Two swans set for release on May 18
The Iowa Department of Natural Resources has asked Kirkwood’s Parks and Natural Resources program to help with a trumpeter swan release on May 18. The DNR is releasing trumpeter swans in areas around the state, and developing partnerships to promote and take over the rearing and release of trumpeter swans.
The DNR bred the two trumpeter swans from a captive pair near Clear Lake. The year-old swans are currently held in a large, fenced wetland area until they are brought to Cedar Rapids for an educational program and their release.
Students from Kirkwood’s Parks and Natural Resources program will take the birds to the Prairie Community School District for educational purposes the morning of May 18. The Kirkwood students will present a program with the swans to fifth graders at Prairie Creek at 10 a.m. and then to second graders at Prairie Heights at 10:45. The swans will then be taken to a natural wetland on 700 acres of land leased by Kirkwood, south of Ely for release to the wild at 11:30. The swans will likely spend the summer and much of the fall at the wetland before migrating south for the first time. The public is invited to attend the swan release at the wetland.
The presentations on swans will be given by Kirkwood students who are currently employed as interns and who have taken classes in Natural Resources Interpretation at Kirkwood.
Trumpeter swans were indigenous to Iowa, but wetland drainage and unregulated hunting eliminated them in 1883. It wasn’t until 1998 that a wild trumpeter swan was found to inhabit the state. In 2010, 42 wild pairs of trumpeter swans were found nesting in Iowa. They are the largest waterfowl in North America, weighing as much as 32 pounds, with a wingspan of 8 feet.
Kirkwood Community College has two trumpeter swans on campus. The hope is to create offspring from these two birds, that can be released into the wild when they’re ready.