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As the North's festival season flies on, even biologists are getting in on the fun.

Fort Smith's annual Northern Whooping Crane Festival is set to take flight Aug. 14 to 17 with activities planned throughout the four-day celebration of conservation.

"It's mostly themed around the work that's being done putting in protections, especially around the nesting sites in Wood Buffalo National Park," said festival coordinator Starr Wolki. "But also the joint efforts of all these organizations and groups of people working together to continue to protect these birds and ensure their survival.

Whooping cranes SA¹ú¼ÊÓ°ÊÓ´«Ã½” the tallest birds in North America, reaching up to five feet in height SA¹ú¼ÊÓ°ÊÓ´«Ã½” have been visiting Fort Smith as part of their Northern migration for a long time, but their presence there has only been known to modern science since 1954, found only by accident by a firefighter. The Aransas-Wood Buffalo population of whooping cranes is the only wild flock of cranes remaining in the world that migrates SA¹ú¼ÊÓ°ÊÓ´«Ã½” there are others that do not migrate.

Whooping cranes are an early conservation success story. From the brink of extinction in the 1940s with only 14 to 20 known left alive in the world, efforts involving conservationists and multiple levels of government in Canada and the United States have provided enough sanctuary and support for the large birds to enable them to repopulate to 557 individuals counted by the International Crane Association in 2025.

It shows how effective cooperation can be for nature, considering the birds tend to only raise a single offspring in a breeding year.

"Since then, it's been an explosion of conservation between the U.S. and Canada working together," said Wolki. "They're really, really hard to get to when they're nesting up here and they're so protected SA¹ú¼ÊÓ°ÊÓ´«Ã½” you can view them from 1,000 metres away on the ground or 2,000 metres away from the sky.

"They're very sensitive in the nesting stage. They only lay two eggs and usually only one hatchling makes it."

While the main star of the festival is the majestic bird, there will be presentations from conservationists and biologists covering all sorts of natural wonders in the area, including a presentation on the impact the 2023 NWT wildfires SA¹ú¼ÊÓ°ÊÓ´«Ã½” which abruptly cancelled the first Whooping Crane Festival days before it was to begin. Those fires had effects on garter snakes and woodland frogs around Fort Smith. There will also be a presentation on the behaviour of black bears in the region.

Workshops on crafts, including a fish-scale magnet-making workshop, are scheduled. Kids activities include making whooping crane nests, seed bombs and friendship bracelets. There will also be a major arts show throughout the festival.

A display of origami (folded paper) whooping cranes completed by Wolki in partnership with Richard Gonzales at the flock's wintering grounds in Port Aransas, Texas, will be available for viewing at Northern Life Museum.

"We started a collaboration between kids in Texas and here to create origami cranes and connect our communities together," said Wolki. "So we have 557 origami cranes that are going to be at the museum, half from Texas and half from here."

Wolki added that the event is free to attend and welcomed anyone interested in nature to come out and celebrate.

"They're one of the rarest species of crane in the world,"  she said. "We're incredibly lucky in the Northwest Territories to have them nest here.

"I just want to thank everybody involved in coming together in making this a fun and exciting weekend. Their help is appreciated, big or small."