{"id":57846,"date":"2024-04-02T09:08:24","date_gmt":"2024-04-02T14:08:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/atomiccoffee.com\/WWA\/?p=57846"},"modified":"2024-11-19T06:36:36","modified_gmt":"2024-11-19T12:36:36","slug":"editorial-icf-survey-polls-cant-replace-science-based-wildlife-management","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atomiccoffee.com\/WWA\/editorial-icf-survey-polls-cant-replace-science-based-wildlife-management\/","title":{"rendered":"Editorial: ICF Survey – Polls Can\u2019t Replace Science-Based Wildlife Management"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Bruce<\/a>By Bruce Ross, Executive Director bross@wisducks.org<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

This article originally appeared in Wisconsin Waterfowl Association\u2019s April, 2024 Newsletter<\/a>\u00a0edition.<\/em><\/p>\n

A recent survey funded by the International Crane Foundation (ICF) hoped to determine the level of public support for a Sandhill Crane (SHC) hunting season in Wisconsin. The survey found that 17% of those surveyed support a Sandhill Crane hunting season, 48% oppose a season and 35% are neutral on the topic. This may be useful information, but it is not sufficient to manage the growing population of cranes.\u00a0 Wildlife and conservation are best served by science-based management, not by blindly following polls.<\/p>\n

A little background<\/u><\/em><\/strong>.<\/em>\u00a0 It\u2019s worth noting that as the SHC population continues to soar, Wisconsin farmers have destroyed over 10,000 SHCs in the past decade.\u00a0 This is allowed under US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) depredation permits to address SHC-caused crop losses.\u00a0 By USFWS requirements, these SHC carcasses may not be taken from the field \u2013 it\u2019s a bounty of nature discarded and disrespected.<\/p>\n

These SHC losses might have been prevented by use of a chemical seed treatment that causes the crane to avoid eating the seeds.\u00a0 That chemical, AVIPEL, seems effective.\u00a0 But it is not free.\u00a0 Current usage costs approach $2M for 200,000 acres.\u00a0 The State\u2019s Agriculture department (DATCP) estimates of SHC depredation impacts could reach 3,000,000 acres \u2013 or $30M<\/em> per year<\/em> for chemical treatment.<\/p>\n

Study design.<\/u><\/em><\/strong>\u00a0 That significant price tag may be one reason ICF chose not to survey the level of support for public funding to offset these farmer costs. While ICF has floated the concept of a SHC stamp to offset producer AVIPEL costs, current<\/em> farmer costs would require the purchase of more than 80,000 stamps at $25.\u00a0 Every. Single. Year.\u00a0 And that figure only increases with a SHC population growing at over 4% per year.<\/p>\n

Judging by the survey\u2019s narrow focus, it\u2019s reasonable to believe ICF was more intent on foreclosing consideration of a hunt than looking at real solutions to agricultural losses and depredation kills.<\/p>\n

Still, there\u2019s no reason to believe the poll data is wrong.\u00a0 With less than 10 percent hunters in our population, substituting bear, ducks, sturgeon, trapping,\u00a0<\/em>or maybe even\u00a0deer<\/em> would not yield startlingly different poll results.<\/p>\n

So what?<\/u><\/em><\/strong>\u00a0 \u00a0Like all rights<\/em>, the right to hunt \u2013 which is embedded in the Wisconsin Constitution \u2013 is intended to protect minority stakeholders against such poll-driven policy decisions. Or it\u2019s not truly a right<\/em>. Which should make all<\/u> hunters concerned.<\/p>\n

Even if the ICF\u2019s poll provides some useful data (it does), it is wholly insufficient to manage a game species like the SHC.\u00a0 No serious wildlife manager would rely on poll results to develop good wildlife management practices. ICF was probably not trying to suggest that. \u00a0But the auspicious timing, narrow focus, and contextual remarks from ICF\u2019s CEO (who was study author) appear intended to disregard the value hunters bring to wildlife management.<\/p>\n

To the degree this ICF-funded survey is perceived as developed to support ICF\u2019s pre-existing anti-hunting policy position, their credibility as a neutral provider of crane science will be undermined. Which would be unfortunate given their five decades of remarkable science-driven crane conservation history<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Bottom line:<\/u><\/em><\/strong> \u00a0Science-based wildlife management benefits game population health.\u00a0 Hunting can be a valuable tool available to wildlife managers\u2026 a tool that produces harvest opportunities that sustain hunters\u2019 historically deep and generous conservation commitment.<\/p>\n

ICF may yet comprehend this underpinning of North American Wildlife Conservation, and which has produced the conservation results that allow us to have this discussion.\u00a0 Let\u2019s hope so.\u00a0 Conservationists of both hunting and non-hunting stripes can ill-afford a circular firing squad when truly consequential conservation issues now confront us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Bruce Ross, Executive Director bross@wisducks.org This article originally appeared in Wisconsin Waterfowl Association\u2019s April, 2024 Newsletter\u00a0edition. A recent survey funded by the International Crane Foundation (ICF) hoped to determine the level of public support for a Sandhill Crane (SHC) hunting season in Wisconsin. The survey found that 17% of those surveyed support a Sandhill…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":57847,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[28],"class_list":["post-57846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-advocacy","tag-current"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/atomiccoffee.com\/WWA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/atomiccoffee.com\/WWA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/atomiccoffee.com\/WWA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atomiccoffee.com\/WWA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atomiccoffee.com\/WWA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57846"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/atomiccoffee.com\/WWA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57846\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57848,"href":"https:\/\/atomiccoffee.com\/WWA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57846\/revisions\/57848"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atomiccoffee.com\/WWA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atomiccoffee.com\/WWA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atomiccoffee.com\/WWA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atomiccoffee.com\/WWA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}