Events

North American Crane Working Group

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THE ELEVENTH NORTH AMERICAN CRANE WORKSHOP
Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin, September 23-27, 2008

We invite you to the 11th NORTH AMERICAN CRANE WORKSHOP, which will be held September 23-27, 2008, at the beautiful Glacier Canyon Lodge Convention Center in the Wisconsin Dells. We will kick off on Tuesday, the 23rd, with a welcoming evening social in Wisconsin Oktoberfest style. There will be technical sessions, with over 40 papers, on Wednesday the 24th and Friday the 26th. Thursday, the 25th, is set aside for an all-day field trip to Necedah National Wildlife Refuge, where we can see Operation Migration in action, and then to the International Crane Foundation, with visits to the Whooping Crane Exhibit, Crane City, Education Center, and isolation chick-rearing site. Our tour leader, George Archibald, guarantees good birding, including whooping and sandhill cranes, loons, trumpeter swans, woodpeckers, and much more. There will be our traditional closing banquet on the evening of the 26th.
You and your family also may want to take in the Necedah Whooping Crane Festival on the preceding Saturday, September 20, and the annual Members Meeting of the International Crane Foundation. Plan to bring raingear for the field trip and your bathing suit to take advantage of the Lodge’s water features.
Click here for Registration Information, Call for Papers, and additional information.
Several other meetings will be held in association with the Crane Workshop that week:
* The West Coast Crane Working Group: Monday and Tuesday. September 22-23.
* International Crane Foundation Board: Friday and Saturday, September 26-27. Board members are invited to attend to workshop and the Friday evening banquet.
* Annual Members Meeting of the International Crane Foundation: daylong activities at the center on Saturday, September 27, with an evening banquet at the Glacier Canyon Lodge. For more information, contact Ann Burke at 608-356-9462 ext. 147, or aburke@savingcranes.org.

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PREVIOUS WORKSHOPS

The North American Crane Working Group hosted the Tenth North American Crane Workshop, February 7-10, 2006, in Zacatecas City, Zacatecas, Mexico. Zacatecas, along with San Luis Potosi, support the most southern distribution of wintering sandhill cranes. Zacatecas City is located in the southern Chihuahuan Desert. Founded in 1546 at 2,460 meters (8,000 ft) elevation, the city is a fascinating labyrinth of artistic and cultural treasures. The town has breathtaking views and includes many historic buildings and preserved and restored ancient architectural and artistic monuments. The paper sessions were held in a truly unique setting with large murals looming overhead in the ruins of a 16th century building that had been converted to a garden and museum housing a large collections of masks. One of the paper sessions focused on Mexican and Caribbean crane conservation, and included a special presentation by the Director of Wildlife Conservation in Mexico, Felipe Ramirez Ruiz De Velasco. Forty-five papers and seven posters covered nesting ecology, genetics, behavior, survival and reproduction, research techniques, whooping cranes, management, physiology, diet, health and captive management, distribution, population numbers and ecology. Presenters came from Mexico, Cuba, Germany, Canada, and the United States. Field trips visited wetland areas supporting wintering sandhill cranes and the landscape and scenery of the southern Chihuahuan Desert and adjoining mountain systems. Special thanks go to Dr. Felipe Chavez-Ramirez who organized this international meeting of crane scientists and served as editor of the 2003 Proceedings. Vice-President Gary Krapu stepped down from the Board, and new Board member Jane Austin was elected. Board members in new terms were Dr. Glenn Olsen (President), Dr. Felipe Chavez-Ramirez (Vice-President), Tracy Grazia (Secretary), Tom Hoffmann (Treasurer), Dr. Jane Austin, Dr. Marilyn Spalding, and Dr. Richard Urbanek. The Lawrence Walkinshaw Award was awarded to Stephen A. Nesbitt of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Several others were recognized by special achievement awards. The award for best student paper went to Kristen Candelora for “Infectious Bursal Disease in Wild Populations of Florida Wild Turkeys and Sandhill Cranes, Preliminary Findings.” The Eleventh North American Crane Workshop will be held in 2009 at a location still to be named.

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The North American Crane Working Group hosted the Ninth North American Crane Workshop, January 21-25, 2003, in Sacramento, California. The Workshop allowed participants to observe sandhill cranes in the Pacific Flyway and learn about the problems they face, especially from the continued development in California. The North American Crane Workshop is held every 3-4 years and is an important event for crane recovery because it allows scientists from all over North America to exchange ideas and publish research findings. Special thanks go to Dr. Dave Ellis, who edited the last Proceedings, and to Dr. Felipe Chavez-Ramirez who will edit the 2003 Proceedings. Board members Mary Bishop, Wendy Brown, Steve Nesbitt and Scott Hereford of NACWG decided to step down after more than a decade of service. New board members elected were Dr. Glenn Olsen (President), Dr. Gary Krapu (Vice-President), Tracy Grazia (Secretary) Tom Hoffmann (Treasurer), Dr. Felipe Chavez-Ramirez, Dr. Marilyn Spalding and Dr. Richard Urbanek. The Lawrence Walkinshaw Award was awarded to Dr. George Gee of Patuxent. Lifetime achievement awards went to C. D. Littlefield, Dr. Rod Drewien, and Steve Nesbitt. A special achievement award was given to Xiomora Galvez and Cuban biologists for their work on the Cuban sandhill crane. The next workshop will be in Mexico in February 2006.

Resolutions were passed at the workshop supporting:

1. Freshwater inflows from the Guadalupe River for the conservation of blue crabs and whooping cranes

2. Continued designation of whooping crane critical habitat on the Platte River in Nebraska

3. The Crane Conservation Act (Senate Bill 128) that would provide funding for crane conservation worldwide and focus on 11 of the 15 crane species that are endangered or threatened.

4. Construction of whooping crane breeding facilities at Audubon Center for Research on Endangered Species (ACRES) in Belle Chasse, Louisiana.

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The North American Crane Working Group hosted the Eighth North American Crane Workshop, January 11-14, 2000, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Daytime technical sessions on January 12 and 14 included 40 papers covering population dynamics, migration and wintering biology, management techniques, captive propagation, disease, mortality, genetics, breeding biology, and reintroduction. The evening of the 12th included an open meeting of the Whooping Crane Recovery Team. On the 13th, workshop participants made an all-day field trip down the Middle Rio Grande Valley culminating at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, widely recognized as one of the jewels of the national wildlife refuge system. Impressive concentrations of waterfowl and sandhill cranes, plus two whooping cranes from the attempted Rocky Mountain reintroduction, were seen.

Topping the day was an unforgettable viewing experience as thousands of sandhill cranes returned to evening roosts at Bosque del Apache.

The workshop was capped on the evening of January 14 with a dinner and awards banquet. Dr. Jim Lewis (right) received the L. H. Walkinshaw Crane Conservation Award for his three decades of leadership in crane research and conservation. (Award presented by Dr. George Archibald, left.)

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