Conservation

Joe Meche is vice president of the North Cascades Audubon Society and is in his ninth year as editor of the chapter newsletter. Joe is also a member of the board of directors of the Washington Brant Foundation. He has been photographing birds and landscapes for over 30 years and has been watching birds for more than 50 years.

According to “Webster’s Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language,” one of the definitions of the word conservation is “the official supervision of rivers, forests and other natural resources to preserve and protect them through prudent management.” An integral part of the mission statement of the North Cascades Audubon Society is “to promote the study and conservation of birds and other wildlife, their habitat and the environment.”

In two previous columns, we discussed extinction and the need for the protection of migratory species. The common thread that inherently links these two concepts is conservation. At this time in the history of humanity, if we wish to gain some semblance of harmony with nature and become true stewards of the rapidly-shrinking natural world, we must resolutely embrace the principles of conservation.

Natural episodes that occurred before recorded history took sizeable tolls on the world’s bird populations. However, in the past century and a half alone, humans have taken over as the primary cause of the loss of species by the rapid and drastic transformation of their habitats—not to mention the outright destruction of certain areas that are critical to specific birds.

In addition to the natural threats that have deleterious effects on their numbers, birds and other wildlife are forced to contend with the seemingly insatiable desire of man to overwhelm the planet. In the overall scheme of things, we’re destroying the environment at a record pace; we’re polluting the air and water; and we still take more than we give in return. We’ll obtain no help from the current administration so we must do all that we can individually and with like-minded organizations.

The loss of critical habitat worldwide is probably as significant a threat as anything in the decline of bird species. Tropical rainforests contain 66 percent of the world’s bird species and once covered approximately 12 percent of the landmass of the planet. In the past few decades, however, this area has been reduced by half, with no end in sight.

We don’t have to travel far away from home to view habitat destruction first hand, however. The great forests of the Pacific Northwest have been reduced to 10 percent of their original size and clear-cutting and poor forest management practices in the Northwest have put many species on the brink, including the much-publicized spotted owl and the lesser-known marbled murrelet.

The previous administration made some progress in reducing the amount of logging in what was left of old-growth forests, but the current management team in Washington, D.C., is going in the opposite direction. Additionally, the concepts of opening roadless areas and removing protection for places like the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge do not bode well for the species that depend on these sensitive areas for their survival.

Intense logging and the expansion of cities and farmlands throughout the country have had deleterious effects on wildlife. Critical wetlands have been sacrificed for poorly planned suburbs and shopping centers, and essential forests have been fragmented to the point of encouraging the proliferation of less desirable species of predators and brood parasites.

Manmade poisons fill the air and water and the Bush administration ignores warnings of the adverse effects of global warming and pollution, and it’s more politics as usual when dealing with known, repeat offenders. Human predation, in the form of over-hunting or harvesting beyond sustainable quotas, is wreaking havoc in the Arctic breeding grounds of many species of birds.

The human population explosion continues to drain natural resources to the point of exhaustion. No other member of the animal kingdom reproduces with such ease and without predatory controls. We cannot continue to add to an already overpopulated planet that is running critically low on natural resources. We must make drastic changes in our behavior or endure the consequences in our lifetime.

Now, with all this gloom and doom on the table, it’s important to keep in mind that there is a wealth of individuals and organizations worldwide whose goals are to reverse the trends and work toward habitat conservation and restoration. The conservation movement in this country began before the turn of the last century, and was instrumental in saving numerous species from almost certain extinction.

In the late 1800s, the public outcry that was raised over the killing and exploitation of birds drew the attention of the fledgling American Ornithologists’ Union (AOU). The AOU was founded in 1883, led the formation of state Audubon chapters, and proposed a Model Law that eventually became the standard for bird protection throughout the country.

Numerous conservation and restoration programs are in place throughout the world and the trend seems to be more positive than it has been in some time. Birds like the California condor, peregrine falcon and the whooping crane are success stories that prove the capabilities of humans to reach out and right some of the wrongs of the not-so-distant past.

More coffee growers are leaning toward the concept of shade-grown coffee and thereby sparing the practices of clear-cutting that wiped out essential habitats of neotropical birds that winter in southern latitudes. Birds are very sensitive creatures and require specific habitats in both their winter and summer ranges. Habitat and species restoration efforts are underway, and there is hope for a brighter future.

The recent rediscovery of the ivory-billed woodpecker is an excellent example of habitat restoration. The bottomland forests of the South were devastated, and the few areas that were set aside and spared the chainsaw apparently provided enough of a safe haven for the ivory-bill until we could come to our senses and put a stop to the madness.

Joni Mitchell wrote a song in 1969 and the lyrics painted a prophetic, albeit gloomy portrait of a landscape that could be the future if we don’t act now.

They took all the trees

And put them in a tree museum

And they charged all the people

A dollar and a half just to see them.

Don’t it always seem to go

That you don’t know what you’ve got

Til it’s gone

They paved paradise

And put up a parking lot. §