Our mission: to permanently remove whooping cranes from the endangered species list.

It is often referred to as a conservation success story: from a low of 16 birds in the 1940s, the world's total wild population of whooping cranes now numbers around 400. While this dramatic increase is a huge step forward, it is not enough. Although portions of breeding and wintering habitat frequented by the wild population are protected, those places are also geographically isolated. Migration habitat is largely unprotected. One catastrophic event could be fatal. Biologists, academics, refuge managers, conservation planners, energy experts and policymakers met over the course of a year to better understand threats to the crane's survival and to develop clear, long-term conservation strategies through a process called Conservation Action Planning. This is a summary of their collective work.