In the 1991 session of the Nebraska Unicameral we had a bill introduced that would have removed the Western Meadowlark as the state bird of Nebraska and replaced it with the much more appropriate and regal Sandhill Crane. After all six states have the mundane Western Meadowlark as their state bird but none has the Sandhill Crane. And when you think about Nebraska and birds the first thing to pop in your head is Sandhill Cranes.
The hearing in the Unicameral regarding this bill was held on January 20, 1991. By the time of the hearing the "Impeach the Meadowlark" bill as it had become known had generated more media coverage, more letters to the editor, and more arguments in bar rooms and coffee shops than any other bill that year. It was even more popular an argument than was the Governor's proposed budget that had a $1 Billion deficit.
I drove over to Lincoln on official time in a US Fish and Wildlife Service vehicle that day and testified on behalf of the bill. It didn't make it out of committee and in fact the final vote was 6-0 against the bill. In the hallway after the vote I was asked by a television reporter from channel 11 in Lincoln what I thought of the bill losing in committee. I remember saying "Loss? What do you mean loss? We got the entire state from Nebraska City to Sioux County and everywhere in between talking about and thinking about the Platte River and the Cranes. To me that was a giant victory."
And it was. In 1979 I was told by a farmer by Kearney that I should carry a side arm for protection because of who I worked for because "you're trying to save those god damned cranes." Today Sandhill Cranes are the number one tourist attraction in Nebraska and they bring more than $40 million into the central Platte River economy just in March each year.
All of this stuff came to mind today when I saw the new Nebraska license plate. On it is a Western Meadowlark (the current state bird) and the goldenrod (Solidago gigantea) the state flower. Seeing the meadowlark on the plate reminded me of that great time twenty one years ago when we turned around the thinking of an entire state about the environment and we did it with Sandhill Cranes.
I posted a note about today's experience on my Facebook page and a dear old friend suggested that we should try to impeach the meadowlark in the 2013 legislative session. She has friends in the legislature and I have the data and the stories to tell about how everyone knows of cranes and Nebraska. People like the US Customs agent in Toronto who let me bring Cuban cigars and Cuban fruits back into the country after traveling to Cuba when he started asking questions about the cranes on the river he had heard about. Or the Swiss birders I met in Chiang Mai Thailand who told me they wanted to come to Nebraska to see the cranes after seeing a special about them on television. Or the cardiologist from Argentina I met while looking at a penguin colony in the Beagle Channel in southernmost South America who told me that before she died she wanted to see the cranes on the Platte River at least one time.
None of them ever mentioned the lowly Western Meadowlark when they thought about Nebraska.
My old friend and I used to teach a lot of fourth and fifth graders about Sandhill Cranes back in those early 1990's days. We called the kids "ecowarriors" because thats what they are. They are all grown up now and in their 30s and many have their own families. I'll bet it will be simple to get some of those same kids fired up next year and have them descend on the state capitol building to testify with us on behalf of making a real bird the state bird of Nebraska. Wow. Am I ever stoked.
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