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Inspiring a Global Community

Volume 34, Number 3 August 2008

New Cranes of the World Poster! ICF introduces a new poster of cranes for our 35th anniversary. This beautiful 11.75” x 36” poster features the photographs of Wisconsin photographer Richard Armstrong and the artistry of Next Level ranes Respond Communication’s Designer Carrie Spankowski of Baraboo. The poster is available at C www.craneshop.org or by calling our Gift Shop at 608-356-9462 ext. 121 for $19.99 + shipping. to Climate Change Saturday, September 27, 2008 By Jim Harris, Vice President ICF Annual Meeting Information and Reservation form on Page 11

A friend once told me how extraordinary ICF’s accumulation of knowledge and experience International Crane Foundation had become, focused on a single, magnificent strand of our world. Such depth and long-term Nonprofit Org relationships give us the understanding, the capacity to act as no others can. E11376 Shady Lane Rd. U.S. Postage P.O. Box 447 PAID Continued on page 2 Baraboo, WI 53913-0447 LaCrosse, WI www.savingcranes.org Permit No. 25

Address Service Requested Printed on 100% Recycled Paper with Soy Ink.

High altitude landscapes of central Asia, where the Black-necked Cranes nest, have experienced some of the most dramatic warming due to climate change. Black-necked Cranes appear to benefit in the short-term due to lowered mortality with milder weather. But long-term, the melting of glaciers will greatly reduce the extent of lakes and marshes where the cranes nest and feed. Photo by Carl-Albrecht von Treuenfels.

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Amur Region, . Sergei and I took a cranes, responding to changes around them others by the accumulating warmth of the Each of the 15 species has its own set of changing conditions, bus to Arkhara. We passed miles of burnt on the five continents, bring the issues down season. Insects and plants are no longer in and its own vulnerabilities. Whooping Cranes, for example, winter New Horizons for land, miles and miles, and often we could see to, well an almost human scale. We can bring synchrony with some of the birds that feed on in salt marshes along the Texas coast. A rising ocean would drown active fires…yet never any people with the a focused response, the necessary adaptations them. Research in Europe has shown that all their habitats. The Brolga of Australia faces unprecedented Cranes in DPRK fires. People walking on the road, and sitting seem easier to conceive and to manage. some forest birds formerly hatched their drought that is shrinking wetlands across temperate parts of its By George Archibald, ICF Co-Founder and Senior Conservationist beside us seemed not to notice flames range. It is on Asian cranes, however, that climate change is having slipping in long, irregular lines across forest the most pronounced impact. or licking the tall brown grasses. From Arkhara, we drove toward Khinganski Nature Siberian Cranes lose breeding marshes Reserve. This landscape without people was The threat of climate change, independent of other human influences, burned as well, or burning. As daylight is most evident with the critically endangered Siberian Crane. Polar dimmed, the flames we saw on either side of regions have seen great changes in temperatures and weather patterns, the road grew brighter, snapping the air. that in turn are affecting habitats critical for birds and other wildlife. We passed a long lake on the left, partly Scientists from the Institute of Biological Problems of the frozen, and I began to wonder how we could Cryolithozone in Yakutia are studying the tundra environment, nesting cross our little Kleshenskoe Lake to the grounds of the Siberian Crane, and finding many indicators of change, island. At the end of the road, I realized that such as a drop in the surface of the permafrost layer. The lakes are Sergei had no idea either. Sergei and the expanding where cranes nest, so that open water is replacing islands, driver conversed in Russian, and we looked peninsulas, and low-lying shores. It is too early to know how far this over the frozen, shadowy lake, dirty ice with Sandhill Cranes on migration. Photo by Tom Lynn process will go, but already Siberian Cranes are losing nesting habitat. smooth spots that were holes into the water, Sandhill Cranes, that breed in the same areas, tend to use higher reflecting the sky. Too much ice for the boat. Here in eastern North America, changes for young at the time that primary food sources, ground and so are likely to be less affected. The Ga Hak Lu (Crane Watching Pavilion) was built between 1735-1742 and Long rubber boots started appearing out of the Sandhill Cranes are dramatic. Thirty-five such as caterpillars, were also abundant. Now For changes such as these, across vast tundra landscapes, there is the van, leggy boots with little room for feet. years ago, when ICF began, the midwest the timing doesn’t match. Cranes belong to was a part of the Anbyon Guest House where travelers could find lodging. The little that conservationists can now do except monitor what is architecture is simple and the building is one of the oldest in Democratic Soon, we were carrying little suitcases and population of Greater Sandhill Cranes the latter group of wildlife that has adjusted happening. Some nesting species may adjust, others may not. With People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). Can you imagine sitting on the elevated water bottles, groceries, and Sergei held eggs wintered almost entirely in Florida, with a few their movements to temperature. We look for deterioration of breeding habitat, however, it becomes all the more platform and watching Red-crowned Cranes on nearby wetlands while warmed swinging in their own plastic bag as we set outliers in the Okefenokee Swamp of Georgia. the first cranes in spring in Wisconsin in mid important to minimize the threats to Siberian Cranes during other by spicy kimchee and thick blankets? out around the marshy shore in the dark. Now, depending on the year, a third of these to late February, not in March as before. parts of their annual migration cycle, including short-term human I felt scared about crossing half-iced marsh birds winter in Tennessee. In two winters with Our cranes linger late when autumn is activities such as hunting or the diversion of water from their wo hundred and fifty years ago near the base of a pine- in darkness, and joked that it was useful little snow, roughly 10,000 cranes remained in mild. Two years ago, in 2006, a large and wetland habitats. covered mountain, some enormous trees were felled to someone had burned here too, we could see northern Indiana feeding on the waste grain growing flock roosted on the Wisconsin River, T create pillars standing on a stone base and supporting an the ground better. Sergei chuckled. But not in farm fields. not far from the Leopold shack, and fed in Black-necked Cranes thrive in the short-term elevated platform beneath a sweeping tiled roof intended to long later when I quipped that we were lucky Climate is not the only change in the past fields two miles down Shady Lane Road from Where climate is changing landscapes, we need to set high priority resemble the outstretched wings of a crane. Sitting under the to have drought too, I heard no response. The 35 years. This crane population has tripled, so ICF. I felt so curious. What will they do as on research to understand the impacts on cranes and other wildlife so canopy, one gazed north across a wide plain to a line of high hills drought is terrible here, and many wetlands it is natural the birds have become more winter comes? Weeks passed. Every day I that we can devise conservation responses. The Black-necked Crane behind which more forested mountains towered. The plain was dry, cranes cannot nest. dispersed. And they have learned increasingly visited but at last felt anxious for the flock to inhabits high altitudes in central Asia, primarily the Tibetan-Qinghai dotted with small lakes, fringed by spongy wetlands and transected Later, safe on the island, I asked if it was to rely upon waste grain, a food source that go. Cranes do not belong in Wisconsin in Plateau. ICF has made this species a research priority, and we have by an east flowing river, the Namdae – with a sandy bottom and normal for the ice to be going out on April 19. entirely changes their relationship to January, something seems fundamentally good world population estimates from around 1990-92, as well as for many grassy islands. The pavilion was called Ga Hak Lu, Crane No. Most years, we could have walked over the landscapes. In Aldo Leopold’s time (just 70 wrong when traditional patterns are broken. I the most recent years. Numbers have increased across its entire range, Watching Pavilion. From late November through mid March, the ice in mid April. It seemed fitting that we had years ago), Sandhills inhabited as close to felt a growing dread of climate change. from about 5,500 to 10,900. calls of Red-crowned Cranes resounded across their winter home come here for a meeting about climate pristine, lonely wetlands as they could find. A snowstorm hurled through the night of We believe this dramatic increase results from three factors. First, on the Anbyon Plain. change, what warmth and dry years one after Now the greatest numbers inhabit mosaics of January 14, and by early morning the last some part of the apparent near doubling of the population may be Treasured by the people of Korea, Cultural Monument Number another are doing and will do to wetlands and farms and wetlands. Impacts of climate individuals were fleeing south. Cranes are due to more thorough counts now, and perhaps the concentration of 103, Ga Hak Lu continues to stand in admirable condition. But its cranes, and how we can respond to save our change interact with the deepening human hardy birds, but this flock must have had a birds at fewer sites in winter than previously. But there is no evidence surroundings have been transformed. From the pavilion one gazes conservation gains won over the past thirty imprint on the land, and the responses of a chill and arduous flight. The storm system that sizable numbers of birds were missed in the early 1990s. into a large playground of a primary school and from there to the years at Khinganski and so many other myriad of species. extended all the way south into Tennessee. Second, shooting of cranes and other wildlife in the region has concrete buildings of downtown Anbyon above which the peaks of protected places. Down the road from ICF, Leopold’s Eurasian Cranes show similar responses in been substantially reduced due to control of firearms, better northern mountains are just visible. In winter the dawn is not The evening was balmy. We lingered daughter Nina and the Aldo Leopold Germany, where some cranes never left in enforcement of wildlife protection laws and greater awareness among broken by the primeval calls of cranes, but by patriotic songs and outside, listening to the high piping of Far Foundation are tracking the sequence of winter 2006-07, and in Beijing, where the the population. During this period, numerous nature reserves have announcements from loudspeakers. A few blocks away from the Eastern Curlew courting in the moonlight. natural events each spring, as Aldo did in the species now winters on the city outskirts. But been established, and the older reserves now provide better protection pavilion, Natural Monument Number 203, an enormous two Later, White-naped Cranes unison called. 1930s. Some birds like the Fox Sparrow and changing climate brings weather that is more from disturbance and encroachment. This enhanced protection is a hundred year old elm, rises from a small patch of earth surrounded Climate is already changing the crane Eastern Towhee arrive in spring at the same varied and extreme. Eurasian Cranes have significant reason for the increase. by the central town square. Perhaps this tree once sheltered other world. Now is the time we need to be learning time as in Aldo Leopold’s day, while others wintered far north of their previous winter Third, this region is especially affected by global warming. While Natural Monuments – Tristram’s Woodpecker, the Crested Ibis, and and adapting our conservation strategies. like the Eastern Phoebe and Rose-breasted range along a river separating southern there is no direct evidence, we believe that crane mortality has been the Oriental White Stork, all of which have vanished from the Environmental change on a global scale can Grosbeak now arrive days or weeks earlier. Uzbekistan from Afghanistan. Sudden severe reduced on both breeding and wintering grounds due to milder Anbyon Valley and perhaps from the Korean peninsula. On two be so daunting as to paralyze individual The former bird species appear to time their wintry conditions killed hundreds, perhaps weather. ICF will undertake additional research to learn more about other sides of the square, human-created cranes fly over concrete. action, or hope. Yet our fifteen species of migrations by the change in day length, while thousands this past winter. Continued on page 14 Continued on page 4

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Officers Joseph Branch, Mequon, WI Field Research in Yakutia, Russia (Chairman) George Archibald, Baraboo, WI (Vice Chairman) Richard Dana, North Freedom, WI (Secretary) Richard Fox, Winnetka, IL (Treasurer) High dikes prevent the Namdae River from inundating the rice fields that once provided waste grain for wintering Red-crowned Cranes. Directors Continued from page 3. Sara Bolz, Madison, WI Robert Brumder, Milwaukee, WI The Red-crowned Cranes of the Anbyon included in the farm, 275 of which can be On the Plain John Day, New York, NY Plain are Natural Monument Number 241. farmed. The remainder are islands in the Over a steep hill from Anbyon Town, the Judith Derse Langenbach, Since times untold hundreds wintered on the little village of Pisan (Fortress Mountain) is Namdae and steep hillsides carpeted on the Oconomowoc, WI plain benefiting from an abundance of small tucked in a narrow valley that opens onto the west side by grass and on the east by pine Robert Dohmen, Mequon, WI aquatic animals in the wetlands. As the valley wide Anbyon Plain that continue 15 miles plantations. Rice is the primary crop (260 Thomas Donnelley, II, Chicago, IL was settled by humans, some wetlands were northeast to the East Sea. The 1750 residents ha), followed by corn (5.4 ha), beans (3 ha) Sam Evans, Tucson, AZ transformed to rice paddies. The cranes are members of the Pisan Cooperative Farm. and potatoes (2 ha). Twenty-two additional Susan Feith, Wisconsin Rapids, WI Nina Griswold, Hobe Sound, FL arrived just after the rice was harvested and Rice is the primary crop, with corn and hectares of potatoes are planted in early Polly Hix, Indianapolis, IN benefited throughout the winter from waste wheat planted along the banks of the spring and harvested in late May or early grains in the paddies. Finally, to channel June before the same fields are planted in Lalise Mason, Houston, TX Russian researchers, Alexander Sorokin and Yuri Markin, banding a juvenile Namdae River that separates the Pisan Farm Siberian Crane in 2005. Photo by Crawford Prentice, map by Dorn Moore flooding of the Namdae and to transform the rice. Fodder for domestic animals from hay Nancy Mathews, Madison, WI from the Hak Chon (Crane Stream) Farm. Margery Nicolson, Pacific majority of the natural wetlands into fields fields (12 ha) and natural grasslands (21.7 This summer, Russian researchers will attempt to capture and band The Hak Song (Crane Formation) farm lies Palisades, CA and villages, high dikes were constructed ha) as well as vegetable gardens (7.7 ha), Siberian Cranes on their breeding grounds in northeast Siberia to learn at the base of the hill that separates the Pisan Nancy O’Donnell, Saukville, WI more about the species’ migratory routes and summering and wintering along both sides of the Namdae. The cranes Farm from Anbyon Town. orchards of apricot, pear, apple and Harry Peterson, Middleton, WI continued to roost at night in its shallows and persimmon (8.6 ha), and fish ponds (1.1 ha), Regina Phelps, San Francisco, CA areas. The birds will be banded with color bands and satellite to feed on gleanings in the fields. make this a diverse and interesting landscape. Nancy Ranney, Fair Oaks, CA transmitters (PTTs), which will enable researchers to track the birds Ornithologists from the Academy of Sciences In and near the village are fish ponds, Kathleen Ryan, Milwaukee, WI through the summer and fall migration to the crane’s wintering grounds in DPRK in Pyongyang counted 214 in 1980. vegetable plots, and domestic animals Elmyra Schiller, Yankeetown, FL southeastern . The banding will be coupled with annual breeding But the cranes on the Anbyon Plain and including cattle, pigs, goats, chickens, ducks Richard Steeves, Madison, WI surveys of the species, whose total population numbers about 3,500 birds (nearly other areas of the DPRK did not fare well and geese. Rebuilding from those crisis years Carl-Albrecht von Treuenfels, all Siberian Cranes are found in this eastern population in East Asia). Visiting Chinese during the 1990s. Following the collapse of in the 1990s, the fertility of the soil is being Germany researchers will also participate in the surveys to share their experiences and strengthen cooperation the USSR, fertilizers once supplied in enhanced by manure. Sandra Whitmore, Libertyville, IL between the two countries along the species’ flyway. For more information on Siberian Crane conservation, Mary Wickhem, Janesville, WI abundance from the northern neighbor were Pisan Farm needs better machinery to visit the UNEP/GEF Siberian Crane Wetland Project website at www.scwp.info. Look for an update on these Virginia Wolfe, Tucson, AZ limited. Steady attrition of soil nutrients farm more effectively. As part of an activities in the November issue of The Bugle. accompanied by consecutive years of arrangement for the farm to help restore droughts then floods precipitated a food Red-crowned Cranes as winter residents, we crisis. All spilt grains were collected from the contributed a rice milling machine that can Whooping Crane Longevity Record! fields leaving little for the birds. So the cranes process four tons of rice per hour, and The ICF Bugle is the quarterly newsletter for members of the International Crane Foundation. Cranes are symbols in folklore continued south to fields and meadows along promised other necessary equipment in the ICF was founded in 1973 by Ronald Sauey, Ph.D the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) and bordering future. In exchange, the farm has agreed to (1948 - 1987) and George Archibald, Ph.D. around the world of good areas in the Republic of Korea (ROK) where feed the cranes when they land on migration, Editor: Betsy Didrickson fortune, marital fidelity, there was food. Counts in recent years in From left to right: Mr. Ha Jong Nam, Manager Hak and to allow Dr. Pak and his colleagues to Bugle comments or questions? vigilance, and perhaps most ROK by Professor Lee Kisup and his Chon Farm (Crane Stream), Mrs. Pak Yon Chun, demonstrate new organic farming techniques Please write Betsy at [email protected] or notably, as symbols of long life. Manager Hak Song Farm (Crane Formation), Mrs. P.O. Box 447, Baraboo, WI. 53913 colleagues indicated about 850 Red-crowned on one hectare of land. The scientists will A Whooping Crane named Kang Yong Ok, Chair Anbyon County People’s Memberships are vital to ICF. Please join or give Rattler turned forty at ICF on Cranes. Concurrently, Dr. Pak U Il and his Committee, and Mrs. Kim Yon Sim, Manager Pisan also construct a large aviary near the Namdae a gift membership to a friend at the following June 2, 2008 making him the colleagues in the north at the Academy of Farm (Mountain Fortress). River for one male Red-crowned Crane on annual rates: Sciences searched the many wetlands where loan from Pyongyang Zoo. It is hoped this longest living Whooping Crane ever recorded in Student or Senior Citizen ...... $25 captivity! Rattler hatched at USGS Patuxent Wildlife cranes once wintered. They didn’t find one. For three days, in company with Dr. Pak lone crane will call down the wild cranes And now there are plans brewing in ROK to during their migration in October and Individual ...... $35 Research Center on June 2, 1968 and came to ICF in and three of his colleagues, I traveled with Family ...... $50 develop many key areas near the DMZ vital to November to the DMZ. 1989. Rattler is seen here unison calling with his long British conservationist and birder Associate ...... $100 cranes. The new project is called “One Hectare, time mate Riva (on right). Senior Aviculturist Sara extraordinaire William Duckworth on visits Sustaining ...... $250 Zimorski tosses Rattler smelt and handfuls of corn on From March 25 – April 8, with a Canadian One Crane.”Its goals are clearly defined and Sponsor ...... $500 to Pisan Farm. Our hostess was the Manager his birthday. Hardly over the hill, Rattler produced 17 passport and traveling on behalf of ICF’s of the farm, Mrs. Kim Yon Sim, a gracious easily measured. The Red-crowned Cranes Patron ...... $1,000 sister organization, BirdLife International, I are the bridge. They are not only a symbol of Benefactor ...... $2,000 offspring in his lifetime and continues to be an lady in her early forties and brimming with important foster parent in ICF’s captive flock. He and was able to visit DPRK to discuss plans for competence and enthusiasm. peace – they are a vehicle to help promote Cranemaker ...... $10,000 crane conservation on the Anbyon Plain. harmony on the divided peninsula. Riva are considered to be excellent parents and are Approximately 500 hectares (ha) are beloved by ICF staff. Photos by Betsy Didrickson

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INTERNATIONALCRANEFOUNDATION ANNUAL REPORT 2007 Veterinary Dentistry: BYJIMHOOK,PRESIDENT&CEO From Dogs to Cranes This past year has seen continued transition for the administrative expense next year, will be to add a full time Director By Dr. Barry Hartup, Director of Veterinary Services International Crane Foundation (ICF). After the successful of Accounting and Finance. This important position will round turnover of ICF leadership in the fiscal year ending March 31, out our senior management team and enable us to install new 2007, we have continued to add staff to fill open positions and financial accounting software for the foundation. An added benefit You-Yi with her shorter prosthetic lower beak. Insets: You-Yi in surgery at UW-Madison and You-Yi lays an egg! enhance our organizational strength. I am very happy to report of new software will be better administrative support of programs, that we filled the key Director of Conservation Education position so that our program staff will spend more time directly on Searlier this year and are already making great strides under the conservation activities. serious than that are early June and incubated a pair of capable leadership of Erica Cochrane. As I complete my second We are well along in implementing the first step of our 2005 often associated with “dummy” plaster filled eggs as a test. year as President and CEO, I am pleased with our progress. Master Site Plan and expect to break ground on new state of the art problems eating and Whether she successfully turned the eggs Looking at the numbers for our latest fiscal year, I note that ICF exhibits for African cranes just before this year’s annual meeting. We preening feathers properly. as normal cranes do is unknown, though For more than a month, videotape may help us discern this aspect is celebrating its 35th anniversary in 2008. Shortly after ICF’s plan to open in late June of 2009. Our project involves substantial You-Yi was tube fed by ICF of her performance. We are guardedly founding in 1973, our earliest rework of our existing Wattled staff to maintain her body optimistic that You-Yi will be able to financial report shows $40 in Crane site, located just west of our weight while her wounds continue contributing to the conservation contributions against slightly more Gift Shop, an upgrade to part of our healed and her upper beak of cranes through her use as a surrogate than $8,000 in expenses which existing pod structure and the ranes continually pose challenges to was surgically shortened to more closely incubator for other cranes’ eggs. the medical and surgical treatment match what was left of the lower beak. Howard’s fracture was more common, included a trip for George creation of two brand new exhibits. Cof their illnesses and injuries. On She was then brought to the University but complicated by the degree of damage Archibald to Australia. Fortunately, All four exhibits will feature natural the other hand, those long beaks and legs of Wisconsin School of Veterinary to the bones of the upper beak. After the fledgling organization was settings for the African cranes and sometimes provide unexpected Medicine (UW-SVM) Dentistry Service for wearing a temporary splint for two weeks, generously supported by the Norm strong interpretation of our field opportunities for creative applications of the placement of a temporary prosthetic to Howard received an external splint of the Sauey Family and this afforded us conservation efforts on the African techniques that are now standard in small augment her lower beak, such that it same dental acrylic anchored by two wires animal veterinary practice. would protect her healing stump and placed through the beak. Practice with an early asset base including a little continent. Our Conservation This year I have managed two such provide the necessary length and solid base home caulking projects certainly helped cash, some modest buildings, a Education Department has crafted a cases, and both involved fractures of a for her to eat. Drs. Jason Soukup and Bill me in the construction of Howard’s splint, chain link fence and a post hole carefully thought out Site crane’s beak. Though the ICF aviculture Gengler worked to wire the two parts of which will stay on for 4-6 weeks. digger with a recorded value of Interpretive Plan which will tell a and veterinary staff continually strive to the mandible together, creating a Both of these cases illustrate the $240. As they say, the rest is history. Bob Dohmen shows a scale model to staff and visitors of the planned balanced story about people, places identify and remove hazards in crane framework for a cold-curing dental acrylic successful collaboration that ICF has African Cranes Exhibit that will break ground at the end of August. enclosures, the appearance of these injuries used to construct the prosthetic. maintained with the UW-SVM for many Look where we are today. and these spectacular African birds. in two older, well-habituated captive You-Yi rebounded well and was self years and under formal agreement since During this past fiscal year which ended on March 31, 2008, our ICF Director Bob Dohmen, through the Dohmen Family cranes caught us all by surprise. feeding by the end of March. Though her 2000, as well as the successful (and sources of funds, the money we raise to support our mission, grew Foundation, provided lead funding for the project while ensuring You-Yi, a 23 year old female Red- outlook was touch-and-go for many creative) transfer of techniques “from dogs 28% to $7,282,880, while our use of funds, the money we actually that this very generous gift also includes direct support for field crowned Crane fractured and lost 75% of weeks, remarkably, she laid two eggs by to cranes.” spent during the year, grew 19% to $4,986,384. We continue to see conservation for cranes in Africa. Bob’s financial support and his her lower beak, or mandible, in early February. She became entangled in a strong growth in net assets, the best measure of our net worth as a tireless participation in the planning and execution of this project bracket supporting the heating element foundation, up 19% to $14,407,111. Much of this growth in net deserve the highest accolades. We are also grateful to many of our used to keep her drinking water clear of ice assets resulted from the generous bequest by Brooks McCormick of members who also helped this effort through last year’s annual in her Crane City pen. Howard, a 27 year his ornithological book and art collection which was sold at auction campaign. old male White-naped Crane on display at the Johnson Exhibit Pod fractured his this past October. The resulting increase in our endowment will I look forward to seeing many of you at our Annual Meeting on upper beak, or maxilla, in June. We suspect enlarge ICF’s operating cash flow for years to come. Saturday, September 27, 2008. We will have the chance to hear our that Howard became entangled in or was As the use of funds increased to support ICF programs, we Co-founder George Archibald share inspirational memories of our disturbed while patrolling the chain link continue to maintain best in class performance in organizational thirty-five year history, while sensing our exciting future as we fencing at the front of his pen and efficiency, our ability to allocate expenditures directly to support develop new exhibits and new conservation action. We have a great wrenched his upper beak, breaking three bones in the process. program expenses. We typically hold fundraising and event planned and look forward to a terrific day. Cranes can typically survive the loss of administrative expense to 10-12% of total expenditures and have up to about half the length of either the performed within this range again in 2007-08. Our biggest upper or lower beak, but losses more Howard following placement of the acrylic splint. The tip of his beak is now normally aligned and significantly more stable than with a temporary splint. Photos by Barry Hartup challenge in the financial area, and a planned increase in

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INTERNATIONALCRANEFOUNDATION INTERNATIONALCRANEFOUNDATION ANNUAL REPORT 2007 ANNUAL REPORT 2007 FINANCIALSUMMARY CONTRIBUTIONS APRIL 2007 – MARCH 2008 APRIL 2007 – MARCH 2008 The International Crane Foundation thanks the following donors who generously supported our work with gifts of $500 or more during the last fiscal year.

$100,000+ Mason Foundation, Inc. Lucy Brown Robert and Vicki Hallam STATEMENTS OF FINANCIAL POSITION SOURCESOFFUNDING C. Robert Binger Daniel and Patti McKeithan Robert and Kathy Brumder James and Coke Hallowell Years ended March 31, 2008 and 2007 The Bobolink Foundation The Milwaukee Insurance Francois and Sheila Brutsch John and Elizabeth Hanes Dohmen Family Foundation, Inc. Foundation, Inc. Ronald and Diane Buege Lois Harris Nartel Family Foundation Candace Cantrell Christina Havard Sales & Tour Income 2.8% Other 0.1% Felburn Foundation ASSETS 2008 2007 Reinhardt H. & Shirley R. Jahn National Fish & Wildlife Foundation Betty and Charles Carpenter Jonathan Hayssen CURRENT ASSETS Foundation Trust Natural Resources Foundation Virginia H. Carter Foundation Kathleen Heenan and Cash and cash equivalents $2,771,900 $1,412,146 National Fish & Wildlife Foundation of Wisconsin Henry and Clarissa Chandler Clarence Olmstead Accounts receivable 16,238 10,570 United Nations Environment Margery Nicolson John and Christine Coffin Heller Foundation, Inc. Grants receivable 14,584 14,584 Programme Trust Fund Fred Ott Rick Cohen Deirdre Henderson Unconditional promises to give - current portion 756,923 273,000 Panaphil Foundation Kay Combs The Elizabeth Wakeman Henderson Contributions, Grants Inventories 66,397 62,075 & Awards 59.9% $10,000 - $99,999 Phil Pines Laura Cornell Charitable Foundation Prepaid expenses 8,547 6,139 Anonymous (1) Reiman Foundation, Inc. Barbara Crass and Paul Holzman The Jane Henson Foundation Investments 5,440,385 4,730,959 Temporarily Restricted Alpha Omega Charitable Gordon Rock and Shirley William and Judy Cunnyngham The Jacob and Terese Contributions 37.8% Total Current Assets 9,074,974 6,509,473 Foundation, Inc. Reynolds Rock Diane Dahl and Tom Dunkel Hershey Foundation AMS Fund The Mark Ross Foundation Ford and Suzanne Dallmeyer R. Tod Highsmith Property and Equipment, net 1,922,919 1,999,005 Antonia Foundation Pleasant T. Rowland Foundation Dick and Jane Dana The Hinrichs Foundation Permanently Restricted Sand County Foundation Bradley Renuka and P.R. Das Gupta Polly Hix and Tony Fair Contributions 0.1% Aria Foundation Fund for the Environment Foundation, Inc. Peter and Joan Hood OTHER ASSETS The Baraboo National Bank Contributions, Grants & Awards $4,361,763 59.9% The Batchelor Foundation, Inc. Stackner Family Foundation Don and Sherrie Davidson Betsy and Alexander Horsfield Unconditional promises to give - net of current portion 40,000 223,000 Temporarily Restricted Contributions 2,754,498 37.8% Sara Bolz Brian Stephens and Leslie Coolidge John and Judith Day Marie Houteff Beneficial interest in charitable remainder trusts 762,087 764,102 Permanently Restricted Contributions 4,323 0.1% Helen Brach Foundation Ireene Sullivan Judy Derse and Gery Langenbach The Laura and Walter Cash surrender value of life insurance policy - - Sales & Tour Income 200,761 2.8% Elizabeth A. Brinn Foundation Geoffrey and Elizabeth Towell Arthur J. Donald Family Hudson Foundation Investments permanently restricted 2,884,865 2,880,542 Investment Income (loss) (47,037) -0.6% The Buchanan Family Foundation Turner Foundation, Inc. Foundation, Inc. Dave and Barbara Hurd Sandra and David Whitmore The Donnelley Foundation H. Fisk Johnson Total Other Assets 3,686,952 3,867,644 Other 8,572 0.1% China Exploration and Research 7,282,880 100% Society Limited Windway Capital Corporation Laura Donnelley Imogene Johnson Combined Federal Campaign Windway Foundation, Inc. Thomas and Barbi Donnelley II Steven and Suzanne Johnson Total Assets $14,684,845 $12,376,122 Patrick and Anna M. Cudahy Fund Wolf Creek Charitable Foundation James Drake The Philip R. Jonsson Foundation USEOFFUNDS Disney Wildlife Conservation Fund WWF-Deutschland Helen Drexler Carol Jordan and Kenneth Horak LIABILITIES AND NET ASSETS Strachan and Vivian Donelley Kenneth Dubke Lenita Jordan and Robert Carstens Accounts payable $168,346 $135,131 Fundraising 5.5% Dubai International Award, $1,000 - $9,999 Patrick Eagan and Lloyd Eagan Jane Jung Accrued expenses 109,388 98,376 United Nations Human Anonymous (6) The Evjue Foundation, Inc. Ruth Kearl Deferred revenue -32,000 General & Administrative 6.1% Settlements Programme Harold Albers Susan Feith and George Mead Valerie and Allen Kitchens Sam Evans and Donna McBain Evans Walter Alexander Foundation David and Claire Forsberg Josephine Kixmiller Total Liabilities 277,734 265,507 Foley Family Foundation Alliant Energy Foundation Fred and Susan Foster Amy Klicker Crane Conservation, W. Jerome Frautschi and Gordon Andersson Jeanette Foster Brian and Terrie Knox NET ASSETS Education & Site Pleasant Rowland George and Kyoko Archibald Richard and Kathy Fox Kennetha and John Krehbiel Unrestricted 9,843,850 7,822,476 Management 52.5% Nina Griswold Roberta Asher Matt Fraker and Sherri Thornton The George Kress Foundation, Inc. Aspen Business Center Foundation John J. Frautschi Family David Kuter and Hilda Weeks Kuter Temporarily restricted 1,678,396 1,407,597 Hamill Family Foundation Hawksglen Foundation Aylward Family Foundation Foundation, Inc. Phil and Winifred Lacy Permanently restricted 2,884,865 2,880,542 Training & Field Thomas and Janet Hoffmann Michelle Bacares Friends of Creamer's Field Mary Lou Lafler Conservation 35.9% The Arthur L. & Elaine V. Edgar Bailey Betsy Getz Larsen Fund Total Net Assets 14,407,111 12,110,615 Johnson Foundation Robert and Birgit Bateman GE Foundation Matching Roma Lenehan SC Johnson Fund, Inc. Allan and Anita Beach Gifts Program Lee Lenz Patricia Benn and Ned Crosby Dennis Geiler Phoebe R. and John D. Total Liabilities and Net Assets $14,684,845 $12,376,122 Crane Conservation, Education & Site Management $2,618,974 52.5% Paul King George W. Blossom III Germantown High School Lewis Foundation Training & Field Conservation 1,788,267 35.9% The Charlotte and Walter Kohler Boggess Family Foundation of The Chuck and Lynne Gibbons Peter and Eileen Litwin Fundraising 274,910 5.5% Charitable Trust Community Foundation Serving Greater Milwaukee Foundation Katherine Luck General & Administrative 304,233 6.1% Terry and Mary Kohler Lois and Donald Cottrell Fund B Dan Lufkin 4,986,384 100% Krause Family Foundation, Inc. Boulder County Nancy and David Levi Robert M. & Anne W. Bolz Lois and Donald Cottrell Fund J The Lumpkin Family Foundation The John D. and Catherine T. Charitable Lead Unitrust Harry and Martha Walsh Fund Isabella Lynn MacArthur Foundation Joseph and Karen Branch William J. and Doris M. Willis Fund Mark and Barbara Lyons The Makray Family Foundation Margaret Brandt and Bert Lyons Winston Guest Cindy and Mark MacKenzie Pierre Manigault Michael and Grace Bress Douglas and Margaretann Haag Madeline Island Wilderness Brico Fund, LLC Charles C. Haffner III Preserve, Inc.

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Celebrate ICF’s 35th Anniversary on Saturday, September 27, 2008! Magnolia Charitable Trust Anne Symchych Douglas Drysdale and Gisela Richard and Jean Olson Mary Mahoney Peter and Martha Thermansen Zelenka-Drysdale Judy O'Young and Gregg Hauser Patricia Manigault Adele M. Thomas Charitable Woodson and Christina Duncan Andy Palm ICF’s 2008 Annual Meeting celebrates our humble beginnings on a horse farm in Baraboo, Mike and Margaret Marshall Foundation, Inc. Emily Earley Jean Parrish Wisconsin, to our emergence as a world leader in conservation working on five continents. Oscar and Geraldine Mayer Lucie Todd Albert J. & Flora H. Ellinger Sandra and Gary Paske ICF’s history contains many milestones, but ultimately it is a story of how ICF motivates Susan McGreevy Martha Tomkins Foundation, Inc. The Philanthropic Collaborative people around the world to join forces to conserve cranes and their fragile ecosystems. James and Janet McKenna Thomas and Ruth Townsend Sarah Farley and Betty Tisel Carol Pierce Merrill Foundation Charles Trainer and Anne Booth Pete Fenner Kerri Pierce Help celebrate ICF’s accomplishments by sharing your story – how did you become Virginia Metcalf and Mary Yeakel Peggy and Jon Traver Michael Finnell Sonogi Pitts involved with ICF and what is your favorite memory? Stories will be collected throughout George and Coleen Michel Timothy and Patricia Tuff Susan Flader Melissa Puelicher-Smid Micro Control Company Dorothy Vallier Linda Flores and Michael Reedy Rosemarie and Willis Ranney the day at ICF on September 27. If you are unable to attend this event, please send your Milwaukee County Zoo Sarita Van Vleck Barbara Francis Robert and Barbara Raymond stories to: [email protected]. These stories will be featured on the ICF website Charles and Carolyn Mowbray Vilter Foundation, Inc. Frey Family Foundation, Inc. Ready Set Service, LLC (with author permission). The Curtis and Edith Carl-Albrecht von Treuenfels Robert and Arlyne Gibbs Joan Redmann Munson Foundation Irene Warning Kennedy Gilchrist and Heidi Wilde Mary Redway Please use the form below to register for the evening banquet only. Margaret Murdoch Mack and Patricia Waters Lynne Gorlinsky Charles Reeves Jr. National Cooperative William and Elizabeth Webster Greater Sauk County Ruth Reister Prince Yoshimaro Yamashina of Japan, founder of the Yamashina Institute for Ornithology, and George Archibald at ICF’s old site in 1973. Refinery Association Mary Wickhem Community Foundation Annette Richter Kenneth Nebenzahl and Jocelyn Wildlife Trust, Inc. Virgil and Edith Hartje Fund Albert and Jennie Ritchie Spitz-Nebenzahl Wilson Conservation Trust Charles Green Rochester Area Foundation 9:00 – 10:00: Birding Hike. Led by Alyssa 12:30 – 1:15 and 1:30 – 2:15: Tour of the Duff, Field Ecology Program Assistant. Rod, Visitor Services Coordinator, and Rob Isolation Chick Rearing Facility. Includes Sally and Philip Neustedter Winona Corporation Nelse Greenway Peggy and David Rosenzweig 5:00: GATES CLOSE. Anne Niebler Kirsten Winter and Charles Lillian Griffith William and Nancy Ross Carr, Interpretive Program Manager. an update on the 2008 Whooping Crane Reintroduction Program. Registration is required for the following Norwottock Charitable Trust Van Tassel H. J. Hagge Foundation, Inc. Saitama Children's Zoo 9:00 – 5:00: African Cranes, Wetlands and Nancy and John O'Donnell Wisconsin Energy Corporation Mr. H. Lowell Hall John Schaal activities held at the Glacier Canyon Lodge: Communities Art Exhibit. Meet Kerryn 2:30 – 3:30: A Guided Tour of Crane City. A Oklahoma City Zoo Foundation, Inc. Gail Hanson and Richard Graebner Lynne and Bob Scheer Morrison, Africa Program Manager. unique opportunity to visit ICF’s off-exhibit 5:30: Hospitality Hour: Wilderness Banquet Oppenheimer Funds Legacy Program Mead Witter Foundation Duane Hendrickson Stan and Kris Schloemer crane breeding facility. Room (cash bar). Take a walk down Philip and Cassandra Ordway Virginia Wolfe Gloria Holloway William and Barbara Schmidt 9:00 – 5:00: Muraviovka Park for memory lane with images of ICF yesterday The R.D. and Linda Michael Worek Andrew and Paula Holman Suzannah Schroeder Sustainable Land Use. Presentations by ICF staff: and today. Peters Foundation Mary Wright James and Nancy Hotchkiss Signals of Spring Stories from – James 9:00 – 4:00: Book Sale. Natural history Harry and Sylvia Peterson Xcel Energy - NSP Mrs. Herbert Ivey, Jr. Sisters of the Holy Nativity Burnham, Poyang Lake Program 6:30: Dinner: Regina Phelps Robert and Sandra Zodrow Jeffrey Jahns and Jill Metcoff Susan and David Skidmore books from the collection of our late board Coordinator. Meal choices: 1) Prime Rib of Beef; 2) Port Aransas Area Chamber Richard Jarvis Mary Elizabeth Smith member Fred Ott will be sold in the library. Siberian Crane Wetland Project Update – Roast Chicken Dinner served with sage of Commerce $500 - $999 Joanne Johnson Charles Snowdon and Ann Lindsey Fred collected a wide variety of books over Sara Gavney Moore, Communications dressing, potatoes and gravy; 3) Pasta The Grace Jones Richardson Trust Adams-Columbia The Joseph and Catherine Johnson Split Rail Foundation many decades. We have added many to our Coordinator. Primavera. (Please indicate your main Diane and Layton Rikkers Electric Cooperative Family Foundation Emily Stoddard library collection from Fred’s collection, but Restoration on Private Lands – Alison entrée choice on the registration form Richard and Mary Kay Ring Jane Alexander and Ed Sherin Betsy Johnston Fund Arthur W. Strelow Charitable Trust we cannot keep them all. This is a great Robert Stuart Duff, Field Ecology Program Assistant. below). Sides: fresh garden salad, chef’s Ritz Family Foundation Alliant Energy Foundation Matching Cynthia Joyce opportunity to purchase wonderful out-of- Chuck Ritzenthaler Gifts Program John and Mary Kaiser Lynda and Myron Tanner ICF out West – Gary Ivey, Western Crane choice of seasonal vegetables, chef’s choice print titles for your library! Peter and Constance Roop Gayle Anderson Mavis Kelsey Timothy and Sharon Thousand Conservation Manager. of starch, fresh baked assorted dinner rolls, Rothko Chapel Charles Andrews and Elin Quigley Angela Kepler and Francis Rust R. Roberta Throne 10, 1, and 3:00: Cranes of the World Whooping Crane Reintroduction Update – iced brownie, coffee, tea and milk. Norman and Alice Rubash Arizona Community Foundation Emily A. King The Honorable and Mrs. guided tours. Joan Garland, Education Outreach 7:30 : Welcome and Business Meeting Kathleen Ryan and Bernard James Lydia Auchincloss Edward and Joan Kurdziel Russell Train Coordinator. The Saint Paul Foundation Roger and Ann Avery Jill Kusba Mark Uehling 10:00 – 2:00: Children/Adult Activities. Joseph Branch, ICF Board Chair and Jim Marie Jo Sandin Steven and Sandra Becker Burks and Anthony Lapham Richard and Marian Van Dellen Check the schedule on the 27th for times and Hook, ICF CEO. 11:30 – 1:30: Bag lunches will be available Edwin Sauey Susan Billetdeaux Todd and Robin Larabee William and Polly Van Dyke locations for these presentations. for purchase on site. Program: Good Egg Awards followed by a Henry Sears Ernest Peter Brinkley Todd Larson Bill and Ann Vanderbilt Maggie Seeger Mrs. Walter Brissenden Rich and Tina Levy Vanguard Charitable 3:30: Prairie Restoration Hike. Jeb Barzen, nostalgic presentation by George Archibald, Carolyn and Allen Short C. F. and Judith Buechner John Lipkowitz Endowment Program ICF Director of Field Ecology, and Alison ICF Co-founder. Barbara Silber and Todd Bugg and Keely Austin Lesleigh Luttrell Emily and Jeptha Wade Please clip and send with check payable to the International Crane Foundation. Solomon Weinstock Bruce and Marsha Camitta The Lloyd & Patricia Maasch Webster Elementary School Attn: Annual Meeting P.O. Box 447, Baraboo, WI 53913 RSVP by 9/22/08 ACCOMMODATIONS Sara Simmonds Emily Campbell Family Foundation Elizabeth and Robert Weinstock for Saturday, September 27, 2008: Joan Smith Ethan Carlson and Kari Edwards Lalise and Greg Mason Larry and Amy Weiss ¡ Lela Smith City of Galt Victoria Mayer Sterling and Shirley Wight Name (1): ______Glacier Canyon Lodge at the Wilderness Daniel Sneider Ernst Conrath Adrienne McGrath Douglas and Margaret Williams Resort: 45 Hillman Road, Wisconsin Dells, Name (2):______Cheryl and Jerry Spicer John and Sylvia Constable Emily and Robert McKay Ralph and Beatrice Winrich As you would like printed on your name tag(s) WI. Guest rooms: $115 (plus tax) or Stadheim Foundation William Cox Mary Metcalf Mark Worrell Mailing Address: ______City:______upgrade available for $155 (plus tax). Call Ralph and Pat Steckman Loeta Reed Cress and William Cress The Meyer Family Foundation John Bryant Wyman State______Zip______Email Address: ______800-867-9453 and book under the ICF Peter and Cathryn Stedman Ronald and Kathryn Curio Amos Miner and Sue O'Connor Mary and George Young block. Rate deadline: August 27, 2008. The Steeves Foundation Sean and Darcey Cusick Patricia Moody and Michael Thun I would like to purchase______tickets to the Annual Meeting Banquet @ $30 each for a total of $______(please enclose check or pay by credit card). www.GlacierCanyonLodge.com Richard and Elyane Steeves Tom and Sarah Del Porto Bernice Moores Estate Gifts Laurence and Natalie Stocking Deborah and Larry Dirst Gerd and Ursula Muehllehner Linda Crane Please accept our additional gift of $______to help support this event. For other lodging options, contact the Hans Strasser Naomi Donnelley and Joseph Butler Tom and Jody Neuman Edith Knutson Pay by Credit Card (Visa/Mastercard/Discover) # ______Exp. Date______Baraboo Area Chamber of Commerce at Eldred and Virginia Swingen Jeanette Dresdow Joseph and Maria Novotny Brooks McCormick Name as it appears on card:______800-227-2266 or www.baraboo.com; or the Swordspoint Foundation Cathy Drexler and Wade Mueller Thomas and Carol O'Donnell Dinner selections (indicate number of each): Wisconsin Dells Visitor and Convention ______Prime Rib of Beef ______Roast Chicken Dinner ______Pasta Primavera Bureau, 800-223-3557 or www.dells.com

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Investing in the People and Science of Crane Conservation By David Koehler, Director of Development

Photo by Joel Sartore www.joelsartore.com Jeb Barzen, Director of Field Ecology Fengshan Li, collapse of Vallisneria populations at Poyang, destroying the unique Jeb has directed ICF’s Field Ecology department for over China Program Coordinator ecological conditions necessary for this last viable flock of Siberian 20 years and oversees all of our work in Southeast Asia, Cranes. ICF research is helping the Chinese Government understand at Poyang Lake in China and in Wisconsin where we Fengshan was born in Chiefing, Inner Mongolia in the People’s Republic of China. what the Siberian Crane and other waterbirds need to survive during continue our Long-term Crane Research Project with the winter months at Poyang, as a basis for evaluating impacts of new Sandhill Cranes. Jeb is a driving force behind ICF’s He first came to ICF in 1989 for wetlands training and, in 1997, earned his PhD in developments being considered, and for exploring options compatible strong use of science and has served as the graduate with waterbird conservation. advisor for the studies of Fengshan, James, Triet Land Resources from the University of Wisconsin-Madison on an ICF-supported (profiled below) and other researchers. The diverse Gopi Sundar, Research projects of our Field Ecology department involve project studying Black-necked Crane winter developing research and conservation programs that ecology at Cao Hai in Guizhou Province, Associate, India improve outcomes on both private and public lands China. Fengshan has continued his critical ICF is committed to building around the world. Two examples include developing the role developing our China program since that time and leads our efforts capacity for the conservation Healthy Grown Potato that improves stewardship in the for Black-necked Crane research and conservation in Yunnan, Guizhou of Indian cranes. To advance potato fields and the wetlands, prairies or savannas that and Sichuan Provinces as well as our community-based conservation knowledge in this area, ICF cranes use on the same farms and solving crop damage efforts at Cao Hai and ecological monitoring at Poyang Lake. He has has been supporting the in a way that benefit farmers, Sandhill Cranes and other also been very active in eastern China, and serves as the China Technical education of Indian scientist crane species worldwide. Jeb is currently coordinating a Advisor for the UNEP/GEF Siberian Crane Wetlands Project. Gopi Sundar. This summer, peer review of ICF’s science and conservation Gopi completed his PhD management practices. The outcomes of this effort will James Burnham (on right), coursework at the University Photo by Tom Lynn help strengthen ICF’s use of science and best practices. Poyang Lake of Minnesota and is now Program Scientist conducting field research in Uttar Pradesh, India, where he is eople save cranes. Our worldwide efforts to protect these exploring ways to retain cranes and other birds in a landscape that is magnificent birds and their fragile habitats depend on Triet Tran, Southeast Asia James received his MS from the otherwise used intensively for cultivation. Lessons from Gopi’s Pthe passions and skills of diverse individuals – donors, Program Coordinator University of Wisconsin- research may help guide ICF activities for cranes across farmlands of volunteers, partners, citizens, staff and scientists. Science Triet was born in Vietnam and began working Madison in 2007 while other regions. While in India, he will concurrently write most of his informs our work. The significance and scale of our mission for ICF in 1993 while pursuing his MS and working as a research associate doctoral dissertation and continue to administer activities of the requires that the people saving cranes and ecosystems are PhD from the University of Wisconsin- at ICF studying the ecology of Indian Crane and Wetland Working Group on behalf of ICF. armed with the latest tools and information – the very best Madison. Upon completion of his degree in wintering Siberian Cranes and conservation science, practices and strategies available. Land Resources in 1999, Triet began to direct associated waterfowl at China’s Kelly Maguire, ICF invests in the people and science of crane Poyang Lake. He has spent the ICF’s program first in Vietnam and later Senior Aviculturist conservation in unique ways around the world – from throughout Southeast Asia. Triet has been last four years investigating the relationships between water levels, Kelly started working for ICF as a sponsoring graduate students investigating some of the instrumental in developing the first regional water plants and water birds in the vast, complicated and dynamic Chick-yard Associate in April greatest challenges in crane and wetland conservation to training program for wetland science that is Poyang system. 1994 and became an Aviculturist building networks among universities to elevate conservation now taught within a consortium of 13 The work of Fengshan and James adds to nine years of data that later that year. She has worked in knowledge across entire regions. Southeast Asian universities. Last spring, Triet’s link wintering populations for cranes (over 98% of the world’s all aspects of crane husbandry at For our 2008 annual campaign, we celebrate this important work in Vietnam with Phu My villagers on the Ha Tien – Habitats to Siberian Cranes and about 50% of the world’s White-naped Cranes) ICF including incubation, aspect of ICF’s culture and approach. We renew our Handbags project received the prestigious United Nations Dubai Award and with the key aquatic food plant Vallisneria and water levels that change maintenance, artificial commitment to building science capacity, and, through a the Equator Prize for impact, sustainability, partnership and community as much as 30 feet between summer highs and winter lows. This study insemination, chick rearing and strategic science review, we are strengthening our established empowerment. His creative project combines protecting nearly 6,500 acres of represents the most comprehensive information collected to date medical care. More recently, Kelly best practices. Many opportunities exist to save these beautiful wetlands important for wildlife, including Eastern Sarus Cranes, with regarding ecological requirements of the Poyang Lake ecosystem and has participated in early training birds and healthy natural places. These commitments better developing skills and alternative livelihoods for residents of one of Vietnam’s for these critically important wintering populations of cranes. This and migration efforts of the reintroduced Whooping Cranes led by position us to achieve lasting results for the benefit of cranes, poorest villages. After three years of implementation, the income of local research is also well-timed. According to WWF, the Yangtze River is the ultralight aircrafts from Wisconsin to Florida. As part of this project, people and our planet. families has more than doubled and the number of Sarus Cranes using the most endangered river in the world and its condition is changing Kelly just completed her MS in Wildlife Ecology at the University of Please watch this fall for our special request for your 2008 Phu My wetland during the dry season has grown from 5 to nearly 200. He is rapidly. Degradation of the Yangtze, and associated lakes like Poyang, Wisconsin-Madison studying habitat selection of reintroduced annual campaign gift. You may also use the envelope in the now working to expand this program from Vietnam to Kampong Trach, has affected a multitude of plants and animals. So far the cranes have Whooping Cranes on their summer grounds in Wisconsin. She center of this issue to make a gift at this time. As in years past, Cambodia. ICF’s host institution in the region is the University of Natural fared relatively well, in part because we have succeeded in encouraging continues to supervise egg incubation for the Whooping Crane your gift will be matched 100%. Your ongoing support keeps Science, Vietnam National University-Ho Chi Minh City where Triet serves as expansion of protected areas for wetlands at Poyang Lake from 22,400 recovery efforts at ICF and will soon engage in research on breeding ICF scientists hard at work. We hope you enjoy some of their the Dean of Biology Faculty. This joint appointment allows ICF to strengthen hectares in the early 1990s to over 200,000 today. But a variety of activity of reintroduced Whooping Cranes as we attempt to learn more stories – it is your dedication that will develop and advance the its collaboration with research, academic and conservation communities in major engineering projects within the Yangtze Basin – already about the reproductive behaviors of this rarest of all cranes. very best science and crane conservation. the region. constructed, under construction, or proposed – could contribute to the

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activity. This year, ICF is working with wetlands loss – whether those losses are due Cranes symbolize the dilemmas these three Chinese, Russian and Mongolian colleagues to to human changes to the landscape, short- great countries face in the border regions – assess numbers and breeding success of Red- term climate cycles, or long-term climate how to safeguard water and other natural crowned Cranes across this entire gradient, change – are essentially the same. resources while continuing to develop. As from in the east to the Argun Safeguarding water, and wetlands, needs to these birds have done so many times, the and Hui Rivers in the west, and on into be an integral part of water and development cranes can help inspire a wider vision and Mongolia’s Uldz and Onon River watersheds, planning for this region, based on studies of solutions. that have been the stronghold of the less the environmental flows needed to maintain These problems have a human face as aquatic White-naped Cranes. wetland functions. Policy and regulatory well. At Keerqin Nature Reserve in Inner With the exception of Lake Khanka, mechanisms need to ensure continuance of Mongolia, where Red-crowned and White- numbers of successfully breeding Red- these environmental flows. Cooperating with naped Cranes can no longer nest due to crowned Cranes are severely reduced. This Chinese conservation and water agencies, ICF drought, ICF is helping herding deteriorating situation has been communities adapt to the drier obscured by the numbers of landscapes. An aggressive effort cranes unable to breed that still by the county government as inhabit the edges of marshlands or well as the nature reserve is former breeding sites. Five years protecting the grasslands ago White-naped Cranes, breeding essential to the livelihoods of in shallower wetlands, were less these herders. To sustain that affected. Now, White-napeds also resource base, livestock herds are cannot breed. now half their former size, but In the past, water has been an still too large. ICF is assisting effective barrier keeping people with converting herds to more from the sensitive crane nesting productive varieties – such as spots. Now people and their cashmere goats – while adjusting Changing climate is affecting cranes across large parts of Asia. Map by Dorn Moore. livestock can walk almost how animals use the land. We Continued from page 3 everywhere. In Russia, where rural also support alternatives to conditions on the breeding grounds (the the future than now, but this change could be Mongolia and ultimately the deserts of people believe that burning herding as a way to enhance counts described above were winter counts), offset by greater evapotranspiration, and likely Mongolia. grasslands will promote better incomes. and document habitat conditions and lead to substantially reduced breeding For much of this region, water supplies are plant growth to feed their For people who already feel breeding success that may reveal the role of marshes. Even now, at the key breeding area of variable and have been inadequate to support livestock, fires have much more that they are struggling, it is hard severe impact because they sweep to think about climate change climate change. We have surveys planned for Ruoergai in Sichuan and Gansu, 6 of 17 lakes growing human populations and rapid This tundra landscape, prime breeding habitat of the critically endangered Ruoergai in 2009 and are preparing to do larger than 6.67 hectares have dried development. Numerous water engineering over drying wetlands, destroying and not lose hope. It can be the nests and burning deeply into peat Siberian Crane, already is changing due to warming conditions in the Arctic. same for those who care about baseline studies in Tibet starting in 2009 or completely from 1985-2000, and the sizes of schemes in all three countries have changed Open water is expanding over islands, peninsulas, and low-lying lake shores, 2010. Repeating these same surveys in later the other 11 lakes have been reduced to natural flows, mostly to benefit agriculture, exposed to the air. Low water also including favored nesting sites for the cranes. Photo by Crawford Prentice. cranes and wild places. Yet the years will enable us to track changes in different degrees. industry, electric production, or send water to makes it easier to get machinery ancient cranes are resilient and cranes and the ecosystems they inhabit. While we attempt to understand the the cities. On the western edges of the Red- into place for ditch digging – so that has helped develop water management plans surprisingly adaptable – it is so remarkable Climate change scenarios for the future are changes happening to wetlands and water in crowned Crane distribution, the climate conversion of wetlands to farmlands has and mechanisms for delivering water to how Wisconsin’s Sandhills and Japan’s Red- highly complex, and rely on models developed Tibet, and how cranes interact with these appears to follow thirty-year cycles. The key accelerated. During dry parts of the cycle, Zhalong and other major wetlands of crowned Cranes have recovered since Aldo with many assumptions that may or may not changes, the species will remain “vulnerable” exploratory studies for cranes and other pressure grows to divert water from rivers and – a process that can serve as Leopold’s day. We ourselves must be able to prove valid in the long run. Field studies, for on the IUCN Redlist for endangered species. waterbirds, and the development of nature lakes already stressed by lack of water, for models for other wetlands. Protected area adapt as well. Science, as well as beauty and example, of the extent of Arctic ice, often yield reserves to protect outstanding wetland mines or other new development. networks, and other conservation strategies, hope, should be our companions in the years results different from those predicted (polar Changing rainfall threatens the habitat, occurred during the 1980s and early Variability in rainfall and scarcity of water need to adapt to water variability and of conservation effort ahead. ice is melting much faster than expected). 1990s, during the wet part of that cycle. Now have become a priority problem, both for frequent drought – in part, through Future scenarios have even less precision as Red-crowned Crane that landscapes are mid-way through the dry supporting improved livelihoods for people expansion of protected areas so that wetlands For more information about effects one attempts to look at specific areas. In regions where climate change will make side of the cycle, most of those protected and for safeguarding the region’s are maintained that provide suitable of climate change on wildlife, see: Research on climate in Tibet, however, water supplies less predictable and less wetlands are dry. Wildlife has shifted from extraordinary diversity of cranes and other waterbird habitat during dry cycles. • CMS Publication - Migratory Species and suggests that any increase in Black-necked secure, a range of important adaptations to grasslands to forest-steppe, mostly at higher waterbirds. Wetlands are intimately connected Underlying all, a greater awareness is Climate Change (2.5MB) Cranes is likely to be temporary. Tibet is climate change are already clear. The elevations or to the north. As years of drought with water supply and water quality, and needed of water, wetlands, and how all of us provide essential support for many economic can adapt to the changes ahead. From our http://www.cms.int/publications/pdf/CMS_Cimat experiencing some of the most dramatic mainland population of Red-crowned continue, waterbirds, people and livestock eChange.pdf climate change on earth, with average annual Cranes breeds in a transboundary region depend on ever smaller wetlands, with so activities such as fisheries, livestock, and island in Kleshenskoe Lake, we were surface temperatures rising by 1.1˚ C in the where both natural and human communities much disturbance from people and livestock growing tourism to natural areas in all three surrounded by burnt lands. People do not • CBD/UNEP-WCMC Publication: Global past 50 years. Glaciers are rapidly melting, are sensitive to changes in rainfall. This that birds are unable to raise any young at all. countries. Vast amounts of carbon are know the damage they cause. Again, it is not Climate Change and Biodiversity (1.2 MB) perhaps leading to more water now during region, along the borders of Mongolia, China At present, it is extremely difficult to sequestered in the abundant peatlands of this necessary, at present, to differentiate climate http://www.unep-wcmc.org/information_ services/publications/GCCB2003.pdf breeding seasons. But less water will be and Russia, has abundant wetlands fed by separate the impacts of recent human region. Without protection of wetland and change from the other changes caused by available once glaciers disappear – with major monsoons that dominate precipitation in the development, the thirty-year cycles and the water resources, this carbon will be released to people. In preparing for climate change, we • WWF Report: Global Status Report - Bird impacts on river basins below (and hundreds east, but have less and less influence as one onset of long-term climate change. Yet it is the atmosphere – especially as fires burn away should be maximizing the resilience of Species and Climate Change of millions of people) as well as on cranes and travels west. As a result, rainfall sharply evident that Red-crowned Cranes and many peat exposed to air – accelerating the build up human communities and of wetlands because http://www.panda.org/about_wwf/what_ other wildlife. Parts of the Tibetan-Qinghai declines from forested regions of Primorski other waterbirds face severe threat from lack of greenhouse gases. Fortunately, the uncertainty and instability will become more we_do/climate_change/publications/index.cfm?uN Plateau are predicted to have more rainfall in and to grasslands of Inner of water combined with accelerated human conservation actions needed in response to the norm. The magnificent Red-crowned ewsID=86520]

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