TRUMPETERS END SWAN DIVE : BEAUTIFUL BIG BIRDS MAKING COMEBACK.Byline: Matt Kohlman Associated Press Cancel that swan song for trumpeter swans once hunted almost to extinction in western North America. The birds, affectionately called ``big, white ducks'' by one expert, are making a comeback thanks to joint efforts like one in the Upper Green River corridor. From only 30 known trumpeter swans in 1930 and 1,200 in the early 1980s, the Rocky Mountain flyway flyway: see migration of animals. now has an estimated 3,000 trumpeters This article lists notable musicians who have played the trumpet, cornet or flugelhorn. Classical players
The Pacific Coast population grew fivefold from the 1970s to 15,000 today, officials said. ``It's an overnight success that's been taking several years to get there,'' said Barry Floyd, regional director for Ducks Unlimited in Wyoming. Unlike the return of wolves to Yellowstone National Park Yellowstone National Park, 2,219,791 acres (899,015 hectares), the world's first national park (est. 1872), NW Wyo., extending into Montana and Idaho. It lies mainly on a broad plateau in the Rocky Mts., on the Continental Divide, c. , the swans' recovery has come without the help of the federal Endangered Species Act The federal Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESA) (16 U.S.C.A. §§ 1531 et seq.) was enacted to protect animal and plant species from extinction by preserving the ecosystems in which they survive and by providing programs for their conservation. . ``We were just looking to their future . . . so we wouldn't have to list them as a threatened or endangered species,'' said Dave Lockman, who wrote the continent's first trumpeter swan management plan in the early 1980s. Projects have been kept low-key so people don't harass or shoot the large, loud birds, Floyd said. Still, some swans have been killed in recent years at Jackson Hole, Seedskadee National Wildlife Refuge Seedskadee National Wildlife Refuge is located in the U.S. state of Wyoming and includes 26,400 acres (106 km²). Seedskadee National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) is located in southwestern Wyoming. The refuge is managed by the U.S. and Natrona County in Wyoming and near Livingston in Montana. In Wyoming, game warden Bill Long blames most of those shootings on drunks out target practicing. The swan population started diving in the late 1800s because their white plumage fetched premium prices. Conservation efforts like the creation of the Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge is a remote refuge located in the high altitude of the Centennial Valley, in the southwestern region of the U.S. state of Montana. Adjacent to Gallatin National Forest and near Yellowstone National Park, the refuge is an integral part of the in Montana near Yellowstone National Park helped bolster their numbers. It wasn't until concerted efforts began in the 1980s, however, that their population began soaring, said Lockman, a former state waterfowl waterfowl, common term for members of the order Anseriformes, wild, aquatic, typically freshwater birds including ducks, geese, and screamers. In Great Britain the term is also used to designate species kept for ornamental purposes on private lakes or ponds, while in biologist who is education supervisor for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department. ``The main thrust is to get more breeding pairs in historically occupied breeding areas like the Green River drainage,'' Lockman said. The cygnets should be able to fly in about six weeks. Officials believe they will remain until mid-December. CAPTION(S): Photo Photo: Trumpeter swans, once nearing extinction, swim in th e Seedskadee National Wildlife Refuge north of Green River, Wyo. Associated Press |
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