e ssential nonprofit
International Crane Foundation: One Health of the Land by Kr ystle Engh Naab
6 | madison essentials
amazing recovery since 30 years ago. It’s unimaginable how much better they have done in this area.” The reemergence of different crane species, most notably the whooping crane in North America, is due to the considerable efforts of many partnerships and organizations working towards the common goal of providing healthy and safe habitats for the cranes to thrive. ICF works to secure the original whooping crane population that winters in Texas, stays there until about March, and then migrates to Canada to breed. Their breeding place in Canada is so remote that outsiders didn’t know about it until the 1950s. The program also produces whooping crane chicks to put back in the wild in the eastern United States to help bring the population back.
Black-necked Crane exhibit, which features a pond and a new mural by Jay Jocham
Photograph by International Crane Foundation
International Crane Foundation’s (ICF’s) history is one that carries over the years and across different countries. Not many are aware of the work they do for cranes and the impact they have until they are introduced to cranes in some way, and visiting the 15 species of cranes at their headquarters in Baraboo, Wisconsin, is a good way to understand these large, impressive birds. The mission of ICF is to work worldwide to conserve cranes and their ecosystems, watersheds, and flyways. Rich Beilfuss, president and CEO at ICF headquarters, has been working to save the world’s 15 species of cranes since the 1980s. “When I first started at ICF, I only knew of a few sandhill cranes (one of two crane species in the United States) here in Wisconsin, and now we have tens of thousands of sandhills that live here and move through the state. It’s an
