[TN-Bird] VERY LONG summary of Sandhill Crane hunting season proposal process in KENTUCKY
- From: Cynthia Routledge <routledges@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: TN-Bird Listserv <tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 29 Jan 2011 09:57:28 -0600
Good morning...
This was posted on KYbird last night. It is a summary of the on going process
in Kentucky regarding the proposed Sandhill Crane hunt there. I pass it on for
your information. Feel free to do the same to those you think might be
interested and moved to help KOS fight this issue.
Cyndi Routledge
> 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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