Riding on Bette Midler’s wings, The National Audubon Society soared last night, Jan. 17, at the Plaza Hotel in New York. For the first time, the organization awarded two of the nation’s most prestigious environmental honors on the same night: the inaugural Dan W. Lufkin Prize for Environmental Leadership and the Audubon Medal.
George Archibald, co-founder of the International Crane Foundation, received the first Lufkin Prize and its $100,000 award, and philanthropist Louis Bacon received the esteemed Audubon Medal.
When I think about the conservation challenges we face in the coming century, my thoughts invariably turn to food, water, and energy. How will we feed 9 billion people and still maintain healthy landscapes for cranes and other life we hold dear? How will we water thirsty cities and farmlands without sacrificing life-supporting rivers and wetlands? Can we meet the global demand for electricity without devastating our land, water, air…and climate?
The following are notes from my October 27-November 8, 2012 visit to North Korea. I was the guest of North Korea’s foremost ornithologist, Dr. Park U Il of the State Academy of Sciences (SAOS), with whom ICF has been working since my first visit in 2008. From our base at the Pyongyang Hotel, we traveled to three important sites for Red-crowned Cranes.
The Land Trust for Tennessee and Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA) successfully partnered to purchase 68 acres of critical wildlife habitat located along Blythe Ferry Road near the confluence of the Hiwassee and Tennessee Rivers. This essential acreage is now part of the Hiwassee Wildlife Refuge in Meigs County thanks to the tremendous support of individuals, foundations and the community.
Five endangered Whooping Cranes arrived Friday on their wintering grounds at St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) in Wakulla County, Florida. These cranes are the 12th group to be guided by ultralight aircraft from central Wisconsin to the Gulf coast of Florida.
As the seasons change, so do the patterns and behaviors of our captive flock. Things have been busy this fall within the Whooping Crane enclosure at ICF. We recently hosted Ph.D. student Megan Fitzpatrick, who spent a week here in Baraboo watching our Whooping Cranes, Omega and Seurat, and studying their behavior in a wetland environment.
A perfect balance of entertainment and education, Raising Kid Colt – A Story of a Young Sandhill Crane, invites you into the exciting world of a wild Sandhill Crane couple and their parenthood adventures. The incredible footage and documentation of these cranes was captured by amateur videographer, Nina Faust, who happily shares her land in Homer, Alaska with a Sandhill Crane family.
On Wednesday, 5 September 2012, Vladimir Putin, the President of the Russian Federation, participated in the “Flight of Hope” Project on the reintroduction of the endangered Siberian Crane in West Asia. The flight has drawn much needed worldwide attention to the conservation of this species.
In early August, ICF veterinarian Dr. Barry Hartup participated in his third annual research trip to western Canada to band wild Whooping Crane chicks on their remote summering area at Wood Buffalo National Park.