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Least Terns: <br />Dr. Eileen Kirsch <br />Dr. Kirsch is a researcher with the U.S. Geological Survey's Upper Midwest Environmental <br />Sciences Center in La Cross, Wisconsin. She has conducted multiple research projects, and <br />authored numerous papers on least terns along the Platte River that have been published in peer <br />reviewed professional journals. Dr. Kirsch has also authored a Wildlife Monograph titled <br />"Habitat selection and productivity of least terns on the lower Platte River, Nebraska. She can be <br />reached at 608 - 783 -6451. <br />Whooping Crane: <br />Mr. Tom Stehn <br />Mr. Stehn is a Refuge Biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at Aransas National <br />Wildlife Refuge (NWR) near Austwell, Texas. He has held the position of U.S. Whooping <br />Crane Coordinator (Coordinator) since 1997, and is currently co- chairman of the International <br />Whooping Crane Recovery Team. He is one of the principal compilers of the first International <br />Recovery Plan for the Whooping Crane, which is currently in draft status. In his position as <br />Coordinator, he annually updates the Contingency Plan (Plan) for the Federal -State Protection of <br />Whooping Cranes. This Plan outlines cooperative Federal -State efforts to protect migrating <br />whooping cranes. Mr. Stehn was instrumental in the initial work to establish a whooping crane <br />Rock which migrates between Wisconsin and Florida. He conducts aerial surveys of wintering <br />whooping cranes at Aransas NWR and assists the Canadian Wildlife Service with aerial surveys <br />on the breeding grounds in Wood Buffalo National Park, Northwest Territories, Canada. Mr. <br />Stehn was a ground crew member for the study that tracked the migration of radio - marked <br />whooping cranes between Aransas NWR and central Saskatchewan during the fall 1981 -83 and <br />spring 1983 -84 migrations. Mr. Stehn participated as a whooping crane expert in a September <br />26 -27, 2000, Workshop to Develop Species Recovery Objectives for Four Target Species in the <br />Central and Lower Platte River (Whooping Crane, Least Tern, Piping Plover, Pallid Sturgeon). <br />A final workshop report is dated June 26, 2002. Mr. Stehn's extensive experience with <br />whooping cranes on the wintering and breeding grounds, and during migration, as Coordinator <br />and Recovery Team co- chairman, and knowledge of federally designated critical habitats for the <br />species and Platte River issues makes him well qualified as an expert on the whooping crane. He <br />can be reached in his office at 361 - 286 -3559, extension 221. <br />