Our Mission

Save Our Sandhill Cranes (SOS Cranes) is a non-profit organization dedicated to maintaining open-space habitat and the conservation of the California Central Valley’s Sandhill Crane populations through education, outreach, and community activism.

We are especially concerned about threats to the remaining suitable winter habitats in the Central Valley of California. Pending urban development and the shift from corn and rice production to vineyards and orchards will likely dramatically diminish what little remains of the winter migratory habitat of the Lesser and Greater Sandhill Cranes in this region. The Greater Sandhill Crane, which is a state-listed threatened species, is highly loyal to its specific wintering grounds and any disturbance there will result in them being uprooted.

If we lose the present population it is highly unlikely that Sandhill Cranes from another location and population will come and take their place. The Lesser Sandhill Cranes, a smaller subspecies of the Sandhill Crane, is subject to the same threats of habitat loss as the Greater Sandhill Cranes.