Never Forget

My First Unbanded Wisconsin Swan,  Date Unknown, Early Spring, 2003

Trumpeter Swan, in the wild, Crex Meadows, 2003

This photograph is of my first unbanded Wisconsin Trumpeter Swan, a bird that I photographed in 2003, nearly 14 years after the start of the Wisconsin DNR's efforts to restore the species to our state.

European market hunting was once a dangerous and powerful force on the North American landscape.  By the late 1800's, Trumpeter Swans, exploited for their feathers and for their meat, were nearly extinct.  In 1910, there were only about 70 Trumpeter Swans left in the world.  Sumner Matteson and Randy Jurewicz, heading a team of DNR wildlife biologists, collected 40 eggs from the remote wilds in the state of Alaska in 1989. Those eggs served as the renewal of Wisconsin's Trumpeter Swan population.  The thriving Wisconsin population is in its infancy, just 27 years old in a natural system measured by ice ages.

I saw my first Trumpeter Swan in the wild in 1989, at the age of 19, near Jackson Hole, Wyoming. My first wild Midwestern Trumpeter Swans came by sudden surprise in 1992 while surveying night migrant birds through a Noctron night vision scope. In the first years of the restoration efforts, swans were banded and given neck collars with clear identification numbers.  One of those original birds still resides in Burnett County. A bird with a green collar (82K), it is often seen near the Wood River.

We must never forget the mistakes of the past, and we must strive to maintain the hard-fought laws and efforts that have begun to restore our wildlife heritage.  In recent years, the level of respect held for our natural resources and the laws that protect them have declined precipitously.  While the swan's success is celebrated here, I also fear that the youngest generation will never know that this bird is a small miracle.  What seems common in my own neck of the woods is a rare treat for almost everyone elsewhere.  Will our youth strive to protect the habitats that support this bird?

This image was made with a Canon A2, Canon EF300mm L IS lens, and Fujichrome Provia 100 film. For those who do not remember the times when we had no Trumpeter Swans here, photographic images were once captured on the emulsion of a physical substance simply referred to as film. We spent about $7 for 36 exposures, sent it off to a chemical lab for processing for about $4 more, and waited more than ten days to see what successes we had made.  May the treasures of the world find us to be enduring in our patience and long in our vision.  As times change, may we preserve the deepest beauty of a natural Earth. Walk in beauty.