It was one of those cool fall mornings on a wetland—low-lying mist slowly moving across the cattails, the sky a dull white making no shadows on the ground.  From the ground level windows of our blind, I could just make out the edges of the camouflage net covering the pen about 100 yards away.  The ground sloped gently toward the marsh and leveled out to the seeded strip which paralleled the pen.  All was quiet among the four of us—a photographer, a poet, a wildlife film producer and myself.  We were waiting, waiting for a glimpse of a young whooping crane, the most endangered crane on earth. 

It took only a few moments for the whisper to be heard.  “There’s one, over there, on the left.” Binoculars and camera lenses swiveled, and then two birds could be seen.  Though only five months of age, their sheer size was astonishing—five feet tall, the tallest bird in North America.  Steadily they advanced on long black legs, necks curled, bright eyes and long beak turning side to side.  

We were not in the Northwest Territories where the only wild migrating whoopers were discovered nesting in the 1950s.  We were not in Texas where those same birds winter at Aransas National Wildlife Refuge.  Neither were we in Florida, where non-migrating whooping cranes have been reintroduced since 1993.  We were in a place where whooping cranes vanished from over 100 years ago.  We were in Wisconsin, at Necedah National Wildlife Refuge.  

We soon saw where the whoopers were heading.  A biologist draped in white from head to shin had entered the pen from the other side, with a full-sized adult crane puppet head on his arm.  “Mom!” (or rather, Dad!).  As obedient as teenagers everywhere, they moved to greet their “parent” and the ultralight aircraft parked nearby.  

It had taken many years to get to this moment.  Since the 1940s, when the world’s population of whooping cranes dwindled to only 16 individuals, crane experts from Canada and the United States have been struggling to rescue this bird from near extinction.  Indeed, it surprises many that whooping cranes did not, like the Carolina parakeet and passenger pigeon, disappear into dusty museum mounts and natural history books, their voices forever silenced.  From an estimated population high of only 1,400 in the 1890s, whoopers had very nearly succumbed four decades later to massive loss of its wetland habitat and indiscriminate killing.  For all the early settlers knew, there was another tall white bird in the next county but the one within shotgun range made as tempting a target as turkeys, and an equally good meal (male whooping cranes typically weigh about 17 pounds).  But thanks to a unique coalition called the Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership, the clear bugle call of this icon of the Endangered Species Act may one day again ring out over the landscape of Wisconsin, and perhaps the whole eastern half of North America. 

Recovery depends on establishing a second migrating flock to help safeguard the remaining wild migrating flock out west (called the Aransas/Wood Buffalo flock) and the second, eight-year old introduced non-migratory flock in Florida, managed by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.  The Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership formed in 1999 to carry out the second migratory flock reintroduction.  

The project’s complexity called for an array of experts in the Partnership.  The U.S.  Geological Survey’s Patuxent Wildlife Research Center and Madison Wildlife Health Center propagate and raise the chicks from captive pairs, and monitor potential disease issues.  The International Crane Foundation brings 25 years of expertise in crane restoration around the world and key private sector fund raising ability.  The U.S.  Fish and Wildlife Service and Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources manage the nesting and wintering areas and also have responsibilities under Federal and State endangered species laws.  Funding sources are enhanced through the efforts of private non-profit groups including the Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and “Friends” groups throughout the country.  Canada’s Operation Migration Inc.  handle the ultralight training and lead the actual migration study.  These are the same people who first developed the technique in 1988, and were featured in the film “Fly Away Home.” When the International Whooping Crane Recovery Team approved the ultralight technique for teaching the migration route, and chose two national wildlife refuges for nesting and wintering areas, the Partnership was ready to go. 

The monies needed to carry off this project have been jointly provided by government agencies and the private sector.  Funding is needed for items such as design and construction of multiple pens, blinds and migration training areas, propagation, hatching and chick care, veterinary and health checks, medicine, crane chow, radio telemetry and satellite equipment, leg bands, ground school and flight school for the chicks, logo and website development, environmental education and media materials, fund-raising products and events, public meetings, State meetings, Flyway Council meetings, Congressional briefings, correspondence, cell phones, cameras, even gasoline for the planes and vehicles.  Half of the $1.3 million budget for this year was donated by corporations, groups, and individuals who care about cranes and the wetlands upon which they depend.