Sandhill cranes take off en masse over an Indiana cornfield in late fall.
MONTGOMERY-Alabama’s sandhill crane season returns for 2022-2023 with 400 permit holders having the opportunity to hunt sandhill cranes in north Alabama. Registration for the limited quota permits opens on September 7, 2022, at 8 a.m. The 2022-2023 season is split in two segments. The first segment runs from December 3 to January 8. The second segment runs from January 16-31.
Registration is limited to Alabama residents ages 16 or older or Alabama lifetime hunting license holders. Applicants must also have their regular hunting license and a lifetime or annual state duck stamp to register. Exempt resident landowners or residents over 65 must obtain a free Game Check H.E.L.P. number to apply. A $10 registration fee applies for everyone.
If selected through a computerized drawing, hunters must then complete an online test that includes species identification and regulations. After passing the test, The Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries (WFF) Division of the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (ADCNR) will issue the permit and tags. In addition to a hunting license and state duck stamp, selected hunters must also obtain a federal duck stamp, a Harvest Information Program license, and a Wildlife Management Area (WMA) license, if applicable.
Sandhill crane hunting is restricted to a specified hunt zone in north Alabama. The daily, season and possession limit is three birds per permit. Hunters can harvest all three birds in one day if they choose. Both state and federal wildlife refuges are closed to sandhill crane and waterfowl hunting.
Prior to the 2019-2020 season, the last sandhill crane hunting season in Alabama was in 1916. Since then, conservation efforts focused on improving habitat have helped sandhill crane numbers rebound more than 500% over the past 40 years. Those numbers have continued to increase as multiple states opened sandhill crane hunting seasons.
WFF’s Wildlife Section is primarily funded through a portion of hunting license sales that is matched on a three-to-one basis by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service through the federal Pittman-Robertson Act. Alabama State Duck Stamp sales are also matched through the same process but earmarked by state law to be utilized for wetlands and waterfowl conservation.
Funding from those two revenue sources directly benefit sandhill cranes by providing habitat protection, management and restoration work in the areas of Alabama that cranes utilize as migration routes and wintering habitat. Over the long term, conservation of habitat has played an integral part in the population growth of sandhill cranes.
For more information about the 2022-2023 sandhill crane hunting season, including the hunting zone location, how to register and how the permit holders are selected, visit www.outdooralabama.com/what-
Media Release/Seth Maddox/Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources
