“Conserving
Wild Birds and Their Habitats throughout the Americas”
, 202/234-7181 ext. 216, www.abcbirds.org
1. Will Changes to Four
Seasons Resort Spare the Endangered Grenada Dove?
2. President’s Budget Includes “Birds
Forever” Initiative
3. Biofuels Binge: Colombia to Convert 7.4
Million Acres of Tropical Rainforest to African Palm
4. Invasive Species Act Passes House,
Awaits Senate Action
5. Saltwater Marsh Islands of Jamaica Bay
Could Disappear Within Five Years
6. “High Roller” Arrested for
Raptor Killings
7. Federal Highways Administration Supports
Road Through Kansas Wetlands
8. Collisions with Glass Wall at California
Development Causing Bird Deaths
9. More Habitat Protection for Spotted
Owl Needed Due to Competition from Barred Owl
10. New Green Lights May Stop Bird
Strikes on Offshore Platforms
11. PredatorWatch Surveys Bird Kills by
Cats and Other Predators
____________________________________________________________________________
1. Will Changes to
Four Seasons Resort Spare the Endangered Grenada Dove?
Public pressure over the fate of one of
the world’s rarest birds has caused hotel giant Four
Seasons to modify its plans for a massive new resort on the
island of Grenada. Questions remain, however, as to whether
the revised plan for Mt. Hartman National Park and Mt. Hartman
Estate will guarantee the survival of the largest and only
viable population of the critically endangered Grenada Dove,
which numbers fewer than 100 individuals.
During the summer of 2007, following the
release of the project’s Environmental Impact Assessment,
and apparently in response to criticism about the plan, the
developers agreed to support a dove survey. They hired a leading
expert on the Grenada Dove to conduct a detailed, range-wide
assessment of the dove population and to provide feedback
to the developer about the plan design. The surveys concluded
that the Mt. Hartman population of the dove is by far the
most significant, and failure to conserve it could be disastrous
for the species.
The resort plan has gone through several
iterations since the summer. The most recent retains the proposed
golf course, but decreases the number of villas from 200 to
approximately 100 on the mainland portion of the estate where
the doves are found. The current proposal, which has now been
approved by the National Parks Advisory Council, will maintain
the total protected area of Mt. Hartman at 155 acres. Significantly,
this will all be in one contiguous block, unlike the three
unconnected blocks of habitat that exist now. The protected
area would be fenced, and restrictions would be placed on
pet ownership at the resort. However, eight dove territories
(20% of the total) will be lost under the plan.
As mitigation, the government of Grenada
has made a public commitment to protect important dove habitat
at another locality called Beauséjour. If the area
and number of territories protected is sufficient, this could
provide the win-win situation that stakeholders have been
looking for.
A trust established to provide ongoing
support for the costs of management could result in greater
long-term security for the protected area than currently exists.
Negotiations are still underway among developers, environmental
groups, scientists, and the government of Grenada. Contact
, ABC.
2. President’s
Budget Includes “Birds Forever” Initiative
The President’s budget, announced
February 5, includes $9 million for a new “Birds Forever”
initiative. This initiative will work in partnership with
states, local communities and conservation organizations to
reverse the precipitous decline in wild birds, whose populations
have plummeted as much as 70% since 1967. A joint effort of
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Geological
Survey, the $9 million initiative would expand and improve
the health of wild bird habitat, strengthen educational outreach
programs and improve scientific understanding of the dynamics
of wild bird populations by focusing on 36 bird species in
priority areas including the Red
Knot, Cerulean Warbler, Laysan
Albatross, and Hawaiian honeycreepers.
The Fish and Wildlife Service would receive
an $8.0 million increase under the Initiative to support targeted
planning and broad-scale activities to address threats to
bird species. This includes a net increase of $3.8 million
for monitoring and assessment of birds, $196,000 for conservation
grant programs, and an additional $4.0 million for Migratory
Bird Joint Ventures. The US Geological Survey would receive
$1 million to improve monitoring, and to expand the Breeding
Bird Survey into Mexico with the goal of improving conservation
planning in the Southwest. Overall, conservation programs
for the Department of the Interior were reduced however, and
it remains to be seen how this conservation initiative will
be received by Congress. For more information see http://www.doi.gov/initiatives/birdsforever.html
and www.usgs.gov/budget/2009/docs/birds_forever.doc.
On October 20, 2007, President Bush outlined
a series of new conservation initiatives to benefit migratory
birds and seabirds while speaking at an event at the Patuxent
Research Refuge. The initiatives includes additional resources
for Joint
Ventures and National Wildlife Refuges, funding partnerships
with Mexico to protect wintering habitat for migratory birds,
creating a “State of the Birds Report” to measure
environmental health and conservation progress, cleaning up
marine debris that harms seabirds, and creating a system of
recovery credits to incentivize protection of stopover habitat
(see story below).
“President Bush and the First Lady
appreciate the value of birds and understand the need to boost
conservation efforts,” said George Fenwick, President
of American Bird Conservancy, who attended the event and talked
about birds with the President and First Lady. “Birds
don’t recognize political boundaries, so conserving
migratory birds requires protecting wintering grounds and
stopover sites, both here and abroad.”
Nearly two-thirds of the bird species
that breed in or migrate through the United States have declining
populations. The Cerulean Warbler, which breeds in the eastern
forests of North America and winters in South America, has
declined by 80% in the last forty years.
“Like the canary in the coalmine,
the decline of so many bird species is an indicator of environmental
degradation that now threatens society,” said Fenwick.
“But, as the recoveries of the Bald Eagle, Peregrine
Falcon, Whooping
Crane, and California
Condor have proven, we can meet environmental challenges
and reverse population declines with a focused effort.”
The initiative also calls for greater
involvement in the Agreement
on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels (ACAP),
but falls short of calling for the United States to become
a signatory. ACAP is a multilateral agreement which seeks
to conserve albatrosses and petrels by urging member nations
to minimize seabird bycatch by fishermen, protect the birds’
nesting and foraging areas, and confront other threats that
jeopardize species listed under the agreement. While America
already leads in many of these conservation efforts, signing
ACAP could give the United States more leverage to advocate
for the protection of its species by international fisheries
management organizations. Nineteen out of 22 species of albatrosses
are regarded as globally threatened due to a variety of causes,
including mortality from longline
fishing, lead
poisoning, loss of nesting habitat, and predation of eggs
and chicks by introduced animals. Contact
, ABC.
Recovery
Credits Proposal Raising Questions
Recovery Credits are a cornerstone of
the Bush Administration’s new bird conservation initiative
for migratory birds. FWS issued a Federal Register Notice
on November 2 (62258–62264) for a proposal to create
a market-system of Recovery Credits intended to help protect
stopover habitat in areas facing development pressures. Landowners
who wish to develop stopover habitat must possess enough Recovery
Credits to cover the development’s impact. The landowner
can gain credits by conserving stopover habitat elsewhere,
or by buying them from another landowner who does not intend
to use them.
The proposal is generating controversy
because of the large amount of FWS staff that would be needed
to create such a new market system based on imperiled species
and ecosystems. It also includes far-reaching exemptions to
standard Endangered
Species Act protections, such as allowing the take of
an endangered species prior to the development of its recovery
plan, and eliminating the mandatory interagency review process
that imposes an important check on potentially inappropriate
federal decisions. A letter from a coalition of environmental
groups, including the Center for Biological Diversity, Defenders
of Wildlife, Natural Resources Defense Council, Oregon Wild,
Idaho Conservation League, Forest Guardians, and others, urged
FWS to “rethink this flawed proposal,” suggesting
it may face more troubles ahead.
3. Biofuels Binge:
Colombia to Convert 7.4 Million Acres of Tropical Rainforest
to African Palm
Ironically, in a push for a “greener”
economy in Colombia, Brazil, Indonesia, and other countries,
the demand for biofuels
is accelerating tropical forest destruction, eliminating habitat
and releasing their vital carbon store, thereby accelerating
global warming.
In Colombia, biodiverse and largely unprotected
lowland forests are threatened by plans launched by the Colombian
government to swiftly expand biofuel production, much of it
for export. The government aims to open 20 biofuel plants
within the next decade, and plans to convert 7.4 million acres
of “unused farmlands” to African palm, which will
serve as the biofuel plants’ raw material.
However, it is evident that the so-called
unused farmlands are, in fact, primary forests on the colonization
frontier of the Chocó and Amazon regions, home to such
rare and declining birds as Great Green Macaw, Recurve-billed
Bushbird, and Blue-billed Curassow. The UK’s Guardian
newspaper reports that a recent study of 26 biofuels found
that 12 had greater total environmental impacts than fossil
fuels. These included fuels such as corn ethanol, Brazilian
sugar cane ethanol, soy diesel, and Malaysian palm-oil diesel.
Biofuels that fared best were those produced from waste products
such as recycled cooking oil, as well as ethanol from grass
or wood.
For additional information on how biofuel
production is creating a global biodiversity crisis, see the
recent Greenpeace report “How the Palm Oil Industry
is Cooking the Planet” at www.greenpeace.org.
4. Invasive Species
Act Passes House, Awaits Senate Action
On October 22, 2007, the U.S. House of
Representatives overwhelmingly passed the bipartisan Refuge
Ecology Protection, Assistance, and Immediate Response Act
(or REPAIR Act, H.R. 767), which will direct federal resources
to states to help eradicate invasive
species that are devastating many Wildlife Refuges (Bird
Calls Vol. 11, No. 3).
Sponsored by Rep. Ron Kind (D-WI), the
legislation provides matching grants to federal land and water
managers and non-federal partners to conduct control projects
to manage non-native species, detect early infestations, and
restore native species and habitats. The bill will also provide
rapid response capability to make emergency funds available
for control of an incipient invasive, authorize the funding
of the National Invasive Species Council, and provide funds
for long-term monitoring of project sites.
Significant portions of land and water
under federal jurisdiction, especially National Wildlife Refuges,
are infested with harmful, non-native plant species, which
subsequently spread unchecked to adjacent private and public
lands and waters. Invasive species have taken over 100 million
acres of the American landscape, and each year they continue
to degrade an area equivalent to the size of Connecticut.
Unfortunately, under current law, native
fish and wildlife are not directly protected from harmful,
non-native species on federal or any other lands. One striking
example of the damage caused by invasive species can be found
on Midway Atoll, where non-native golden crown-beard, or verbesina,
is quickly choking the island and contributing to reduced
reproductive success of the Laysan
Albatross.
American Bird Conservancy is closely monitoring the bill’s
status in the Senate, and is working with an informal refuge
coalition consisting of staff from ABC, National Audubon Society,
the National Wildlife Refuge Association, The Nature Conservancy,
and Defenders of Wildlife to promote co-sponsorship of the
legislation among Environment and Public Works Committee members.
Contact
, ABC.
5. Saltwater Marsh
Islands of Jamaica Bay Could Disappear Within Five Years Threatening
Shorebirds
Last summer, the Jamaica Bay Watershed
Advisory Committee, a New York City body, and the National
Park Service’s Gateway National Recreation Area released
a study showing that the rate of marsh island loss in Jamaica
Bay was accelerating, and, if it continued at the rate recently
measured at several of the islands, would result in almost
all of the marsh islands disappearing within five years. Records
show Jamaica Bay averaged a loss of 26 acres per year from
the mid-1970s until the mid-1990s, but the loss increased
to more than 40 acres each year by 1999.
Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, located off
the south shore of Brooklyn and Queens, offers sanctuary to
more than 300 species of birds and nearly 100 species of fish,
as well as amphibians, reptiles, and small mammals in its
freshwater ponds and saltwater wetlands. The bay’s shallow
waters and low-lying island marshes stretch over 13,000 acres
and are recognized by American Bird Conservancy as a Globally
Important Bird Area. In addition to their ecological importance
for birds, the marshes of Jamaica Bay perform a significant
role in controlling floods and protecting the Brooklyn and
Queens shorefronts from storms and erosion.
While it is not clear why the wetlands
are disappearing, several possibilities exist, including excessive
nitrogen content in the bay’s water, a byproduct of
the city’s four wastewater treatment plants. Large amounts
of nitrogen can kill delicate marsh plants, and without their
root structures to hold sediment in place, the marsh islands
can be quickly washed away. The city acknowledges that more
nitrogen than the system can handle is being discharged into
the bay, but also states there is no definitive scientific
evidence that the nitrogen is the main cause of the wetland
loss.
Other potential causes for this marsh
loss include sea level rise and human alterations to the shoreline
such as “borrow pits”, formed when huge amounts
of sand were scooped out of the bottom of the bay and used
for filling in wetlands. These pits and other dredging activities
interfere with the natural flow of sediments, which are essential
to maintaining the marshlands.
Visit Natural Resources Defense Council
at www.nrdc.org,
or Jamaica Bay Watershed Advisory Committee at http://nbii-nin.ciesin.columbia.edu/jamaicabay
for more information.
6. “High Rollers”
Arrested for Raptor Killings
An ongoing investigation by FWS (www.fws.gov/pacific/highroller)
has uncovered thousands of illegal raptor killings in Oregon,
California, Washington, New Mexico, Texas, and other states,
and has led to calls for stiffer penalties for violations
of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.
Operation High Roller, a 14-month investigation
into “roller pigeon” clubs, discovered that some
club members trapped and killed raptors, specifically Cooper's
and Red-tailed Hawks, and Peregrine Falcons. Investigators
estimated that leaders and members of such clubs in the Los
Angeles metropolitan area alone are responsible for killing
1,000 to 2,000 raptors per year.
Roller pigeons are an English breed, with
a genetic trait which results in mini-seizures during flight.
The seizure causes them to briefly go into a quick head-over-tail
spiral. These erratic movements, while prized by pigeon breeders,
mimic the actions of a sick or wounded bird, and quickly attract
raptors.
On repeated instances, undercover agents
observed roller pigeon fanciers in Los Angeles trapping Cooper's
hawks. According to one agent's affidavit, many of the club
members openly discussed trapping, shooting, and poisoning
hawks and falcons. FWS agents report that the same type of
trap found in the California investigation has also been used
to catch and kill raptors in many other states around the
country.
As a result of the investigation, federal
authorities made seven arrests in California, and charged
others in Oregon and Texas with violations of the Migratory
Bird Treaty Act, which makes the trapping or killing of any
bird of prey without a federal permit illegal.
Unfortunately sentencings in these cases have so far been
relatively light, since these crimes are considered only as
misdemeanor violations of the Act. Public outrage over light
sentences in the Oregon cases led U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio
(D-OR) to introduce a bill in November 2007 to amend the Migratory
Bird Treaty Act to make intentional killing of protected birds
a felony.
The Audubon Society of Portland, a Bird
Conservation Alliance member, is supporting Rep. DeFazio’s
amendment, and will be working to build a national coalition
of groups to support this legislation. For more information
visit www.audubonportland.org/conservation_advocacy/mbta/index_html.
7. Federal Highways
Administration Supports Road Through Kansas Wetlands
The Federal Highways Administration (FHWA)
recently issued a report supporting road construction through
the Haskell-Baker Wetlands, just south of Lawrence, Kansas.
The wetlands provide habitat for over 220 species of birds,
including the Least Bittern, King
Rail, American
Woodcock, Willow
Flycatcher, and Bell’s
Vireo. The wetlands also contain areas of historic, cultural,
and religious importance to Native Americans.
The Haskell-Baker Wetlands sit between
Haskell Indian Nations University and the Wakarusa River.
The 573-acre site contains marshes, brushy areas, and riparian
woods, and includes most of the remaining wetlands in the
Wakarusa River floodplain, including 45 acres of virgin wetland
prairie. In 1969, the National Park Service recognized this
area as a National Natural Landmark, and designated it as
a Natural and Scientific Area in 1987.
FHWA claims there are no feasible alternatives
to building a road through one of the area’s last native
wetlands. In a separate action, FHWA also announced that it
will formally adopt the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’
Final Environmental Impact Statement, originally issued in
2003, which supports the development.
The project had been in limbo after a lawsuit
filed by Sierra Club, the Wetlands Preservation Organization,
Jayhawk Audubon Society, and a coalition of Indian Tribes
halted construction plans in the 1990s. These and other opponents
have advocated a route south of the wetlands and Wakarusa
River.
“The environmental community and
the Haskell community are as committed as ever to protecting
these magnificent wetlands,” said Bob Eye, a Lawrence
resident who serves as an attorney for the Wetlands Preservation
Organization. See http://savethewetlands.org
for more information.
8. Collisions
with Glass Wall at California Development Killing Birds
In August 2007, a six-foot high glass
wall was installed by the developer of the Brightwater housing
project on the Bolsa Chica Mesa to act as a barrier between
the development and the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve. The
Reserve is located near Huntingdon Beach, California, off
the Pacific Coast Highway. The 4,400-foot-long glass wall
was approved, along with the 356-home project, in April 2005
by the California Coastal Commission. The wall was built to
mark a boundary between backyards and the open space below,
and it was made of glass to preserve the views of the wetlands.
Because the wall is constructed of clear
glass panels, birds cannot see it, causing collisions (see
editorial by David Sibley). State officials and environmental
groups asked the developer to take action after dead birds
were found near the wall. Scott Thomas, Conservation Director
of Sea & Sage Audubon Society (www.seaandsageaudubon.org),
led a public walk along the wall to explain the problems,
outline potential solutions, and encourage public involvement
and monitoring of the area. There are two endangered birds
at Bolsa Chica: the California subspecies of the Least
Tern and the Belding’s subspecies of Savannah Sparrow.
Ed Mountford, Senior Vice President of
Hearthside Homes, directed the company’s project biologist
to find a way to make the glass more visible for the birds
without obstructing the view of future residents of Brightwater.
A chain-link fence with sporadic yellow flags has been erected
in response to the outcry over the deaths of the birds. This
is an inadequate and temporary solution at best.
Sea & Sage Audubon Society is asking
for volunteers to monitor the glass wall on a daily basis
to check for injured or dead birds. Their hope is to assess
the full scale of the problem, and to make the deaths public
and advocate for the removal of the wall. For more information
contact Sea & Sage Audubon Society at www.seaandsageaudubon.org.
9. More Habitat
Protection for Spotted Owl Needed Due to Competition from
Barred Owl
Efforts to recover the Northern Spotted
Owl are being complicated by the influx of the Barred
Owl, which appears to be driving Spotted Owls out of suitable
habitat, speeding their decline. The draft Spotted Owl Recovery
Plan concluded that because of the threat from the Barred
Owl, habitat protection was now less important for recovery,
and the old growth forest reserves created to conserve the
owl could be reduced in size or eliminated. This conclusion
is flawed, however, because only by protecting additional
habitat blocks suitable for the Spotted Owl, can managers
hope to ensure sufficient habitat to bring about its recovery.
Barred Owl occupation has made some areas
of suitable habitat unavailable to the Spotted Owl. To mitigate
for Barred Owl intrusion, BLM must now provide much larger
habitat blocks to fulfill the goal of least 20 pairs of Spotted
Owls within each reserve.
The Barred Owl also occupies habitat in
the managed forests between the reserves, so these areas are
not available for Spotted Owl dispersal. To meet the same
level of dispersal anticipated by the Recovery Plan, additional
measures must be taken to protect further dispersal habitat
between the reserves, in both additional habitat acres and
improved habitat quality.
“If you remove habitat it’s
just going to enhance the competitive pressures between the
two species,” said Robert Anthony, a researcher with
the U.S. Geological Survey. Contact
, ABC.
10. New Green
Lights May Stop Bird Strikes on Offshore Platforms
Land birds migrating at sea during inclement
weather frequently become disoriented and are attracted to
the lights of offshore oil platforms. In the Gulf of Mexico,
a 2005 study showed that as many as 300,000 birds die in collisions
with pipes and wires on rigs each year. These deaths could
be avoided if it were possible to develop lighting that did
not attract birds. Studies indicate that it is the red portion
of the spectrum that most attracts and disorients birds. Hence,
red or white lighting is disruptive, while blue or green light
is much less so.
A Dutch petroleum company has teamed up
with Phillips Electronic to develop a new light bulb with
a greenish light that provides good visibility for workers,
yet apparently does not attract birds. The lighting system
is currently being tried on one major platform in the North
Sea off the Dutch coast. More scientific results will be available
after this year’s fall migration to quantify the reduction
in birds landing on the platform. More than 380 floodlights
have been changed to the new green lights, and far fewer disoriented
birds have been observed so far.
“This is a good example of how different
industrial organizations can jointly solve an environmental
problem,” said Michael Fry, ABC’s Director of
Conservation Advocacy. “More research is needed to see
if these lights really work, and whether or not they can be
applied to other uses, such as lighting on communications
towers, that also threaten millions of birds.” Contact
, ABC.
11. PredatorWatch
Surveys Bird Kills by Cats and Other Predators
After over a year of operation, ABC’s
Project PredatorWatch survey is still collecting information
to help determine the extent of predation on birds at bird
feeders across America. Started in December 2006, Project
PredatorWatch is a citizen science survey consisting of an
online questionnaire, designed to be completed whenever members
of the public observe or discover evidence of bird predation
around their homes. The survey was begun to help scientists
and conservationists determine what types of birds are killed,
and whenever possible, identify the predators.
The survey includes questions about the
predator-prey interaction observed, the surrounding environment,
the type of bird and predator observed, and the time of year
the activity took place. More than 860 responses have been
collected thus far.
In 2008, ABC’s new Cats Indoors
Campaign Coordinator, Grant Ellis, will be collaborating with
scientists at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology to compile, analyze,
and report the findings from the survey in a report. The study
will, among other things, cover the number of reported bird
kills Project PredatorWatch has recorded, and the relative
percentage taken by different predators. Click here to access
the survey. Contact
, ABC.
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