The second annual Crepes & Cranes event at the Funk School Community Center will feature renowned wildlife photographer Michael Forsberg.
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. A free-will donation will be accepted for breakfast.
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. His fine art prints are in public and private collections, and his solo exhibitions have traveled nationwide.
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.”
Twenty years ago, his book titled “Ancient Wings: The Sandhill Cranes of Northern America” sold out three times and is now out of print.
Forsberg is a research assistant professor and conservation photographer in residence at the School of Natural Resources at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
The Funk School Community Center is a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving the Funk School as a place where the community can come together. In 2025, the FSCC is remodeling one of the former classrooms into a new gallery space to tell the story of local wildlife and cranes. The new gallery will house shows, workshops, and exhibits. 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.
