Crane Viewing Days Feature Special Anniversary

CROSSVILLE, Tenn. --- The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency has announced the 2011 Hiwassee Crane Viewing Days will be held on Jan. 15-16, 2011.

 

This event celebrates the rich Native American and wildlife heritage found around the confluence of the Hiwassee and Tennessee rivers. Organizers plan to bring back the historic partnership with the Birchwood Community and the Birchwood School, the Cherokee Removal Memorial, and Meigs County Tourism, by providing visitors a quality educational experience.

 

In October 2010, the State of Tennessee celebrates the 60th year of managing the Hiwassee Wildlife Refuge in Meigs County. TWRA records on file reveal the lands management transfer in a letter from the Tennessee Valley Authority, Biological Readjustment Division, to the Tennessee Division of Game and Fish, Department of Conservation. The letter and attached agreement established Hiwassee State Game Refuge on Chickamauga Reservoir on October 29, 1940.

 

To celebrate 60 years of management, the Hiwassee Wildlife Refuge, TWRA and partners have scheduled the 20th Anniversary of the Crane Viewing Days. The local community also has reasons to celebrate because year 2011 marks and the 80th anniversary of the near-by Birchwood School.

 

The well-known event, named to the Top 20 Event list by the Southeast
Tourism Society in 2002, is free.   Activities are designed to feature the Native
American history and the Cherokee “Trail of Tears” at the Cherokee Removal
Memorial and their new educational center, located behind the Hiwassee Refuge,
and a sampling of local history in the near-by Birchwood Community and their
educational center for 80 years, Birchwood School. With them as partners, and
the Tennessee Wildlife Federation and Meigs County Tourism as sponsors, the
Hiwassee Wildlife Refuge and TWRA plan to present an event with something for
just about everybody.

 

On Saturday, Jan. 15, the event begins at the Birchwood School,
where visitors can park and ride to the activities at the Hiwassee Refuge and the
Cherokee Removal Memorial. During the day at the school, food and drinks will
be on sell to benefit the students, while kids can enjoy special activities in the
hallways with anniversary celebration arts and crafts. In the gym at the school,
Al Cecere, American Eagle Foundation and the handler of “Challenger”, will be
on hand with a special surprise raptor show. TWRA biologists will present
updates on wildlife population trends and management plans, and expert
presentations on Native American history in the Hiwassee area.

 

 The Hiwassee Refuge is home each year to over 50,000 migrating sandhill cranes
and a variety of native species that include reintroduced bald and golden eagles,
and whooping cranes that are part of the experimental whooping crane
reintroduction.   Last year, during the annual late winter bird count at the
Hiwassee Refuge, there were 40,000 sandhill cranes using the area, but only
1,500 ducks and geese.

 

On Sunday, Jan. 16, both the Hiwassee Refuge and the Cherokee
Memorial will remain open for viewing wildlife and Cherokee Indian heritage
memorials and displays. On both days TWRA, the Tennessee Aquarium, and
members of the Chattanooga Chapter of the Tennessee Ornithological Society
personnel will be available with viewing scopes to provide visitors with wildlife
interpretation.
 

The Birchwood School, closed on Sunday, is located only a few miles off
I-75 on Tennessee Highway 60, about midway between Dayton and Cleveland. 
It is only three miles from the wildlife-viewing site at the Hiwassee Wildlife Refuge. 
The Cherokee Removal Memorial is found just to the side of the refuge
near the Tennessee River.

 

For more information, call 1-800-262-6704, (in state) or (931) 484-9571.

 

---TWRA---