Whooping Crane Migration in Crosshairs as Trump Policies Collide
Acacophony of honks and quacks greet Jim Faulstich on a spring afternoon visit to a shallow lake on his ranch on the South Dakota prairie.
Hundreds of birds have landed in the wetlands for a drink, to feed, or to rest on their journey north. There are lots of ducks and gulls, but no whooping crane — which would be difficult to miss standing five-feet tall in the shallows foraging for food.
Faulstich’s neighbor spotted a lone “whooper” nearby the day before, but it’s a rare treat to glimpse a white, crimson-capped crane, even here along its narrow, 2,000-mile migration route. And it’s likely to become rarer.
Faulstich’s ranch lies in the heart of the “prairie pothole” region stretching through parts of Iowa, Minnesota, the Dakotas, and northeast Montana, replete with tiny, ecologically rich wetlands and lakes left behind by ancient glaciers. These wadeable watering holes sustain the endangered whooping crane on its weekslong migration from wintering grounds in coastal south Texas to summer nesting sites in northwest Canada.
But the pothole wetlands are disappearing.
https://news.bloomberglaw.com/environment-and-energy/whooping-crane-migration-in-crosshairs-as-trump-policies-collide