December 9, 2009: Whooping Crane shot, reward offered
Joe Duff, co-founder and lead pilot of Operation Migration, said today that the hangar used by the pilots and crew in Necedah, Wisconsin, has been vandalized, and many of its contents were destroyed or stolen. (I shot this photo of one of the parked ultralights from inside the hangar during the media tour that I led to Necedah last month.)
A member of the Whooping Crane tracking team discovered the crime late last week when she stopped at the hangar to drop off old crane costumes. The crime occurred sometime after the crew left Necedah in October at the start of this year's migration. The pilots, crew, and 20 young Whooping Cranes are currently in Livingston County, Illinois.
The vandal or vandals damaged four ultralight wings that were stored in the hangar. The pilots use the wings in summer while they're training the cranes because they allow them to fly the ultralights at a slower speed. Duff doubts that they can be salvaged. "If they get one kink in them, they're completely unusable," he told me. He estimates replacing the wings will cost a total of $20,000.
The personal vehicles of an OM staffer and an intern were damaged: tires were slashed on one and headlights on the other were smashed.
One of the two original ultralights used by Duff and former pilot Deke Clark to lead the first class of Whooping Cranes south was stored in the hangar, and it too was severely damaged. Duff said it was slashed and spray-painted. "Hopefully it can be salvaged as it cannot be replaced," he wrote on the OM website. Its counterpart is on display at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington.
The criminals also destroyed a sculpture of Whooping Crane that had been crafted by pilot Richard van Heuvelen. "Out of solid steel he creates lifelike sculpture, and if he were not trying to safeguard an endangered species, he would likely be a famous artist and far richer," Duff wrote. "One of his pieces was a full size Whooping crane. He told me it was his hardest work because he knows so well what it was supposed to look like. He captured it perfectly. Now, the wings are broken, the body smashed and the rest spray painted in an obscene gesture of cowardice."
When we visited the hangar in October, I shot one photo of the sculpture (right). The setting was not ideal for photographing a work of art, as is pretty obvious in the image. But it was clear that van Heuvelen is a master artist. What a waste for such a gorgeous work to end up in pieces.
I asked Duff if he thought OM was targeted. He didn't think so. "We don't have any enemies. There's nothing negative about the project. We're not reintroducing a predatory species like a wolf or something that might kill livestock." Instead, he suspects that the hangar and its contents were easy pickings for someone who can't control his anger.
If you know anything about this crime, please contact the Juneau County Sheriff's Office at (608) 847-5649. And if you'd like to help OM raise money to replace the lost wings, here's how. --M.M.
Photos by Matt Mendenhall