The Michigan House of Representatives adopted a resolution on Thursday that wants the DNR to allow Michiganders to hunt Sandhill Cranes.
House Resolution 154, introduced by Republic State Rep. Jim Lower from Cedar Lake, also hopes to get approval for a Sandhill Crane hunting season in Michigan from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services.
According to the resolution, the Sandhill Crane population continues to grow at an average rate of 9.4 percent a year, and an estimated 23,082 cranes were reported in Michigan's 2015 population survey.
"I'm hopeful that the Natural Resources Commission will move forward with the idea and create a Sandhill crane hunt," Lower said in a release. "The establishment of a hunting season will help control the population and limit damage to local farms, where corn and wheat plants serve as a food source for the birds."
The birds allegedly cause problems for Michigan farmers by feeding on seeds of germinating corn during the spring migratory season.
Those farmers are allowed to get nuisance permits to kill the cranes, Lower said they don't help the overpopulation problem and their meat cannot be harvested.
They are already hunted in Minnesota, Tennessee and Kentucky as well as 13 other states.
