[BCNnet] How you can help save a billion birds (Boreal Songbird Initiative)

[Alan Anderson]

The following appeared as a letter-to-the-editor/guest editorial in Monday's
Chicago Sun-Times.

http://www.suntimes.com/output/letters/cst-edt-vox27a.html

How you can help save a billion birds
December 27, 2004


Four calling birds,
three French hens,
two turtle doves,
and a partridge in a pear tree . . .

So goes the familiar holiday tune. Unfortunately, this holiday season,
scientists are heralding bad news for birds. New research indicates that
one-quarter of all bird species will likely disappear or be critically
endangered by the end of this century due to habitat loss, global warming
and invasive species. The National Audubon Society's recent ''State of the
Birds'' report further confirms that we are not gaining ground but losing
it.

Audubon's study highlights America's most rapidly declining birds. Topping
the list are two species that raise their young in Canadian Boreal forests
but winter here in the United States. The rusty blackbird, a cousin to the
abundant red-winged blackbird, has declined by a staggering 97.9 percent
since 1966. Millions of these birds have just disappeared over the last
three decades. The lesser yellowleg, a long-legged shorebird that nests far
to our north, has declined by 97.3 percent.

These birds and more than 200 other species nest in the 1.4 billion-acre
Boreal forest that stretches from Alaska to Newfoundland. The forest is one
of the last great wilderness regions left on Earth. One-third of the birds
visiting the tens of millions of backyard bird feeders in the United States
may have been born in Canada's Boreal region.

Chicago regularly hosts about 25 boreal bird species each winter. Many other
species pass through during spring and fall migrations.

Here in Chicago, the red-breasted nuthatches, white-throated sparrows and
dark-eyed juncos have likely come from the distant Boreal forest. Additional
Boreal birds in the Chicago area can be found at a new interactive Boreal
Bird Guide at < www.boreal birds.org  > .

Since 1975, about 60 million acres of Canadian Boreal forest have been
logged, and development in the region is rapidly escalating.

Much of the logging supplies newsprint, catalogs, mail solicitations and
tissue paper used in the United States. Associated habitat loss could very
well be contributing to abrupt declines in at least 40 bird species.

In November, the World Conservation Union formally called for increased
Boreal conservation. Fortunately, leading conservationists, resource
companies and First Nations tribal peoples are crafting the Boreal
Conservation Framework. This initiative envisions protecting half the region
as vast tracts of wild land while sustainably developing the remainder.

What can you do closer to home to ensure that Boreal birds keep coming to
your backyard? Buy recycled paper products. Write letters urging mail-order
companies and tissue manufacturers to stop using paper made from virgin
Boreal forest when better options are available.

You can also participate in the world's longest-running winter bird survey,
the 105th Audubon Christmas Bird Count, www. audubon .org/bird/cbc , which
started Dec. 14 and continues to Jan. 5.

About 55,000 volunteers count birds at nearly 2,000 locations. Their counts
inform vital efforts to conserve the Boreal forest and the birds that depend
on it -- not to mention it's a great excuse to spend a day outside in
nature.

Whatever way you choose to help, just do it, and tell your kids you are
helping to save a billion birds.

Jeff Wells, former director
of bird conservation,
National Audubon Society

{Jeff is currently Senior Scientist for the Boreal Songbird Initiative -
pers. comm.}

Alan B. Anderson
casresearch@comcast.net

Des Plaines, Cook Co.

www.chicagoaudubon.org