A nonprofit is back where it was before Hurricane Harvey temporarily downed its efforts to conserve the world’s only self-sustaining population of whooping cranes.
The International Crane Foundation, which is headquartered in Baraboo, Wisc., has invited the public to its Texas office at 802 Airport Road in Unit 2 in Rockport from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday to meet its staff, Senior Whooping Crane Scientist Liz Smith and Ecosystem Scientist Nikki Davis.
Rockport Mayor Pat Rios, Rockport-Fulton Chamber of Commerce representatives and Kim Smith, the chief operating officer of the foundation, will also be on hand to speak about the importance of the coastal bend landscape and its communities to the continued existence to the whooping crane.
Tim Grunewald, the foundation’s director of North America Programs, said the foundation is leasing space in about the same place as before the hurricane and from the same owner until it can negotiate the purchase of piece of its own property where it can build an office. He said the foundation is paying fair market rent from donations.
He said in few weeks, the foundation will also be hiring an outreach coordinator and a program assistance, doubling its presence in the Lone Star State.
“This past and now continuing office location is in close proximity to our primary work activities- the Lamar peninsula, Aransas NWR, and up coast. It’s also just across the Copano Bay bridge from where our boat will be once again permanently docked therefore allowing easy access,” Grunewald said.
The Coastal Bend Bays and Estuaries Program have allowed Smith, Davis and a temporary project assistant to use their office in Corpus Christi since Harvey made landfall in August 2017.
