In 1975 a group of North American crane researchers and managers convened a workshop at the fledgling International Crane Foundation in Baraboo, Wisconsin. At the end they agreed to publish the proceedings of the workshop and to reconvene in 3 years to continue to share information, ideas, and support. This first international crane workshop also served as the first North American crane workshop and was followed by others in Rockport, Texas (1978), Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming (1981), Grand Island, Nebraska (1985), and Kissimmee Prairie, Florida (1988). In these first 5 North American workshops, proceedings were published by the sponsoring agencies or organizations. At the Florida meeting participants formed the North American Crane Working Group, an organization of "professional biologists, aviculturists, land managers, and other interested individuals dedicated to the conservation of cranes and their habitats in North America." In 1991 the Sixth North American Crane Workshop was held in Regina, Saskatchewan. This was the first workshop in which the NACWG sponsored the workshop and published the proceedings. Because the quality and commitment of the North American Crane Working Group appeared to be substantial and long-lived, the Proceedings of the North American Crane Workshop became a numbered series with Proc. North Am. Crane Workshop 6.

The Proceedings of previous crane workshops have been valuable resources for crane researchers and managers. With each succeeding workshop the quality of presentations and manuscripts has improved. Papers submitted for publication in the Proceedings are peer-reviewed according to scientific journal standards. Because the Proceedings are intended to serve as a source of current scientific knowledge and state-of-the-art in crane biology, unpublished as well as published information may be included in the literature cited.