The whooping crane was listed as federally endangered species due to the sharp decline of populations resulting from unregulated shooting and habitat destruction

The aransas wood buffalo population of the species is a self sustaining population that migrates from the aransas national wildlife refuge on the texas coast to wood buffalo national park in alberta canada. This migration pathway is part of a larger avian migration corridor commonly called the central flyway. The conservation fund (TCF) proposes to develop in coordination coordination with the US fish wildlife service (FWS) a whooping crane in lieu fee (ILF) program. This program would compensate for negative impacts to the aransas wood buffalo whooping crane and or its habitat resulting from the development of infrastructure projects such as renewable energy facilities power lines and road construction along the central flyway migration pathway.TCF will facilitate communication among all parties throughout the program development process including hosting calls and briefings and coordinating working groups. This working group will draft a prospectus for an in lieu fee program which TCF will refine and finalize. The service will have substantial involvement with developing the in-lieu fee framework, which is the ultimate product of this cooperative agreement. Our involvement will include regular working meetings with the conservation fund to develop the compensatory framework document, develop the strategy to prioritize geography of mitigation actions, and review drafts of the framework, and ensure consistency with service mitigation policies.