforts to prevent an open hunting season on these birds.
“Misinformation and half-truths are the stock-in-trade for some who propose opening a hunting season on sandhill cranes in Michigan,” Baker said. “Hunting lobbyists have wrongly claimed that sandhill cranes need to be hunted for population control. But there is no evidence of overpopulation of this bird in Michigan.”
“It comes down to that Michigan Citizens want to protect the cranes,” she said. “The majority of the traditional Michigan hunters support the continued protection of sandhill cranes and mourning doves as a non-game bird in Michigan. There are plenty of other game birds to hunt. These cranes are slow to mature and mate for life. They raise just one colt each year and if it survives require a family to teach the young to exist on its own.”
Currently, House Resolution 61, introduced by Rep. Jim Lower (R-Cedar Lake) is pending in the Michigan Natural Resources Commission to add Sandhill cranes to the game species list and to request approval from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for establishing a hunting season.

According to the U.S. Fishery and Wildlife, in 2015 the estimated sandhill population was at 23,000 and grew to 49,900 in 2016. The population is expected to grow at rate of 9.4 percent each year.
“The Sandhill crane population is really taking off,” said Lower, represents the 70th District, which includes Montcalm County and portions of Gratiot County including the cities of Alma and St. Louis as well as portions of Arcada and Emerson townships and the townships of Bethany, Pine River and Seville. “Area farmers list the crop damage of Sandhill cranes as one of the top 10 causes of crop damage.”
Michigan farmers can seek nuisance permits that allow them to kill sandhill cranes that are damaging their crops.
“The permit is very limited and they are not allowed to eat the bird following the harvest—they rot in the field,” Lower added. “A hunting season would allow the harvesting of the sandhill crane meat. So, currently the farmers are hesitant to shoot them. I think the cranes are pretty too and the season would be very limited, it would just help control the population.”
Currently, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky and Minnesota—states in the Mississippi fly way of migratory birds have an open season on sandhill cranes.