Kohlers named "Comeback Champs" for trumpeter swan help
DATE: April 26, 2012
CONTACT: Sumner Matteson (608) 266-1571
MADISON - Terry and Mary Kohler, a Sheboygan couple who played a key role in Wisconsin's efforts to restore trumpeter swans to the landscape, are the state's Comeback Champs for April.
The Kohlers were honored by DNR Secretary Cathy Stepp at the state Natural Resources Board meeting April 25 in Madison for their role in helping a trumpeter swan recovery program that has rebuilt Wisconsin's flock and has resulted in the bird being removed from the state's endangered species list.
Stepp and Gov. Scott Walker have been honoring a "Comeback Champ" each month as part of a year-long series highlighting the 40th anniversary of Wisconsin's endangered species law and some of the people who have helped successfully return endangered plants and animals to Wisconsin's landscape. Search "ER 40" on DNR's website to see the monthly features and honorees.
"Mary and Terry exemplify the best of what the private sector can do to assist the Department in meeting our conservation goals," Stepp said in presenting a plaque to Mary Kohler from Gov. Scott Walker.
DNR and partners in 1987 launched a recovery plan to bring back trumpeter swans, which had been pushed to the brink of extinction in Wisconsin and other upper Midwestern states in the 1800s due to unregulated hunting and demand for their feathers.
In 1989, the Kohlers heard from then-Gov. Tommy Thompson that the DNR needed help to collect up to 50 Alaskan Trumpeter Swan eggs allowed by the Fish and Wildlife Service. Representing the Windway Capital Corporation, the Kohlers used their experience and expertise as private pilots to fly DNR biologists Randy Jurewicz and Sumner Matteson to and from Alaska for nine years.
Of the 385 eggs collected by WI biologists and transported by the Kohlers during 1989-1997, 356 or 92 percent hatched at the Milwaukee County Zoo.
"The young trumpeters that hatched out at the Zoo have been the foundation for what has become one of Wisconsin’s greatest conservation stories ever told," Stepp said.
"Thanks to the tireless dedication of the Kohlers and many other partners involved in the restoration program, there are now nearly 200 breeding pairs of trumpeters in the state, and last year over 300 young took to the skies over our marshes. Considering that the original recovery goal was 20 breeding and migratory pairs by the year 2000, we have witnessed a 10-fold increase of that goal. WOW!"
The Kohlers’ support did not end with the Alaskan egg collections. They provided key financial support for over a decade that allowed DNR biologists to monitor the state’s growing flock.
Due to the great comeback of these magnificent birds, the Natural Resources Board authorized their removal from Wisconsin's state’s endangered and threatened species list in 2009.