JOE DUGGAN / Lincoln Journal Star | Posted: Sunday, March 27, 2005 6:00 pm
NEAR ALDA Tens of thousands of sandhill cranes singing songs from prehistory met the hype. They even surpassed it. For a dozen or so bird enthusiasts who had traveled from other states to see a spectacle, the cranes and the central Platte River came through. They delivered.
In the gray light of a vanishing day, the gray birds came in waves, gliding in elegant circles above the river before lighting in the shallows for the evening roost. About 150 yards away, the visitors thrilled to the sights and sounds while peering through face-sized holes in a burlap sheet covering the blind's opening.
Colleen Kruse of Storm Lake, Iowa, and Cecily Kihn of Philadelphia, Pa., stood transfixed by the cranes, almost in a state of reverence.
"They're gorgeous," Kruse whispered.
Dave Nix, a former college professor from Bismarck, N.D., who is developing a second career as a nature photographer, equated the experience with a well-known religious holiday.
"This is like kids on Christmas morning."
Everyone in the blind was participating in a weekend tour sponsored by the Nebraska Environmental Trust and Ducks Unlimited. In addition to viewing cranes, tour participants visited the Rainwater Basin, a region of wetlands in south-central Nebraska that annually attract millions of migrating ducks and geese.
The two organizations put on the event in an effort to focus attention on the spring migration and the habitat needed to support it.
"It's almost as if some of the resource treasures we have here are invisible to people on the coasts and other areas," said Mary Harding, executive director of the Environmental Trust. "We wanted to help raise the visibility of the conservation needs and the resource treasures we have here."
The trust distributes about $9 million annually in lottery proceeds to environmental projects. Ducks Unlimited, a national nonprofit conservation group, has received some of those grants to help with wetland restoration work in Nebraska.
Leaders of both organizations recognize that conservation costs money and people don't give money to causes they don't know or care about. And mixing in the economic benefits of bird tourism doesn't hurt.
While Nebraska's annual crane migration is hardly a secret, another winged spectacle in the state involves many more birds, yet it remains relatively obscure. The tour showed off the cranes while trying to raise the profile of the other migration.
Even those with a casual interest in wildlife know that a half million cranes migrate through central Nebraska each spring. A 4-year-old survey estimates that 60,000 people visit central Nebraska annually to see the cranes, which is worth between $22 million and $48 million to the region's economy.
Even a piece of that pie would would help small communities in the Rainwater Basin, a 17-county region in south-central Nebraska.
In February and early March, huge numbers of geese and ducks descend upon wetlands in the region. At the peak of the migration late last month, waterfowl managers conducted a fly-over and estimated that 4.5 million waterfowl were in the region.
"Everybody goes ga-ga for the cranes, but for sheer numbers, the snow geese are overwhelming," said Jim Baird, a tax preparer who helps organize an annual migration festival in Clay Center called the Spring Wing Ding.
The event, which mixes education with waterfowl viewing, typically draws a few hundred participants. With many of the marshes in the region in public ownership, the area should be very attractive to bird-watchers..
"I think we have a tremendous opportunity," Baird said.
But he and other community leaders in the region also see obstacles. For example, while committed birders and waterfowl hunters certainly know the way to the Rainwater Basin, some casual wildlife watchers are reluctant to venture far from Interstate 80.
And the migrations of snow geese, white-fronted geese, pintails and mallards are somewhat less predictable than cranes. To make sure they arrive during the waterfowl peak, birders need to check updates frequently and be flexible about timing their visits.
Still, a 2001 survey by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service found that 46 million Americans consider themselves birders. And about 18 million of those reported that they travel annually to pursue their passion.
While the tour group watched ducks at Massie Lagoon, a federally owned marsh near Clay Center, a Honda CRV with Arizona plates rolled into the parking lot and five women carrying expensive binoculars and spotting scopes climbed out. They had driven 1,300 miles and left 70-degree weather for a chance to see cranes and other birds in Nebraska, said Greer Warren from Tucson, Ariz.
"This is fabulous," she said. "Among bird watchers, this is one of the places that's known."
And she mentioned that they stayed at a Grand Island motel during their visit.
Restaurants, convenience stores and merchants in Rainwater Basin communities could certainly use some of the $32 billion that bird enthusiasts spend annually. But birders will do little more than pass through cities like York, Hastings, Minden or Holdrege unless those communities seek to accommodate them, said Ryan Heiniger, conservation program manager for Ducks Unlimited in Nebraska.
"I think there's tremendous untapped potential for Rainwater Basin communities to benefit from something that's in their back yard," he said.
The potential, however, will dry up if the birds have no place to rest during the migration. Most of the region's wetlands have been drained for agricultural purposes and only about 10 percent remain.
Current federal conservation programs provide economic incentives for landowners to convert marginally productive crop ground back into wetlands. But it seems like too few farmers know about the incentives and how they work, said Steve Moran, coordinator for the Rainwater Basin Joint Venture.
The coalition of governmental agencies, conservation organizations and ag interests is working to restore and protect 25,000 acres of wetlands and 25,000 acres of grasslands surrounding them. Since 1992, it has achieved 7,500 acres toward the goal.
So, once again, the first step in conserving wildlife habitat often requires making people aware it exists.
Reach Joe Duggan at 473-7239 or jduggan@journalstar.com.