Stephanie Schmidt
About the presenter:
Stephanie Schmidt graduated with honors from the University of Wisconsin Madison with a Bachelor of Science in Zoology and a certificate in Environmental Studies in 2018. Following graduation, she began working with cranes as an intern at the International Crane Foundation in Baraboo, WI, and the Freeport-McMoRan Audubon Species Survival Center in New Orleans, LA. She then went on to earn her master’s degree in Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where she studied nesting marsh birds and predation risk following wetland management practices. Following graduation in 2022, she returned to the International Crane Foundation, where she now works as the Whooping Crane Outreach Coordinator. In this role, Stephanie often spends her days in the marsh collecting data for our long-term monitoring efforts or new research projects, writing manuscripts, and managing the International Crane Foundation’s community outreach and science communication efforts.
At the FOC 2024:
Whooping Cranes in the Eastern Migratory Population
In the 1940’s, Whooping Cranes, once found throughout North America, faced near extinction as a result of increased threats from habitat loss, hunting, and more. It wasn’t until 2001 that Whooping Cranes returned to the eastern United States following a collaborative reintroduction program led by the International Crane Foundation (ICF). Today, over 70 Whooping Cranes make up this population and winter in Alabama each year. Please join Stephanie Schmidt, Whooping Crane Outreach Coordinator for the International Crane Foundation, to learn about the Whooping Cranes of the Eastern Migratory Population and the work ICF and crane conservation partners are doing to safeguard their future. Following this presentation, you will be able to identify Whooping Cranes by sight and sound, understand the historic threats towards Whooping Cranes that led to their decline, know the ins and outs of the reintroduction program and the current work crane conservation partners are doing to protect cranes in Alabama and throughout their flyways and find out how you can be an ambassador for cranes in Alabama.