Sandhill crane hunting could return to northern Ontario in 2026

The federal government is considering allowing the hunting of sandhill cranes in northern Ontario.

The birds were almost wiped out by hunting in decades past, but have made a big comeback in recent years.

And now the Canadian Wildlife Service, which oversees migratory birds, is considering a proposal  that would allow hunters to shoot one crane per season in the Hudson and James Bay Lowlands.

The hunt would also return to parts of the Algoma, Nipissing and Timiskaming districts, as well as Manitoulin Island and French River area, but it would be restricted to farmer's fields.

"We're really stuck between a rock and a hard place, where we like the fact that there's an increasing population of those birds, but it is causing quite a bit of damage," said Chuck Amyot, the northern director with the Grain Farmers of Ontario.

He says he'd see the "odd one" when he first started growing canola, wheat, barley and other crops in Temiskaming Shores in 2011, but now it's become "excessive" and the damage "ever increasing."

Amyot says unlike geese, who will eat a little and then move on, sandhill cranes will settle on a particular field and consume as much as half of the grain.

He thinks the proposed limit of one bird per hunter is too low, but says it's better than nothing.

Matthew Robbins, a wildlife biologist with the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters, says bringing back the hunt is not just about population control.

"It's really more about the opportunity that has come from a healthy population," he said, adding that hunters prize the crane meat as the "rib-eye of the sky."

"It's a question of simply taking advantage of a good thing."

Robbins says the management plan for sandhill cranes in Ontario and Quebec pegged a healthy population at between 30,000 and 60,000 birds, where it is now 97,000, but he understands why this is a "contentious" topic. 

"I think people have good intentions and they see the recovery and they don't want to see us go back to where things were and that's a natural and understandable sentiment," he said. 

Sudbury ornithologist Chris Blomme remembers when a sandhill crane sighting was rare in northern Ontario and thinks there are other ways to control the population and protect crops. 

"I don't really know why a person would want to kill a sandhill crane," he said, adding that the birds mate for life and can live up to 25 years. 

"Just because the birds suddenly become more common and more popular and doesn't mean we have to start destroying a bunch of them so we don't see as many of them."

No word on when a decision will be made, but the earliest the hunt could happen is the fall of 2026.