Wisconsin
Wisconsin’s sandhill cranes are beautiful but damage our crops. Let hunting help. | Opinion
In addition to crane festivals and viewings, hunting can honor the bird — and carefully manage flocks while funding more conservation.
Sandhill cranes along the Wisconsin River
The sights and sounds of cranes congregating along the Wisconsin River.
Provided by Aldo Leopold Foundation
The sandhill crane descending on the Wisconsin countryside is a beautiful thing.
Its gray wings are long and graceful, and it doesn’t swoop — it floats in, like a cloud slipping from the sky. Its forehead is a proud red. It often travels in pairs, because it tends to prefer one mate for life. And it is prone to dance, bowing and leaping in a ritual that it has honed for eons as one of Earth’s oldest animals.
The problem is in between, it eats the hell out of your local farmer’s crops.
That’s the rub that has made such a striking bird the subject of fierce political debate as Wisconsin considers a sandhill crane season this year. As a farm boy and a conservationist, I’m here to tell you the reality: If we want to save the sandhill crane, it’s time to organize a responsible hunt. At the root of this argument is the idea that hunting is conservation — one I know not everyone who loves the sandhill crane supports. But for the sake of our gray feathered friend, I hope you’ll hear me out and reserve hate mail for the end.
Regulated hunting and conservation have protected endangered wildlife
Good hunters know that to continue to enjoy their way of life, a hunt must have boundaries so that our natural resources of woods, water, and game can persist. It’s the reason our country did away with unregulated hunting in favor of seasons and bag limits. It’s the reason hunters fund so much conservation, not only through government license fees, but also through voluntary organizations like Ducks Unlimited that have literally restored or conserved millions of acres of natural habitat, and raised billions of dollars. And it’s the path for transforming a once protected bird into a sustainable success story.
Almost wiped out in the 1800s by unregulated hunting and habitat loss, the sandhill crane has since surged to more than 1 million, with experts of all stripes acknowledging stable populations in Wisconsin and numerous other states. Reported crop damage in Wisconsin, meanwhile, has reached more than $2 million annually, mainly corn and wheat.
Now, the crane is at a crossroads. It can go the way of the sustainable success story, like the whitetail deer, the wild turkey and the duck, all persisting in Wisconsin as a beloved animal that nature-lovers and hunters alike are able to appreciate in abundance. Or, it can go the way of the invasive presence like the coyote in Wisconsin, the wild boar in many parts of the country, and other animals facing open season — without limits — to thin them out.
Comparing the sandhill crane to a mangy coyote is where some may get hot, if they’re not already, given the crane’s history and beauty. Yes, there are reasons particular to coyote and boar that they’re capable of becoming so problematic. But let’s not insult the clever coyote — also a sight to behold slipping from field to woods in the early morning — or the proud boar once held in high regard by western civilization.
Gray wolves show how attitudes about animal’s can change
And we’ve seen how attitudes about animals can change.
Consider the gray wolf, once deeply endangered, now going off and on the endangered species list depending upon which political party is in power. The crane is headed toward similar division. The first time I saw a crane was as a kid in the 1990s, when my mom told me the story of their recovery as two cranes drifted across an evening field, then issued their softly purring trumpet of a call before taking flight. I remember her gasping at their beauty. Today I usually hear them referred to as “those dang things,” if profanity isn’t involved, as they ravage farmers’ fields.
A responsible hunt — with well-timed seasons to protect the hatching of new cranes, bag limits, and fees to fund game law enforcement and even more conservation — can prevent this. Keeping the crane in its hallowed, no-hunt status for too long simply leaves it vulnerable to future generations not giving a damn what happens to it.
This spring, North America’s sandhill cranes will begin their great journey north, from as far south as Mexico. They’ll rest on the Platte River in Nebraska near the sandhills that gave them their name, a sight National Geographic calls “one of the greatest wildlife phenomena in North America.” Then they’ll stop off in the fertile fields of Wisconsin.
You can believe that nature is a delicate ecosystem, with a natural balance that we must protect to preserve such a sight. I certainly do. All I’m saying is, mankind is a part of that balance.
Brian Reisinger is a writer who grew up on a family farm in Sauk County. He contributes columns and videos for the Ideas Lab at the Journal Sentinel, and is the author of “Land Rich, Cash Poor: My Family’s Hope and the Untold History of the Disappearing American Farmer.” Reisinger works in public affairs consulting for Wisconsin-based Platform Communications. He splits his time between Sacramento, Calif. — America’s “farm-to-fork capital,” near his wife’s family — and the family farm in Wisconsin. You can find him on X at @BrianJReisinger
Texas coach anticipates ‘fun chess match’ against Wisconsin volleyball
Texas coach Jerritt Elliott had high praise for Wisconsin and explained why the Badgers have been playing their best volleyball at this time of year.
AUSTIN, Texas – Wisconsin volleyball’s first weekend of the 2025 season featured a high-profile match against Texas.
Wisconsin’s either final or penultimate weekend of the season – depending on whether UW can advance – also features a high-profile match against Texas.
But both sides will caution against reading too much into Wisconsin’s Aug. 31 loss to Texas ahead of a rematch in the NCAA tournament regional finals as each team seeks a return to the Final Four.
“We are completely different teams than what we saw however many months ago that was,” Wisconsin middle blocker Carter Booth said.
Texas coach Jerritt Elliott said almost the exact same thing in the Longhorns’ press conference, and his players echoed similar sentiments as well.
“I feel like both teams are just a lot more developed at this point in the year,” Texas setter Ella Swindle said. “At the beginning of the season, we were kind of just figuring out who we are and who we want to be. So now at this point, I feel like we know our identities, and we’re ready to go out and battle.”
Here are three keys for the much-improved Badgers to have a better outcome against the also-much-improved Longhorns in the NCAA tournament:
How efficient can Wisconsin’s attack be against Texas’ physicality at net?
Wisconsin’s path to advancing in the Texas regional has already required defeating one team with outstanding physicality at the net, and it is unlikely to get any easier in the regional finals.
“I was watching Stanford warm up, and you’re like, ‘Jiminy Crickets,’” Sheffield said. “It’s like watching the NBA dunking contest. It’s like, ‘Holy cow.’ They’re just bouncing balls on the 10-foot line and just really dynamic and impressive. And Texas probably has it even more than that.”
Texas’ physicality was abundantly apparent in its three-set sweep over Indiana in the regional semifinals. The Longhorns had a 12-2 advantage in blocks, and Indiana committed 23 attack errors. Going back to when UW faced Texas in August, the Badgers committed a season-high 26 attack errors despite it lasting only three sets.
“But each team has their thing,” Sheffield said. “And if we try to play their game, we’re going to get whacked. And if they try to play ours, that’s going to be problems for them as well.”
Can Badgers keep Texas’ talented pin hitters in check?
The Wisconsin-Texas match will feature two of the best outside hitters in the country.
Wisconsin’s Mimi Colyer has averaged 5.38 kills per set, which is the highest among players who advanced to the NCAA regional finals and is destined to break the UW program record. Texas’ Torrey Stafford is ninth in the country with 4.78 kills per set while hitting .368.
“Both of them are fearless,” Sheffield said. “They’re extremely, extremely talented. I think volleyball fans are going to be following them for a long, long time. Both of them have tremendous careers in front of them.”
Stafford was virtually unstoppable in the Longhorns’ sweep over Indiana, recording 19 kills without any attack errors and hitting a video-game-like .679. But for as talented as the AVCA national player of the year semifinalist is, she is not the only pin that can give opponents fits.
Texas freshman Cari Spears has immediately stepped into a major role in the Longhorns’ attack as the starting right-side hitter in every match this season. In the second match of her career, she led Texas with 11 kills while committing only one attack error in the win over the Badgers.
“She was just trying to figure out how to breathe during that first match, and it just takes time,” Elliott said. “And now she actually understands our offense a lot more, she’s developed a lot of her blocking, her range has gotten better, and that applies to all of our team. Ella’s been doing the same thing. Her offensive system is completely different than it was the first week of the season.”
The Wisconsin match was the first of seven consecutive matches for Spears with at least 10 kills.
“Seeing that I can compete with one of the top teams in the nation and seeing the trust that my teammates had with me and the trust that the coaches had in me – it was a huge confidence boost for me,” Spears said.
As for how to stop Stafford, Spears and Co., Booth said it goes back to the Badgers’ fundamentals.
“I know I’m beating a dead horse, but that’s really what this is all about,” Booth said. “At the highest level, the margins are so thin that you’re not trying to reinvent the wheel again. You’re honing in on the details of what you already know to do. So it’s not necessarily about being perfect on the block. … Our focus is just going to be taking away good space for our defense and then trusting that the people around us have put in the work to be able to defend those shots.”
How do Badgers respond to adversity?
When Wisconsin defeated Stanford after an otherworldly offensive showing in the first set, Booth said it was “really an emphasis for us to always be the one throwing punches, not the ones taking them.”
The ability to punch first is far from a guarantee against a team as talented as Texas is, however. The Longhorns have only lost once this season at Gregory Gym, and that was against Kentucky, which is one of the other top seeds in the NCAA tournament.
Even in a neutral crowd situation, Wisconsin’s ability to not let Stanford’s momentum snowball was crucial in the four-set win. Now with the vast majority of the anticipated 4,500 people in attendance rooting against the Badgers in the regional finals, Wisconsin’s resiliency when Texas does pack a punch will be crucial.
“We are definitely more equipped to withstand those highs and lows of a set and able to step up after a mistake or come back after a battle,” Booth said. “You see yesterday, (we) come out very dominant in the first set, and then we dropped the second in a fashion that was a little bit uncharacteristic to the way we want to play. And being able to just step up and come back third and fourth playing our game – I think that goes to show how much we’ve grown in that sense.”
The Badgers – already confident before the tournament and now with even more reason for confidence after the Stanford win – are not ceding the possibility of still throwing that figurative first punch either.
“We are the writers of our own destiny, and I think that we are always in a position to be able to throw the first punch, no matter who we’re seeing across the net,” Booth said.
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Over the first couple weeks of the WIAA high school boys basketball season, the Journal Sentinel will be checking in with the Milwaukee area’s three reigning state championship teams.
Our visits began with reigning Division 3 champion Milwaukee Academy of Science, which will compete in D2 in the WIAA postseason this year. The next check-in comes with a team that knows all about repeating in a higher division, the two-time defending state champions from Wisconsin Lutheran. The Vikings won their fourth WIAA state title and second consecutive after receiving a competitive balance elevation from D2 to D1 last season. The quest for a third straight title will also be in D1, and the Vikings look up to the challenge.
Here is what to know about Wisconsin Lutheran, which improved to 4-0 with a 69-20 victory over New Berlin West on Dec. 12.
Roles to fill around returning stars Zens, Knueppel
Wisco’s two leading scorers from the 2024-25 team return, but the surrounding cast looks a bit different this season. Northern Iowa commit and 6-foot-7 senior forward Zavier Zens (22.2 points per game last season) and 6-10 junior guard Kager Knueppel (13.5 ppg) are the two returning starters, while the three graduated starters include guard Isaiah Mellock (11.1 ppg, Wisconsin Lutheran College), forward/guard Alex Greene (10.9 ppg, Concordia) and forward Ben Langebartels (2.3 ppg).
Coach Ryan Walz said he wants to see Zens become a more vocal leader this year, while adding Knueppel can round out his ability as a three-level scorer.
“I think that’s a big step for any senior to make, to get outside of yourself, to be able to be engaged with other people on the team and not just always be worried about what you’re doing, but also being concerned for your teammates and showing that kind of leadership,” Walz said of Zens.
“From our standpoint, we want to see [Kager] be an effective basketball player at the basket, in the midrange and from three-point range. That’s the next step for guys who are on the cusp of being really, really good players, and that’s what Zavier did last year,” Walz added on Knueppel.
In place of the graduates this season have been former reserve 6-foot junior guard Riley Walz (4.2 ppg last season), former reserve forward and 6-6 senior Kinston Knueppel (5.0 ppg) as well as junior 6-7 forward Jamail Sewell.
“Riley’s going to have to handle the ball and distribute it, get us into offense and really control what we do, and Kinston is that versatile piece – kind of like Alex Greene last year – where he has to find ways where he can influence the game offensively with his intelligence, his skill level, his flexibility of being able to go inside and outside,” coach Walz said. “Jamail is 6-7, almost 6-8, and obviously anybody who saw him in football pads saw this enormous man, and he moves really, really well and has great hands. He needs to catch up on some of his basketball things and his skill and his understanding of the game, but he is an enormous presence on the floor.”
The Vikings again do not lack for size and will send one of the tallest starting fives in the state to the floor night-in and night-out between Zens, Kinston Knueppel, Kager Knueppel and Sewell. Kager Knueppel said teams will also have to watch out for Riley Walz on the perimeter as they crowd the paint.
“He’s been working really hard. I like him coming into the point guard role because he does not turn the ball over and he can shoot threes really well,” Kager Knueppel said.
As they learned with a late substitution in the D1 title game in March, every player needs to be ready for their moment.
“You don’t know when your time is going to come but you have to be ready, and so as coaches it’s our job to absolutely keep pushing them and moving them forward as best that we can,” coach Walz said.
Wisconsin Lutheran not shying from expectations
Returning top players to a team coming off consecutive state titles creates expectations around the program to compete for a three-peat. Zens said the team is embracing those expectations, while relying on the experience that has led them this far.
“We all know there’s high expectations for us, but those are our expectations for ourselves as well,” Zens said.
The pressure to defend a title is nothing new for Kager Knueppel, and something he thinks the team will be prepared for on a nightly basis.
“All of our guys understand that we have a target on our back, and people will want to come after us and beat us,” Knueppel said.
Coach Walz said the tone of keeping expectations in their proper framework is set by Zens.
“He is intrinsically motivated,” Walz said. “If your best player has no letdown and is leading by example, then that just brings everybody else along.”
Start time yet to be announced for regional finals match
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AUSTIN, Texas – Wisconsin volleyball will be spending two more days in Austin.
The Badgers ensured that with a four-set win over Stanford on Dec. 12 in the NCAA tournament regional semifinals. It was the eighth consecutive win in the regional semifinals for Kelly Sheffield’s group and its first-ever win over Stanford in program history.
Here’s what to know about Wisconsin’s next match:
Who will Wisconsin volleyball play next?
Wisconsin’s next match will be against top-seeded Texas in the NCAA tournament regional finals, with the winner advancing to the Final Four.
What time is Wisconsin volleyball’s next match?
The Wisconsin-Texas match will be on Sunday, Dec. 14. A time has not yet been announced, but it will either be at 2 p.m. or 6:30 p.m. CT.
How to watch Wisconsin-Texas NCAA tournament regional finals match?
NCAA volleyball tournament bracket for regional finals
- Creighton vs. Kentucky on Dec. 13 at 5 p.m. in Lexington, Kentucky
- Purdue vs. Pittsburgh on Dec. 13 at 7:30 p.m. in Pittsburgh
- Wisconsin vs. Texas on Dec. 14 in Austin
- Winner of Nebraska/Kansas vs. winner of Louisville/Texas A&M on Dec. 14 in Lincoln, Nebraska
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