About George

Dr. George Archibald co-founded the International Crane Foundation in Baraboo, Wisconsin, in the spring of 1973, along with Dr. Ronald Sauey, a colleague and friend from Cornell University, as a global center to study and conserve cranes and protect the habitats and flyways they need to survive.  For 27 years, Dr. Archibald served as the President of the Foundation. In 2000, he passed on this leadership, and ever since, he has continued his full-time work to help raise the funds needed to fulfill the Foundation’s mission, while also supporting the many global programs he started. His current focus involves work in Azerbaijan, Bhutan, Cuba, China, Pakistan, South Korea, and Russia. Dr. Archibald has always used the charisma of cranes to help unite people from diverse cultures and countries to work together to preserve habitats necessary for the survival of both cranes and people.

For more than 50 years, his visionary leadership and determined optimism have supported integrated programs to conserve all 15 species of cranes worldwide. He envisioned programs developed and implemented using a creative combination of field research, public education, habitat protection, captive propagation, reintroduction, and partnership with local communities living near the cranes.  One of Dr. Archibald’s first projects in North America was to save the Endangered Whooping Crane, which was on the brink of extinction.  Dr. Archibald received his undergraduate degree from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1968, and completed his Ph.D. at Cornell University in 1977. In recognition for his accomplishments, he has received four honorary doctorates and many awards including the Gold Medal from the World Wildlife Fund, a Fellows Award from the MacArthur Foundation, the Wildlife Conservation Medal from the Zoological Society of San Diego, the Lilly Medal presented by the Indianapolis Zoo, and the Douglas H. Pimlott Award from Nature Canada. In 2013, Archibald was awarded the Order of Canada on behalf of Queen Elizabeth II and received the inaugural Dan W. Lufkin Prize for Environmental Leadership from the National Audubon Society.

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Saturday - George's Banquet Presentation

Cranes of the World

Cranes, with their natural beauty and entrancing dances, are the ambassadors of wetlands, grasslands and flyways worldwide (except for in South America where for unknown reason cranes have never been present).  The Sandhill Cranes that visit Sulphur Springs Valley are just one of the world’s 15 species of these remarkable birds!  North America is host to two species along with seven species endemic in Asia, four in Africa, and one in Australia.  George Archibald, co-founder of the International Crane Foundation (ICF) and now its Senior Conservationist, will share the story of cranes and what ICF does to help all species of cranes as well as the humans who share their landscapes. 

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My Life with Cranes - A Collection of Stories