Every fall a new flock of yearling Whooping cranes is escorted south by a small lightweight aircraft operated by the nonprofit Operation Migration. Bad weather has delayed this year's "assisted" Whooping Crane migration and the birds have only traveled 239 miles of the 1,285 mile trip. More devastating than the weather, is the fact that Operation Migration's aircraft hanger was recently burglarized and the equipment that was too big to steal was vandalized beyond repair.
Please follow me after the jump to learn more about this stunning loss.
The nonprofit group, Operation Migration is part of a larger effort to save the endangered Whooping cranes. Every year the news will spend a minute or two talking about the newest generation of endangered Whooping Cranes being taught how to migrate south by lightweight aircraft. You'll see lots of pictures of Whooping Cranes and the plane, but little time is spent on the people who devote their time and energy to saving this wonderful species. Operation Migration owns and operates the lightweight aircraft that leads the migration.
Image from the Operation Migration website.
Operation Migration has a small staff, a tiny one room office and an aircraft hanger in Necedah, WI which also doubles as a work space and storage space. The Operation Migration staff work with the birds, design and repair their own equipment, build pens, write copy, prepare presentations, do public speaking and handle the fundraising. Some staff spend most of Fall and Winter traveling with and caring for the Whooping crane flock.
Last week a volunteer returning equipment to the Operation Migration aircraft hanger discovered it had been burglarized and the remaining equipment had been vandalized beyond repair.
The Wisconsin State Journal reported on 11/25/09:
Four wings for the ultra-light aircraft, used to escort the birds, were slashed, something that will cost $20,000 to replace. The group does not have insurance. A full-sized sculpture of a whooping crane, made by one of the ultralight pilots, was smashed and spray-painted. One of the ultralights used in the past to lead geese, swans, sandhill cranes and whooping cranes was damaged.
Along with the group's equipment, personal items belonging to the Operation Migration's traveling staff were also stolen or vandalized. Operation Migration staff member, Joe Duff posts from the field:
What we don’t need with us on the migration is left behind locked up in the hangar, as are some of the crew’s vehicles. Both Bev and Geoff left their cars there until they could return to pick them up once we got the birds to Florida. Their tires were slashed and lights smashed.
Brooke lives with the bird all year long. He moves to Patuxent for the hatch and early training, spends the summer in Necedah, and the fall en route to Florida. He helps to monitor the birds over the winter at St Marks, returning once again to Patuxent in the spring. His entire life is spent on the road so he uses the hangar to store all the belongings that the rest of us would keep at home. Most of them are now gone or destroyed in some distorted expression of violence that we simply can’t comprehend.
Operation Migration staff are shocked by this horrendous destruction, but are unbowed. Joe Duff posts from the field:
It’s hard to understand why anyone would do this. The things destroyed were worth far more than the things stolen. Was Operation Migration targeted and if so, for what? What could we have done to deserve such vengeance? Or were we just an easy target for the same kind of displaced aggression we see so often in the birds.
All of us lost something in that willful destruction of property, but mostly we lost faith. Who knows what motivates such unrepressed anger. I know what motivates mine. So now it’s time to prove that we are made of better stuff. Instead of lashing out, we will redirect our anger at this cowardly act of destruction into more resolve.
Operation Migration is accepting donations for their Wing Replacement Fund HERE. Use the "Other Contribution form and type 'Wing Replacement Fund' in the donation message space. You can also become a member of Operation Migration by following the same link.
Edited to add:
Matching Mole diaried about seeing Operation Migration at Dawn Chorus Birdblog: A (Happier) Tale Of Birds and Planes
Photo courtesy of the International Crane Foundation