Fort Smith prepares a celebration of whooping cranes

Fort Smith will host a celebration next month marking the success of whooping crane conservation at the birds’ summer nesting grounds.

The inaugural Northern Whooping Crane Festival, which was to have happened last year before being postponed because of nearby wildfires, will run from September 6-8.

Organizers say events will mark the recovery of the once almost-extinct whooping crane and bring the community together to discuss continued protection of the birds and other species at risk.

The whooping crane is a conservation success story.

Numbers have bounced back from a low of 21 in 1941 to about 600 today, a comeback aided by captive breeding programs and even researchers using ultralight aircraft to teach young cranes migratory routes (if you’ve seen Fly Away Home, it’s just like that, but with cranes instead of geese).

Today, the Wood Buffalo whooping cranes are the only wild migratory population. They spend summers nesting in Canada and winter in Texas, near Port Aransas, a town that has hosted its own whooping crane festival since 1996.

Sarah Rosolen, who works at the South Slave Research Centre in Fort Smith, said the festival idea began when researchers wanted to hold a school outreach day to teach students about the whooping crane.

“Then it just grew because there was so much interest,” Rosolen said. “There were so many people involved with whooping cranes that we just didn’t even realize.”

That includes people from Parks Canada, the Canadian Wildlife Service and Calgary Zoo. Rosolen said they were also told to reach out to the International Crane Foundation.

“All of a sudden, there’s all these people that are really interested in talking about cranes,” Rosolen said. “It started from us picturing, like, having a craft with kids about whooping cranes, to a lot of people interested, and then the community got on board.”

The idea has grown now to a three-day festival featuring presentations on the whooping crane, art sales, a guided hike, excursions to explore habitat and biodiversity in the region, children’s activities and on-the-land events.   

The whooping crane is the tallest bird in North America, reaching a height of around five feet with a wingspan of more than seven feet. They likely get their name from a single-note “whooping” guard call, and have a spectular courtship dance that involves leaping, kicking, head-pumping and wing-sweeping.

The birds are long-living, with an estimated lifespan of 22 to 30 years. The oldest whooping crane on record was banded in the Northwest Territories in 1977 and found again in Saskatchewan in 2005, when it was at least 28 years old.  

Beyond the whooping crane, the region is home to many other species including white pelicans, wolves, garter snakes, northern leopard frogs, and the largest free-roaming population of wood bison.

“We want to have conversations about conservation, and we want to get perspectives on conservation, and really talk about the opportunities with Indigenous protected conservation areas,” Rosolen said.

The cranes nest in and around Wood Buffalo National Park. For those nesting outside the park boundary, she continued, “are there opportunities for the Indigenous governments to lead conservation efforts or to raise awareness?”

People are also interested in the tourism potential that might accompany a festival, Rosolen said. The Port Aransas festival, for example, receives more than 1,000 attendees a year. “If people go to Texas to see the cranes, will they come up to Fort Smith to learn more about their summer habitat, to talk with the people that protect them, that conserve them?”

As the festival is just beginning, Rosolen said, it’s about community engagement this year.

“This is a way to have just a conversation about, what do they want tourism to look like?” she said. “What could the festival be like?”

The Northern Whooping Crane Festival is co-organized by the Fort Smith Métis Council, Smith’s Landing First Nation, Salt River First Nation and Town of Fort Smith.

The event is supported by Aurora College, Wood Buffalo National Park, the GNWT and the Northern Life Museum and Cultural Centre.