By almost any account, the reintroduction of Trumpeter Swans into the Great  
Lakes region has been wildly successful (I guess if you like swans and want 
them  in the local avifauna).  In 1990, when the multi-agency swan program 
began,  there were 237 trumpeters in the Mississippi and Atlantic flyways.  Ten  
years later, the figure was 2060 and it has continued to expand since  then.
 
At Seney NWR in the UP, 40 trumpeters were intrdouced in 1991-93.   They 
began breeding in 1992.  The population on the refuge is now around  220 adult 
birds and offspring have been breeding outside the refuge in nearby  wetlands.
 
Similar success has been experienced in Wisconsin and Minnesota.
 
No one knows where the Seney birds winter, although the theory is not very  
far away.  Research money has not been available for radio collaring  studies.  
Nor is it known whether any of these Great Lakes birds will ever  migrate 
like Tundra Swans do to the Chesapeake Bay or elsewhere in the Middle  Atlantic.
 
It is hard to believe that anything short of unlimited hunting or a major,  
widespread waterfowl disease could again wipe out these widely spaced new  
populations.
 
Bob Mumford
Darnestown