[mou] conservation news

[Jim Williams]

THE BIRDER CONSERVATIONIST
an electronic ABA newsletter

Volume 2, No.8 =96 August 2003


Ah, summer! It's time for beaches, summertime reading, and - depending on
your location -  the start of some serious shorebirding!

Well, Congress is also on recess during this month of August, returning
after Labor Day. During this time, members of Congress will often be in
their home districts, presenting an ideal opportunity to meet them to
discuss important issues. Many members host constituent open houses, town
hall meetings, and other public events that provide the opportunity to
express thanks for recent positive action and the option to urge them to
take action to make constructive moves for bird conservation. You can ask
them to support issues that may be mentioned in this newsletter. Primary
among "bird funding issues" (in no particular order) are at least six
important bird-conservation vehicles:

 1) North American Wetlands Conservation Act (NAWCA)- Congress may actually
let this vital funding slip in 2004, below the President's proposed figure
of $50 million, at a time when we should be looking at a figure closer to
$75 million by =9105.
 2) Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation Act (NMBCA) - There's a real
chance in =9104 to get the fully-authorized $5 million per year for this
fund, a prerequisite to building it up to something more substantial in the
coming years.
 3) Joint Ventures - These coordinating wetland and bird-conservation
bodies need to continue to grow in funding, probably approaching $13
million a year by 2005.
 4) State Wildlife Grants - The Teaming With Wildlife National Steering
committee continues to push for a yearly $125 million interim goal (growing
what looks like what may be $80 million in =9104). Still, we need
education/appreciation funding also included, to match the original goals
of TWW.
5) The serious backlog in the Refuge System's operations and management
continues. Neither Congress nor the Administration has addressed how the
whopping $2 billion backlog can be handled.
6) Funding for other aspects of bird research and monitoring (vital bird
science) is also necessary. There is no firm number on these efforts, since
they are often embedded in the budgets of the USFWS, USGS, USFS, BLM, NPS,
etc., but they are increasingly important.

Remember, if we don't ask, Congress can't deliver!


    =96 Paul J. Baicich
       Director of Conservation and Public Policy, ABA

_____________


WORLD'S LARGEST WOODPECKER BELIEVED EXTINCT

The world's largest woodpecker, the Imperial Woodpecker, previously found
through much of the Sierra Madre Occidental in Mexico, has, once again,
been undetected in a recent serious search.   No trace of the black and
white Imperial Woodpecker was found during an expedition to the Sierra
Madre Occidental mountains of northwestern Mexico, the last area where the
bird was seen.

While the Imperial Woodpecker was hunted for food and for medicine in the
early 1900s, it was not historically a rare species within its habitat of
high altitude pine forests. But the last confirmed report of the species
was in 1956, although there have been about eight local reports in two
remote areas since that date.

David Wege, Americas Program Manager for BirdLife International, said last
month that targeted searches over the last decade, "have failed to find
convincing evidence that the species still exists... Few people can imagine
a bird more impressive than the much publicized, and closely related
Ivory-billed Woodpecker, but the Imperial Woodpecker was 20 percent bigger.=
"

A joint expedition by BirdLife International and the Mexican conservation
organization, Prosima, spent 16 days in an isolated part of Durango state,
where in 1996, the woodpecker had been sighted in a pristine canyon. The
site that was explored was close to an area where two years before, on an
extensive expedition lasting 11 months, researchers had found some evidence
of the species, but they were unable to see any woodpeckers.

The Imperial Woodpecker's decline has occurred largely through the loss of
its habitat, mainly the deforestation and clearance of the old growth pine
and oak woods. The birds require areas as large as 10 square miles of
continuous open and untouched pine forest for each woodpecker pair, with
dead trees for feeding and nesting. Although large areas of pine forests
remain in the Sierra Madre Occidental, they are logged, and the dead trees
with their insect inhabitants have been removed.

The Imperial Woodpecker will now be listed in the 2004 IUCN Red List of
endangered species under the new classification of Critically Endangered
Possibly Extinct.=20

______________

BIRDERS' EXCHANGE DEVELOPMENTS

You may have followed recent Birders' Exchange events in our ABA
publications, WINGING IT and BIRDING. These include a separate Cuba
initiative to assist bird conservation efforts on that island, the award of
a Neotropic Fund grant to pursue other interesting Birders' Exchange
efforts in the Americas, and a number of exciting projects in Latin America
and the Caribbean highlighted by Betty Peterson, Birders' Exchange Program
Director, in the August issue of BIRDING.

If you want to help us accelerate the transfer of important field equipment
to our counterparts in Latin America and the Caribbean, you might consider
two specific needs:
1.   We are in specific need of high-end waterproof and armored optics.
Other used optic are always welcome, but we have particular need for
waterproof/armored optics, able to resist the rigors of high-humidity in
the tropics.
2.   We need financial contributions to support Birders' Exchange goods and
services, especially when it comes to a number of matching grants we still
have pending (e.g., the Riedman Foundation).

Fortunately, we now have David Hartley working two days a week for this
department in Colorado Springs as our Conservation Coordinator, with a
special emphasis on Birders' Exchange efforts.

So, if you can help us with Birders' Exchange equipment or financial
contributions, send them to: American Birding Association, Birders'
Exchange,  P.O. Box 6599, Colorado Springs, CO 80934 (Attn: David Hartley).

_____________


ROAD ACCESS, YES! ROAD EXCESS, NO!

Congressional road and transportation issues continued up to the start of
the recess. It's a complicated mix of issues, with awareness that creative
road access and availability is possible, especially in regard to the
mega-transportation bill. But there is also the continual trend toward
excessive and destructive road mania. Birders should be aware of the
evolving positives and negatives:

   1.   The House Appropriations Committee (by a vote of 29 to 33) chose to
cut the funds for the highly creative Transportation Enhancement funding
(for trails, bicycling, and walking, often at bird-friendly locations) on
24 July. (By the way, do any of you remember that bird-filled
"rails-to-trails" facility behind the 1996 Park City, Utah, ABA
Convention?) This Congressional move could be corrected on the floor of the
House when Congress returns for its August recess.
   2.   The long-dormant Mining Act of 1866, known as RS 2477 continues to
beckon, offering the wholesale transformation of little-used or abandoned
wagon roads, cattle paths, dogsled routes, and mining trails into roads,
some of them paved. The unfortunate resuscitation of RS 2477 (described in
the March issue of this E-newsletter) can facilitate local right-of-way
claims across federal lands. Congressman Mark Udall (D-CO) almost got a
reversal, but an amendment by Charles Taylor (R-NC), offered a watered-down
alternative. While the Taylor amendment exempts national parks, refuges,
monuments, wilderness areas, and wilderness study areas, it still leaves
400 million acres of BLM and national forest lands vulnerable to local RS
2477 claims.  The Taylor amendment passed the House (by a vote of 226-194).
The Senate is likely to consider this issue in September.
   3.   Other specific transportation efforts could benefit National Parks
and Refuges. There is now a serious effort to reduce traffic in National
Parks. This would increase funding available to the National Park Service
and other federal land-managing agencies to develop alternative
transportation systems, such as shuttle buses, trolleys, and bike and
pedestrian trails. A parallel effort would significantly increase Federal
transportation dollars specifically for the Refuge System for parking,
bridge repair, transit, and important trails.

These are just some examples of some of the transportation issues that are
currently in play, all issues that should be of interest to birders when
the August recess ends.

Remember, also, that creative "birding-trail" activities have often been
funded by these transportation dollars.  For a look at what these trails
look like try the ABA web site:
<http://www.americanbirding.org/programs/constrails.htm>

______________

BURMA AND YOUR BACKYARD BIRDS

On 28 July, President Bush signed the Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act of
2003, a move to impose some of the toughest economic sanctions ever on a
country for human rights violations, including a ban on the importation of
goods from Burma (Myanmar).

The import ban, which would cut off shipments of Burmese goods to the
United States that totaled about $356 million last year, gives the
legislation far more of an economic bite than most other human rights or
pro-democracy bills that Congress has passed. (The only comparable laws to
be enacted in recent memory are the embargo on Cuba, the sanctions that
restricted commerce with South Africa's apartheid regime, and similar bans
on trade with Haiti in the early 1990s.)

The White House released a statement on 28 July which stated that the move
"freezes the assets of senior Burmese officials and bans virtually all
remittances to Burma. By denying these rulers the hard currency they use to
fund their repression, we are providing strong incentives for democratic
change and human rights in Burma."

Now what does this have to do with birds?  That's a good question!

Burma is one of the major exporters of nyjer (that small black oilseed,
formerly known as "niger," and often misnamed, "thistle") for backyard
bird-feeders. Americans actually import more than 70 million pounds of it
annually from India (the major source), Ethiopia, and Burma.

Burma has recently provided about ten percent of the nyjer imported into
this country. India and Ethiopia are now expected to take up the slack.
(Purchases from Burma have been a bit higher in the past year because
Indian dealers defaulted on multiple contracts. The Ethiopian scene is
burdened by quality issues, plus the important factor of political unrest.)
The new trade sanctions against Burma go into effect in late August, and
the birdseed industry has, apparently, already made adjustments to get the
nyjer seed elsewhere.

But this still raises a question: Do you know where your nyjer comes from?

_______________

SAEMANGEUM  THREAT AND OPPORTUNITY

The "reclamation" of 40,100 hectares of tidal-flat and shallows in the
Saemangeum area of South Korea (about 200 miles south of Seoul) is one of
the most important current wetland and bird conservation issues in northern
Asia. The potential completion of a the world's longest sea dyke - a
33-kilometer-long sea-wall across the free-flowing estuaries of the
Mangyeung and Dongjin Rivers - threatens hundreds of thousands of staging
shorebirds by eliminating a key stopover feeding area along the East
Asian-Australasian Flyway.  (The importance of Saemangeum was highlighted
in BIRDING in the December 1999 issue, page 546.)

About 18 species of shorebird and nine other species of waterbird in
internationally important concentrations (i.e., 20,000 individuals of that
species, or one percent or more of their known population) occur at
Saemangeum. At least six are globally threatened: Spotted (or Nordmann's)
Greenshank, Spoon-billed Sandpiper, Far Eastern Curlew, Black-faced
Spoonbill, Chinese Egret and Saunders's Gull. (Our own Dunlin, those which
breed on the North Slope of Alaska, will be among them as they move into
East Asia for the winter.)

Although this vast project has been ongoing since 1991, it has been
recently suspended (on 15 July) by the Korean courts, as they decide
whether the project should be allowed to continue or not. A further
announcement will be made by the courts on 18 August.

For detailed information, please refer to the BBC World's online
documentary <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3046368.stm>, the Korean
Federation for Environmental Movement (KFEM) site
<http://english.kfem.or.kr/cgi/list.cgi?table=3Deng_ns&class=3Dwetland&page=3D1&u=
s
er=3Dguest>, and at the WBKEnglish site
<http://www.wbkenglish.com/saemref.asp>

There is an encouraging worldwide effort to collect petition signatures
(initiated by WBKEnglish and KFEM) to be handed in at various Korean
embassies in several countries on or about 13 August. For details on this,
see <http://www.wbkenglish.com/petition01.asp>.
_______________


CARE AND "THE ACADEMY AWARDS OF CONSERVATION"

The Natural Resources Council of America is having its 19th Annual
Conservation Community Awards presented at a fete in Washington DC on 17
September. The Cooperative Alliance for Refuge Enhancement (CARE) will be
receiving the "Award of Achievement in Policy" this year.

ABA is a participating member-organization within CARE, and we take pride
in the fact that CARE is being recognized at this event, sometimes referred
to as the "Academy Awards of Conservation." Rollie Sparrowe, President of
the Wildlife Management Institute, will be accepting the award on behalf of
the CARE coalition.

For more information on the Natural Resources Council of America and all
the awards to be given out on 17 September, see
<http://www.naturalresourcescouncil.org/>

_____________


SOME FINAL NOTES:

Our ABA Conservation Fund is one way we maintain a robust birder's
conservation agenda at ABA. (Contributions can be made online at
<https://commerce10.pair.com/ambirder/abasuppforms.htm> or simply sent to
the ABA offices  =96 P.O. Box 6599 Colorado Springs CO 80934 =96 made out to
ABA and marked "Conservation Fund.") If you have an ABA friend who would
like to receive this E-newsletter, have him/her contact me at
<pbaicich@aba.org>. If that birding friend is not an ABA member, membership
can be secured on-line:  <http://www.americanbirding.org/memform.htm>.

You are welcome to reproduce any of this information, as long as the
original ABA source is cited. (It's good to know that the past issues of
this newsletter, THE BIRDER CONSERVATIONIST, are now archived on the ABA
web site at:
<http://www.americanbirding.org/programs/constbc.htm>)
                  =20
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
 Paul J. Baicich
 Director of Conservation and Public Policy
 American Birding Association
 P.O. Box 404
 Oxon Hill, MD 20750

     301-839-9736 (839-wren)
     301-839-2763  [fax]

ABA: A lot more than listing!
Check out the ABA web site:  <http://www.americanbirding.org/>
And for our online birding store: <http://www.americanbirding.org/abasales/=
>

  "If we did all the things we are capable of doing, we would literally
astound ourselves."
    -- Thomas A. Edison


                                            -30-

=20