[mou] [mnbird] Hurrican Ike news, habitat damage - and a question

[douglas chapman]

Not that we don't have enormous sympathy for the people of the TX/LA  
coasts post hurricane and tremendous losses they have incurred. I and  
we all do.

But the issue for the birds is different. We need to remember a few  
things post people recoveries (if that's what this post was about.)

The habitat at Bolivar is coastal marsh and sandbars...it's FINE!   
Heck, it's probably improved and definitely less pressured from  
development now. This is probably the best thing to happen for the  
birds there possible.

 From my friend who runs the birding house by the Tower at Boy Scout  
Woods on High Island.

"High Island is fine...I've spoken to people there."

Bird on...

Doug Chapman
Sioux Falls, SD


On Sep 17, 2008, at 2:34 AM, Steve Weston wrote:

> Reports from Texas on Whooping Crane arrivals have not yet started.   
> Therefore, I do not believe that they have started to arrive.
>
> Steve Weston
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Erika Sitz
> To: MnBird (E-mail) ; MOU-net (E-mail)
> Sent: Tuesday, September 16, 2008 3:21 PM
> Subject: [mnbird] Hurrican Ike news, habitat damage - and a question
>
> Many on the list will remember Sue Levy who lived in Minnesota  
> several years ago, first in Duluth and then in Dakota County.  Sue  
> now lives in Texas about halfway between downtown Houston and  
> Galveston.  Thankfully, she (and her daughter, who lives near her)  
> had no major damage to their homes and are among the lucky ones to  
> have power restored soon afterwards.  There was, however, an area of  
> terrible devastation within about a mile and a half of her  
> apartment, so she has many friends and members of her former  
> congregation who have suffered great losses.
>
> And she knows, and expects the worst, the fate of the nearby birding  
> areas she loves. Here is an excerpt from an email I received this  
> morning.
>
> "I will grieve for the destruction on Galveston and the forty-miles  
> long Bolivar Peninsula - where the towns of Gilchrist, Crystal Beach  
> and probably Port Bolivar, about which there has been no news,  have  
> simply ceased to exist. Right now there is no access to the area  
> except by boat or helicopter, and no safe place to put a helicopter  
> down. . . . The other issue on the Bolivar Peninsula for me is that  
> it's an area where our Audubon Society has spent countless hours/ 
> years and years and raised millions of dollars to create and protect  
> habitat. We have turned it into a world-class birding and wildlife  
> habitat, and our work is gone. I am too numb to really grieve for  
> any of it, but I know that's coming. It's much too close to home.  
> For you birders, you should know that this is the second hit High  
> Island and the coastal sanctuaries closer to Louisiana have taken in  
> two years. No pictures yet, but it will be bad news. The people of  
> High Island are still completely cut off and without communications.  
> They were on the "dirty" side of the storm."
>
> Right now the focus is on human loss, lives and property.  Sue says  
> the American Red Cross (along with that part of the Texas National  
> Guard that isn't in Iraq) are the most effective ones around and  
> "they need financial support".  So that's where we'll give now, but  
> I expect that a plea for donations will be forthcoming from Houson  
> Audubon Society later.  I'll forward anything that I receive to the  
> lists for those who wish to help.
>
> Does anyone know the impact of the hurricane on Aransas NWR and the  
> Whooping Cranes?  I  talked about it to Steve Weston and we suspect  
> that due to its distance it's probably not great.  But I don't know  
> anything about where the cranes feed and on what, or any other  
> details, so it would be nice to hear from someone about them.
> Erika Sitz
> Ramsey, north Anoka County
>
>
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