[birdky] Re: INFO: VERY LONG summary of Sandhill Crane hunting season proposal process

I wanted to post to the listserv any clarifications/corrections that
were sent to me after last week's post concerning the development of the
Sandhill Crane season.

The only comment I received was one concerning the Atlantic Flyway's
involvement in the Mississippi Flyway's approval of the crane hunting
seasons. It stated that the Atlantic Flyway Council is involved because
the birds cross flyways.  Birds winter in Georgia and Florida, so
anything happening in Kentucky impacts them.

bpb, Louisville

-----Original Message-----
From: birdky-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:birdky-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of brainard@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Friday, January 28, 2011 10:34 PM
To: birdky@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [birdky] INFO: VERY LONG summary of Sandhill Crane hunting
season proposal process

As a service to those interested in the proposed hunting season for
Sandhill Cranes in Kentucky, the Kentucky Ornithological Society will be
attempting to post developments on this issue to BIRDKY in the coming
months. At the fall 2010 board meeting of the Society, I volunteered to
chair a committee to follow the issue and make comments on behalf of the
KOS board.

The Society has not traditionally delved deeply into issues such as
this, so the organization's Bylaws are not written to specifically allow
the board to speak on behalf of or represent the membership in regards
to "positions" on issues. The Society, through its board, regularly
"supports" various causes with letters of endorsement, but we do not
have the ability to "speak for the membership" on an issue like this.
For this reason, it will be incumbent upon all of those interested in
this issue, including Society members, to make sure that their voices
are heard, one way or the other.

Many people are unclear about how this process is unfolding, so I wanted
to clarify some of the background and the current timeline. The
following is a rather *lengthy* summary of what's been going on. Read on
if you dare!

As many of you know, Tennessee just acted on the issue of establishing a
hunting season on Sandhill Cranes in the Volunteer State. The citizen
commission overseeing the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency voted last
week to suspend consideration of a hunting season for two years to allow
additional data to be gathered. The state of Kentucky's Department of
Fish and Wildlife Resources (KDFWR) is essentially about 5 months behind
Tennessee in this process, which I will outline to the best of my
knowledge below. I'm sure I have a few of the facts wrong, and anyone
noting one in the narrative below is encouraged to correct any mistakes
I make or pass them along to me!

For a variety of reasons, the topic of hunting Sandhill Cranes in the
eastern United States and Canada has slowly gained momentum over the
past 10 years. The increase in what has been deemed the "eastern
population" of these birds has been remarkable since unregulated hunting
during the late 19th and early 20th centuries resulted in its near
complete extirpation. During the middle of the 20th Century, the effects
of a ban on hunting finally began to show results, and cranes have
gradually expanded back into formerly inhabited portions of the western
Great Lakes states (primarily Wisconsin and Michigan) as well as much of
southern Ontario. While the increase in the number of birds has seemed
decidedly rapid during the past several years, most of this increase is
actually a result of more comprehensive efforts to survey the numbers of
birds as well as (at least in Kentucky) a more pronounced peak of very
early migration in spring. If one looks at the increase over the long
haul, it has been rather steady.

For many years Sandhill Cranes have been hunted in the Great Plains and
Rocky Mountain states, so it was natural to expect that once the eastern
population became relatively numerous that an interest in regulated
hunting seasons would eventually appear. Many of us who *live* to see
and hear them migrating through our local areas every spring and fall
had hoped the day of such a consideration would never come, but
unfortunately it has.

The process of establishing a hunting season on such a species is a
relatively complex one. It involves state and federal agencies (the
latter primarily the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service). However, the most
significant entities that dictate the development and regulation of
hunting seasons on migratory waterbirds are called "Flyway Councils."
Because these birds typically move great distances from breeding to
wintering grounds, the most efficient way for federal and
state/provincial wildlife agencies to be on the same page concerning
their management and conservation was to establish multi-jurisdictional
oversight groups. Because most migratory waterbirds migrate in a
north-south orientation, the Flyway Councils were organized in
geographical areas that are also aligned in a north-south manner. There
are four of them in North America (Atlantic, Mississippi, Central, and
Pacific). These councils are made up primarily of state and federal
wildlife employees who gather together on an annual basis to decide a
host of issues dealing with hunting and research of migratory
waterbirds. If you want to know more about the various Flyway Councils,
this link will help you: http://www.flyways.us/flyways/info. 

When an interest in hunting Sandhill Cranes east of the Mississippi
River began to gain momentum several years ago, the first thing that was
needed was a "management plan" and it was up to the Mississippi Flyway
Council to produce it. For some reason - I still don't completely
understand it - the Atlantic Flyway Council is also involved in this
effort, perhaps because these two eastern flyway councils have always
agreed to oversee the actions of the other??? Perhaps someone can
explain that topic. As a sidebar, I have always loved the term
"management plan" ... it's just in the psychology of wildlife "managers"
that they must "manage" something whenever they get involved with it.
Doesn't seem that they can ever just plan to "conserve" it or "preserve"
it or "save it" ... they have to "manage" it ... Yes ... I digress.

OK ... so a committee of wildlife biologists was assigned the task of
coming up with this "Management" Plan for the Atlantic and Mississippi
Flyway Councils, which they did last year (2010). It is available on a
variety of web sites; just do a search on "management plan for the
eastern population of sandhill cranes." This plan was a necessary first
step to allow states within the Mississippi Flyway to propose a hunting
season on the birds. As many know, most of the pressure for a crane
hunting season originated in Tennessee, but Kentucky also showed enough
interest in coming up with a draft proposal as soon as the Management
Plan was completed. 

Any state wishing to establish a hunting season has to have their plan
approved by the Flyway Councils (both Mississippi and Atlantic in this
case) and get a "stamp of approval" from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service. Details in the Management Plan spelled out the basic parameters
that each state would have to abide by in order to have a hunting season
approved. So once the Management Plan was released, the states drew up
their proposals using the guidelines set forth in it. 

I'm still not sure about the details, but there must be a two-step
process with the Flyway Councils, because Kentucky submitted a draft to
the Mississippi Flyway Council late in 2010 that was met with tentative
approval. However, my understanding is that as is often the case, they
wanted a few things tweaked, so KDFWR reworked their proposal and will
resubmit it to the Mississippi Flyway Council in February. As posted to
BIRDKY yesterday, the plan that will be reviewed (and we must assume
likely will be approved by the Flyway Councils) was put up on the KDFWR
web site yesterday at this link:
http://fw.ky.gov/sandhillcraneproposal.asp.

My understanding is that the Kentucky proposal will now be scrutinized
as follows:

The plan will be submitted to the "Technical Section" of the Mississippi
Flyway Council at its meeting in Peoria, IL, the last week of February
2011. From there members of that entity will review it and make sure
that it still fits all of the parameters laid out in the Management
Plan. If it makes the grade, it will be submitted and presumably
approved by the full Atlantic and Mississippi Flyway Councils at the
joint flyway council meetings in Kansas City, MO, 15 March 2011. From
there it will apparently be scrutinized by entities at the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service and I assume receive final approval. Some have asked
and I am not completely sure, but I don't believe there is a federal
public comment period during any of that process, although anyone from
the public is free to send comments to either the Flyway Councils or the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service about it. I believe I heard that it might
take a few months for all the stamps of approval to be provided.

While all of this is going on, an entirely separate process of
"approval" will be evolving within the state of Kentucky. I assume KDFWR
will be busy working on informing the public about the proposed hunt
(the first step being the posting of the proposal on their web site
yesterday). However, it will be a few months before KDFWR's citizen
"Commission" considers the issue. KDFWR is a state agency that, like
some other state entities (some called "commissions" themselves ... very
confusing, I know!) are overseen/steered/directed (whatever you want to
call it) by a citizen-based "commission." The members of these
commissions are typically appointed by the Governor. KDFWR's Commission
is called the Kentucky Fish and Wildlife Commission (KFWC) and there are
9 members from various parts of the state. While KDFWR staff is tasked
with implementing a program for hunting and fishing, as well as
undertaking a variety of projects for conservation and management for
game and nongame wildlife in Kentucky, the 9-member citizen commission
is the body that actually makes all of the actual decisions about things
like new hunting seasons. 

With something like this Sandhill Crane season, staff came up with the
proposal and they will implement the hunting season, but the KFWC will
actually "make it happen" by approving it. So far, the KFWC has not
formally acted on the proposal; most members first heard about it at the
recent series of town hall meetings conducted across the state.
Remember, the first step is to have the Flyway Council approve it. Then
KDFWR staff will initially present it to KFWC's Wildlife Committee. This
is supposed to happen at a meeting in May that is open to the public (at
least this was my understanding). The Wildlife Committee will hear the
proposal and vote whether or not to take the proposal to the full
Commission with a recommendation to approve it. 

About a month after the Wildlife Committee meets in May, the full KFWC
will consider the proposal at its June meeting. Again, the KFWC meetings
are open to the public. At both the Committee and the full Commission
meetings, I am not sure but I believe anyone wishing to speak should
arrange that opportunity ahead of time.

Assuming that the full KFWC approves the hunting season proposal and
both the Flyway Councils and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife have affixed
their stamps of approval on it, as unbelievable as it may seem to many
of us, Sandhill Cranes will begin falling from the sky in mid-December
2011. 

As I say, this summary probably has a few errors in it and I welcome
anyone to post corrections to the details. If you are not a subscriber
to the listserv or if you prefer, you can forward corrections to me.
This background summary has been long, but I hope it serves to answer
many questions that folks have about the proposed season and as stated
long ago at the beginning, KOS will be adding to this summary with
periodic posts on the progression of the proposal, as well as manners by
which you can have your voices heard.

BPB, Louisville
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