January 24, 2008
TRUMPETER SWAN RELEASE IN NORTHWEST ARKANSAS - A MIGRATION EXPERIMENT - The Iowa Department of Natural Resources, Arkansas Game & Fish Commission, The National Park Service, The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and The Trumpeter Swan Society (TTSS) have all teamed up in an effort to expand where restored Midwest Trumpeter Swans winter. One of TTSS' goals has been to encourage southward migration of Trumpeter Swans under the approval of the Mississippi Flyway. The Trumpeter Swan has been successfully established as a breeding species in the Midwest, but limited winter migration has been a major concern. The Iowa DNR recently captured 9-month old free-flying trumpeters from ponds of private Iowa swan propagators who have been partnering with the Iowa DNR to restore the species to Iowa since 1995. The hope is that the young swans will imprint on the Arkansas locations so that they will establish a migratory tradition. The National Park Service's Buffalo River and the Holla Bend National Wildlife Refuge are the sites of releases of the Iowa swans January 23rd & 24th. To read more about the experiment, visit Northwest Arkansas Morning News , Illinois' Outdoors News in prairie state outdoors, or the Desmoines Register. The swans are banded with green collars with white codes (1P0 - 0P0) and the public is asked to keep an eye out for the swans. Trumpeter Swans typically begin moving north to breeding marshes by early March. Please contact TTSS for more information.
Selected Papers of The 20th Trumpeter Swan Society Conference (held in Council Bluffs, Iowa, in October 2005) is now available online or in hardcopy.
Current members (a regular annual membership is only $25 (US)) of The Trumpeter Swan Society can receive a free bound copy upon request. Others may purchase a copy for $20.00 (US) by sending a check or money order to the Society's office. Price includes shipping. You will find this collection of 33 papers and abstracts covering Trumpeter, Tundra, and Mute Swans to be very informative. An edition on a CD Rom is also available for $5.00 plus shipping. More information
John Glynn Memorial Fund established
Friends and co-workers of the late John Glynn of the State of Washington's Department of Ecology Northwest Regional Office have donated funds in his memory to fund the construction of a swan informational kiosk at the Johnson/DeBay Reserve near Mt. Vernon, Skagit County, Washington. This Reserve is home to tens of thousands of migrating ducks and hundreds of wintering Trumpeters. We will post information when the kiosk is ready for viewing.
Amos D. Faux-Burhans III Memorial Fund
Thanks to the generosity of the family of the late Amos D. Faux-Burhans III of Frederick, Maryland, TTSS has been making copies of the award winning video Trumpeter Blues available free to school libraries. Produced by Trailwood Films and TTSS member Bob Landis in 1987, the film follows a year in the life of a family of Trumpeter Swans in the Yellowstone Park Region. Teachers or librarians should contact the TTSS office to see about availability.