Wisconsin Weighs Sandhill Crane Hunts to Protect Crops Despite a Nonlethal Option

Roughly 15 years ago Dave Mickelson began to see flocks of Sandhill Cranes floating gently onto his Wisconsin farm, their long legs extended like aircraft landing gear. Spring after spring the elegant birds returned, plucking seeds from the rows of corn and soybeans he’d just planted. “If you see cranes in your field, it gets your blood pressure up a little bit,” he says.

Mickelson wasn’t alone. Once nearly extinct in much of their range due to hunting and habitat destruction, Sandhill Cranes have rebounded mightily since the Migratory Bird Treaty Act protected them in 1918. The latest U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimate put the eastern population at more than 110,000 birds. But to many farmers, this conservation win poses a growing nuisance. 

The conflict has reached a crossroads in Wisconsin, where growers reported nearly $2 million in crane-induced damage to corn and other crops in 2023. Some farmers, hunters, and lawmakers say the solution is to open the state’s first crane hunting season in more than a century. But bird advocates say that approach is misguided, and point instead to what they say is a safe and effective alternative: a seed treatment called Avipel.

Researchers at the Wisconsin-based International Crane Foundation (ICF) developed the seed coating in the 1990s. Its main ingredient is anthraquinone, a naturally occurring compound that makes seeds taste bitter to birds. While it can cause mild digestive issues if swallowed, the coating is nontoxic. It also doesn’t force cranes out of their preferred habitat—they can still eat other foods from the fields, such as waste grain and insects. ICF research shows that cranes can devour nearly one in five seeds from unprotected fields but barely touch those planted with treated seeds. 

Biotechnology company Arkion Life Sciences, which partnered with the ICF on the research, began selling Avipel in 2006; it’s now available in 30 states. Mickelson says he hasn’t seen any damage from cranes on fields he has treated since 2012—but he sometimes sees the birds on neighbors’ fields. “And you’re, like, well, I guess he didn’t use Avipel.”

Still, treating seeds is an added cost to farmers—around $12 per acre, Mickelson figures—which has limited its use. To ease that burden, a state study committee sent lawmakers proposed legislation late last year that would reimburse growers for half the cost of using Avipel. “I’m a farmer, and I don’t want farmers to suffer,” says former State Representative Dave Considine, a Democratic member of the study committee. Supporters hope a cost-share program could offer a model for other states with crane conflicts. 

But the group’s recommendation came with a big catch: The proposal would also establish a hunting season, despite outcry from some panel members, including the ICF’s representative, Anne Lacy. That’s a bad idea for several reasons, she says. Sandhills take years to reach sexual maturity and reproduce slowly, so hunting could take a bigger toll than it does on most game species. Hunters already pursue the birds in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama, and Lacy fears a compounding trend. “The eastern population, more and more, is getting vilified,” she says. “Cranes, given their breeding ecology, could be at risk for population decline.”

In addition, hunters might accidentally kill endangered Whooping Cranes. And a Sandhill hunting season wouldn’t even prevent much crop damage, Lacy says: Shooting birds might chase a flock from a farm, but it won’t keep them from coming back or from damaging another grower’s fields. Wisconsin farmers already kill as many as 1,200 Sandhills a year under federal permits to protect crops from migratory birds, and yet crop losses continue.

Lawmakers could soon vote on the combined Avipel-and-hunting bill, but Lacy and others are urging them to instead pursue an approach that helps farmers without killing more cranes. Only 17 percent of Wisconsin residents support hunting the species, a poll commissioned by the ICF found. Though the situation is thorny, Considine notes the debate is also a clear sign that conservation works. “Sandhills have just blossomed and are doing really well,” he says. “It’s a success story, but we have to learn to live together.”

This story originally ran in the Spring 2025 issue as “Crossroads for Cranes.” To receive our print magazine, become a member by making a donation today.