Thursday, April 15, 2010

Sandhill Cranes and Speaking from the Heart


Last week, my father wrote me saying that the state of Minnesota was considering opening a hunting period for Sandhill Cranes. My first thought was "How odd? Why?" Sandhill cranes have been protected in our state and many others for a long time now, and besides, they are amazing birds that have been threatened with extinction in the not to distant past.

For many years now, I have written letters and e-mails to public officials, feeling that this is one part of being an active citizen, and engaged member of the community. How wonderful it was, then, to open my e-mail to the following message my father sent to a state DNR official:

Not sure if this is going to the right person but I wanted to voice my families objections to the killing of Sandhill Cranes. With so many other game birds in our state why in heavens name would the DNR put a season on these majestic birds? I can see no good reason. You yourself said that you don't even know the number of Sandhills in our state. They have been protected in our state up to now. They are beautiful and unique and mate for life and should be still worthy of protection. I live in Chisago County and on rare occasions see and hear them. What a site they are standing out in the fields over 4 feet tall and using their loud, unique calls to each other. I know that other states except Nebraska have seasons on them but that shouldn't influence our state and its practices. I am not anti-hunting and understand the need to manage the wildlife we have here, but maybe the state should do more Sand Hill Crane research before they go ahead and kill these beautiful animals.


A balanced message if there ever was one, straight from the heart, but also with enough facts to support what's said. Well done. An example for us all.

2 comments:

Adam said...

WTF? Do people eat these cranes? Or are they more for trophy hunting?

Nathan said...

I honestly didn't know anyone hunted them until my father wrote me about it. Maybe people eat them, maybe it's trophy hunting. I don't like it either way.