Renowned Wildlife Photographer to Speak at Funk’s Crepes & Cranes

PRESS RELEASE

March 20

For immediate release

For more information about Visit 37, contact Kristine Jacobson at visitphelpscounty@gmail.com. 

For information about the Funk School Community Center and the Crepes and Cranes event, contact Mona Peterson at mpeterso77@gmail.com.

With courtesy photo of Michael Forsberg

Renowned Wildlife Photographer 
to Speak at Funk’s Crepes & Cranes

FUNK – The second annual Crepes & Cranes event at the Funk School Community Center will feature renowned wildlife photographer Michael Forsberg.

In addition to speaking, Forsberg will showcase a captivating pop-up gallery of his photography, inviting attendees to explore his stunning visual storytelling.

The event will be from 8:30-10:30 a.m. Saturday, April 5, with Forsberg speaking at 9:45 a.m. A breakfast of crepes (aka pancakes) will be served. The admission fee is a free-will donation. 

Forsberg will share his journey to capture the lives of rare whooping cranes, and copies of his new book “Into Whooperland” will be available to purchase.

Forsberg is a Nebraskan whose 30-year career as a photographer and conservationist has been dedicated to wildlife conservation stories in North America’s Great Plains. His images have been featured in “Audubon,” “National Geographic,” “Nature Conservancy” and “Sierra” magazines. 

In 2024, a whooping crane photo that Forsberg captured at Funk’s Waterfowl Production Area was featured as one of “National Geographic's” best wildlife photos of 2024. The photo appeared in an April 2024 “National Geographic” story called “Going the Distance.”

Forsberg recently spent five years immersing himself in “whooperland.” He followed the last wild population, about 540 birds, on their narrow, 2,500-mile Great Plains flyway from the Texas Gulf Coast to nesting grounds in the remote boreal forests of Canada’s Northwest Territories. The path includes stops in Nebraska, with one of those stops often being the Funk Waterfowl Production Area northeast of Funk.

He documented this journey in his new book “Into Whooperland: A Photographer’s Journey with Whooping Cranes.”

Other activities at the FSCC that day will include a bird-themed movie for kids at 1 p.m., tours of the new Wildlife gallery space, and the annual Trivia Night starting at 6 p.m. To pre-register for the trivia night, call (308) 991-2895 or (308) 991-6890.

The Funk School Community Center is a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving the Funk School as a place where the community can come together. Proceeds from Crepes and Cranes will help fund the new gallery, along with continued operations and events at the school.

For more information about the Funk School Community Center or Crepes & Cranes, visit the website at funkschoolcc.com or contact board president Mona Peterson at (308) 991-2895.