Thank You, Tom Stehn!
We honor and give heartfelt thanks to USFWS wildlife biologist Tom Stehn, who will retire before next spring's migration. Tom has inspired, taught, and and shared news with Journey North students since 1995. He has entertained us with true stories about brave, quirky, and noble Whooping cranes over the years. Tom's career has been spent in the service of Whooping crane recovery. His WCEP partners call him the "ultimate whooper guru." We agree!
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In 2009 Tom Stehn carried this wild juvenile crane, too weak to stand, to veterinary help in Port Lavaca, Texas. |
In 1995, Tom's first year as a contributing scientist to Journey North, he reported 132 Whooping cranes wintering in Texas. Under his leadership, the world's last natural flock of migratory whoopers grew to 270 arrivals this winter (2010-2011). For his years of dedication and success, Tom was honored in 2008 with a prestigious Recovery Champion Award from the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS).
Tom Stehn's teaching, reports and wonderful true stories will always be in Journey North for Kids and our teaching Resources. We are thrilled and honored at his generosity in sharing in Journey North's work. Here's just one example of the wealth of things Tom has taught us along the adventure:
"The Whooping crane population needs every adult pair to do two things: live long lives, and try to raise a chick every year. The population has little capacity to increase in size rapidly." Why? Tom tells us the answer in Crane Population Growth: Why So Slow?
We will miss you, Tom! We wish you all the best.
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