Notes from the President
Conservation leadership is at the heart of ICF’s global mission to save cranes and the diverse ecosystems, watersheds, and flyways on which they and all of us depend. We are dedicated to inspiring and empowering leaders at all levels. We provide training and practical experience for individuals and organizations engaged in community-based conservation, education, and outreach at key crane sites, building on their knowledge of cultural norms and practices. We also facilitate international leadership on key cross-cutting issues that affect cranes, such as sustainable water management. And sometimes conservation leaders find us, and together we tackle challenges beyond the reach of ICF alone. In this issue, we share stories from conservation leaders who are on the front lines of saving cranes and their landscapes on three continents.
This has been a busy month for Whooping Crane activity since our last report. Aransas National Wildlife Refuge has received an additional 0.72 inches of precipitation and salinity levels remain higher than ideal. We have continued to help alleviate the low food resources by adding to our prescribed burn totals. This week alone we have burned an additional 4,682 acres of Whooping Crane habitat. Biologists observed the Whooping Cranes eating roasted acorns and are seeing continued usage.
Our scorecard: week one: 1 bird, week two: 10 birds! ICF’s Director of Veterinary Services Dr. Barry Hartup returned earlier this month from a two-week field visit to Aransas National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) in Texas to capture and band Whooping Cranes. The researchers successfully banded 11 birds as part of a study to learn more about the movements and health of the western Whooping Crane population.
A large, long-lived bird with a low reproductive rate and a migration covering over 2,500 miles twice a year from northern Canada to coastal Texas faces many challenges in our modern landscape: habitat loss, powerline and fence collisions, increasing wind, powerline, and coastal development, as well as, water management in the coastal river basins. Their coastal habitat in Texas is also changing as black mangrove, a tropical species, spreads northward eliminating large tracts of marsh formerly used for foraging.