A small crowd watched last week as two trumpeter swans were introduced to their new home.
    The Iowa Department of Natural Resources released the 11-month old female and male swans at Cardinal Marsh May 13. The swans were donated by the City of Cannon Falls, Minn.
    More than 800 free flying trumpeter swans have been released into the wild throughout the state since 1995, including several at Cardinal Marsh over the years. The DNR’s goal is to have 30 free flying nesting pairs of trumpeter swans in Iowa by 2009.
    Before releasing the swans, Iowa DNR Wildlife Technician Dave Hoffman shared information about trumpeter swans with a group of community members who attended. Those attending also had the chance to pet the swans, see their 8-foot wingspan and feel their webbed feet.
    Trumpeter swans were once common in Iowa, but were gone from the state by the late 1800s. By the early 1930s, only 69 trumpeter swans remained in the lower 48 states. Habitat loss is one of the main reasons for the sharp decline in the number of swans throughout the state. Over 98 percent of Iowa’s original wetlands and 99 percent of the state’s prairies no longer exist. Iowa is the most physically altered state in the country.
    Releasing the two swans at Cardinal Marsh is part of the DNR’s statewide trumpeter swan restoration effort, with the hope that they will help restore a wild free flying population to Iowa.
    The swans’ new home, Cardinal Marsh, encompasses about 1,100 acres of wetlands. The goal is that the swans will learn to fly at the marsh, then fly south and return here during the warmer months. A Fish and Wildlife band around the swans’ legs helps to track them.
    Female swans mature at about 5 years old and male swans are mature at about age 4. Nearly 75 percent of trumpeter swans die before they reach maturity, Hoffman said.
    Hoffman spoke of the importance of protecting Iowa’s remaining wetlands, and the significant role that public support plays in doing that.
    “It’s amazing how people in Iowa have contributed to bringing them back,” Hoffman said about the swan restoration project.
    Hoffman listed a few things people can do to encourage an increase in the swan population in the state, including: don’t litter and pick up litter if you see it, donate to wetland restoration programs and turn in people who shoot the birds or otherwise endanger them.