Colorado Crane Conservation Coalition

Presenters of the Yampa Valley Crane Festival

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Join Colorado Crane Conservation Coalition (CCCC) for an evening to welcome back the cranes to Northwest Colorado and raise funds for CCCC. Enjoy tapas inspired from areas along the migration path of our Rocky Mountain Sandhill Cranes, live music from Steamboat Folk, and the company of your fellow craniacs. Hear from CCCC President, Nancy Merrill, and CCCC Executive Director, Erin Gelling, about CCCC’s important work.

Click here to register for this event.

This event is sponsored by Abby Jensen Photography.


Contests Going On Now


CCCC’s Mission

Conserving Rocky Mountain Greater Sandhill Cranes and their habitat through science and education.

Learn more about Colorado Crane Conservation Coalition

 

Sandhill Cranes

The Greater Sandhill Crane is an iconic species of the Yampa Valley in Northwest Colorado. Returning in the spring from wintering grounds in New Mexico and Arizona, cranes nest and raise their young in wetland areas throughout the valley. At summer’s end during the peak of their stopover in the Yampa Valley, we present our annual crane festival. The purpose of the Yampa Valley Crane Festival is to educate the public about these ancient birds and to celebrate their presence in Northwest Colorado.

Aldo Leopold, the famous conservationist, wrote in a Sand County Almanac,

“Our appreciation for the crane grows with the slow unraveling of earthly history. His tribe, we now know, stems out of the remote Eocene. The other members of the fauna in which he originated are long since entombed within the hills. When we hear his call we hear no mere bird. We hear the trumpet in the orchestra of evolution. He is the symbol of our untamable past, of that incredible sweep of millennia which underlies and conditions the daily affairs of birds and men.”

Once you have heard the call of a crane, you will remember it forever.


Sandhill Crane Nest Camera

Photo by Abby Jensen

Our Crane Nest Camera has ended for the season. You can still check out the highlight videos and see a summary of this year’s nest camera season.

Crane Nest Camera

Yampa Valley Crane Festival

CCCC presents the annual Yampa Valley Crane Festival each fall. The festival occurs in beautiful Northwest Colorado where Greater Sandhill Cranes gather in staging areas to feed before migrating south.

Our 11th annual Yampa Valley Crane Festival took place September 1-4, 2022.

Save the date for our 12th annual festival to take place Aug 31-Sept 3, 2023.

 

Yampa Valley Crane Festival

 

 

Yampa Valley Cranes

Sandhill Cranes breed, raise their young, and stage during the fall in the Yampa Valley of Northwest Colorado. Check out this short video of our Yampa Valley Cranes from breeding through staging:

 

Greater Sandhill Crane Week

Greater Sandhill Crane Week is March 1-8 and was created to spread awareness of Sandhill Cranes. It is also when Sandhill Cranes start returning to the Yampa Valley for the spring/summer.

CCCC News

March 1, 2023


Join CCCC for a fun, family-friendly program, “Migrating with Sandhill Cranes: A Crane’s Journey to the Yampa Valley” at Oak Creek Library on Wednesday March 8 at 5pm


Join CCCC for an evening to welcome back the cranes to Northwest Colorado and raise funds during our first Crane Migration Celebration. Enjoy tapas inspired from areas along the migration path of our Rocky Mountain Sandhill Cranes, live music from Steamboat Folk, and the company of your fellow craniacs. For more info and to register, click here.


Rocky Mountain Sandhill Cranes are starting their migration north to the Yampa Valley and beyond. Document your sighting in the Yampa Valley as part of our First Crane Sighting Contest. You can also see cranes in abundance during March in the San Luis Valley of Southern Colorado.


Read about our accomplishments last year in our 2022 Annual Report.


CCCC welcomes our first Executive Director, Erin Gelling. Erin has served previously as Program Director and has a background in wildlife biology and environmental education.


The Crane-inspired Creative Arts Scholarship Contest is accepting submissions through March 25, 2023. This contest is open to Routt and Moffat high school seniors to submit a piece of written or visual arts inspired by our Rocky Mountain Sandhill Cranes to earn money for continuing education. Read the contest rules here.


Our Executive Director, Erin Gelling, will be giving a presentation at the Monte Vista Crane Festival on Saturday March 11 at 3pm titled “The Secret Lives of Nesting Sandhill Cranes”. Learn more about the Monte Vista Crane Festival here.


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Colorado Crane Conservation Coalition, Inc.
info@coloradocranes.org | (970) 276-1933 | 40625 County Road 69A, Hayden, CO 81639
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