ONLINE: Poyang Lake, Waterbird Paradise:Past, Present and Future

media release: International Crane Foundation talk.

As winter begins to freeze the countryside of northeast Asia, hundreds of thousands of migratory waterbirds stream into Poyang Lake, located in the relatively mild climate of China’s Yangtze River floodplain. Here, high summer water levels have receded, leaving a mosaic of small lakes and wetlands rich in food plants that support the wintering flocks. Among the winter migrants are Siberian Cranes that have nested on the tundra of Arctic Russia and White-naped Cranes, newly arrived from the rolling grasslands of Mongolia and northern China. The cranes join huge rafts of swans, geese, ducks and spoonbills in the shallow waters.

Our Poyang Basin Program Manager Jin Jiefeng knows the lake well, having previously worked for the Poyang Lake National Nature Reserve. The International Crane Foundation has been working at Poyang Lake for more than thirty years since George Archibald and his Chinese colleagues first discovered that Siberia Cranes spent the winter here. Jiefeng will share the history of our involvement at Poyang Lake from those early days and explain how recent extreme floods and new policies affect the cranes’ habitats and lead them to adapt their foraging behavior to overcome natural food shortages. Finally, he will outline the future challenges and opportunities facing cranes and their conservation in the dynamic and changing landscape of the Yangtze Valley.

Sponsored by Diane and Dick Dressler.