INDEX

• President's column
• Heritage Forest Campaign
• State Bird Update
• Watchlist
• Prescribed burning
• St Marks Christmas Bird Count
• Bird ID Course
• Volunteers needed for Red-Cockaded Woodpecker Study

The Apalachee Audubon Chapter wants to recognize and thank Buckeye Florida for its generous contribution in support of publishing this Newsletter.

Our monthly programs, newsletters, field trips, bird-watching classes and birdwalks are great educational tools.  Not only do they educate and inform us but they let us observe nature firsthand.  Attendance has increased this year.  I believe this is a direct result of the hard work of our excellent speakers, trip leaders and fantastic volunteers.  They all deserve many thanks and much praise for their selfless efforts.  I hope you will voice your appreciation.  I feel that as far as our membership is concerned, we are doing a good job of reaching our goals.  I am always open to your suggestions for improvement.

The area of community involvement and education needs the most improvement.  Our involvement has declined along with our revenues.  One way to have a greater impact Is through increasing the funding available for the Audubon Adventures program in local classrooms. Participation in local and state conservation programs would be another way we could have an impact within our community.  The record of community involvement in the past was good.  At one time we funded Audubon Adventures in close to one hundred classrooms.  Lately we have only been able to fund ten classrooms.  I recently read an article quoting a member of the “Wise Use Movement” stating that the environmentalist had an unfair advantage because of their environmental education programs in the schools.  That statement is sure to bring a smile to your face, I know I was grinning.

What we need is better internal funding so that we will be able to participate in these projects.  The vehicle we have chosen is the Bird-A-Thon.  This one fundraiser, if successful, will allow us to become a chapter that is involved in deciding the direction of our community.  Please read the enclosed Bird-A-Thon information and send in your tax-deductible contribution.  There is much work to be done, so if you would like to participate in any phase of the fundraiser, whether soliciting pledges or birding on a team, please give us a call.  The phone numbers are listed on the enclosed information sheet.  We really would appreciate your support.
-- Jim Shelton
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For decades the federal government has sold out to special commercial interests our national heritage.  Our National Forests have been sold for a song to timber, gas and oil, mining, and other companies.   We continue to sell mining rights for prices that were inexcusably low in the 1870’s and have not been changed since that time.  One of the largest burdens to the taxpayers is the government’s subsidy to build roads to give special interests access to the forests.  The federal government has built more than 377,000 miles of official roads in the National Forests, and they continue to build more roads each year.

Last January, the Clinton Administration proposed an 18-month moratorium on the construction of new roads in some roadless areas on National Forrest lands.  This appears on the surface to be a step in the right direction, and it may be, but there are some precautionary notes that need to be taken into consideration.  First, lets define roadless areas as any part of the National Forest that is a 1000 acres or more.  The U.S. Forest Service defines roadless areas as plots 5000 acres or more.  The moratorium provides only a temporary halt on new road construction.  The moratorium applies to less than 60% of the roadless areas.  During the 18-month moratorium, both the special interests and the U.S. Forest Service are working on plans to build more roads in the roadless areas.

Roads are very destructive to many birds and animals, and alternative habitat has been lost through human activities.  The roadless areas of the National Forests provide some of the best remaining habitat for these species.  Because roadless areas are the least altered habitats in otherwise heavily disturbed landscapes, they typically have the highest ecological integrity and are the least in need of restoration.  They also provide models for restoration of ecosystems where land has been degraded.

The general public seems to be support protecting wild forest areas.  A survey conducted in the summer of 1998 found that 65% of voters supported a proposal to “stop all timber cutting in roadless wild forest areas.”  On the other hand the U.S. Forest Service is preparing its final road policy with four objectives:

1. Help the agency build more “environmentally friendly” logging roads in the future;
2. Develop a system for road removal.
3. Help it determine how to upgrade roads where necessary; and,
4. Settle the issue in Congress by finding “new and dependable funding” for roads.

Nothing in the Forest Services plan suggests anything other than building more roads.  There is not such a thing as an environmentally friendly road.  Removal of roads my be more damaging then leaving them alone to recede to a natural state, and upgrading roads simply allows for greater exploitation.  What is needed is a permanent stop to the destruction of our National Forests.  The administration needs to adopt a final policy that protects roadless areas 1000 acres and larger in all national forests, with no regional exemptions, from logging, road building, off-road vehicles, mining and other commodity development.  With the dawning of the new millennium, this is the least we can do for future generations.  For more information consult www.ourforests.org.  To express your views to the administration, write to Vice President Al Gore.  Also, write to our representatives in Congress and ask them to not fund the construction of roads in the Forest Service’s budget.  We must remember that once they’re gone, they’re gone forever.

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If you are interested in seeing this bill passed, call or write the members of the local delegation and ask them to support the bill.  You can also add your support by accessing www.phoenixat.com/ audubon/x.htm.
 
 

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The WatchList identifies North American birds that need our help.  WatchList species are those faced with population decline, limited range, and threats such as habitat loss on their breeding and wintering grounds.  A centerpiece of conservation at National Audubon, the WatchList is an early warning system that focuses attention on at-risk bird species before they become endangered.

National Audubon is asking citizens to help birds at risk.  To find out how you can make a difference, visit the Audubon website: www.audubon.org/bird/watch.

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After the devastating fires in Florida this past year, policy makers are finally recognizing the benefits of fire and the need for controlled burning.  The following article was taken from the magazine Birder’s World, April 1999.  It relates fires to the bird world.

For Many Birds, Where There’s Smoke, There’s Often a Feast

Intentionally set fires often can be a bird’s best friend – if their young have left the nest and can get out of harm’s way.  And birds will see lots of prescribed burns again this year.

Federal and state agencies, parks, and private organizations and land owners in the United States and Canada are planning to set fires on tens of thousands of acres this summer to benefit fire-tolerant plants, seed- and insect-eating birds, and other wildlife.

The Nature Conservancy is so pleased with the effects of its past prescribed burns that in 1998 it burned 53,397 acres in 30 states, a 37 percent increase over the previous year.

Fires release nutrients in undecayed vegetation into the soil.  In grasslands, fires stimulate the growth of legumes, panic grass, and other plants that benefit birds.  Fires also are essential to the regeneration of native woodlands and forests.  “There are many species of birds that depend on fire to maintain the habitat they live in,” says Todd Engstrom, an ornithologist with the Tall Timbers Research Station, a private non-profit organization in Tallahassee, Florida, that conducts research on fire ecology.

Many birds are actually attracted to smoke because they seem to know that fires expose seeds and insects.  That is why biologists eager to protect endangered Whooping Cranes on their wintering grounds in Texas often set fires miles away from oil spills to lure cranes and other birds away from sticky pools of petroleum.

By eliminating fire-intolerant trees and shrubs, fire promotes open woodlands in Florida that are required by endangered Red-cockaded Woodpeckers.  Low-temperature fires pop open pinecones in Michigan, helping to regenerate the jack pine forests required by the endangered Kirkland’s Warbler.  Regular controlled burns can benefit people by keeping forest “fuel” from accumulating, thereby preventing catastrophic fires.

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The St. Marks Christmas Bird Count conducted on December 19th resulted in one of the higher species totals (154 species) in recent years.  The high total stemmed in part from the balmy conditions prevalent up until late December.  Several species seemed to linger long after their normal southward movements would have begun, especially shorebirds. Some unusual shorebirds observed on the count and usually found further south in winter included Wilson's Plover, American Avocet, and Black-necked Stilt.  Other uncommon birds observed this year were White-breasted Nuthatch, Sandwich Tern, White-winged Dove, Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed Sparrow, as well as an unidentified nighthawk and hummingbird.  Other species observed in record numbers on this year's count were Wood Stork (42), Clapper Rail (66), Redhead (9051), Willet (637), and Palm Warbler (75).  The total number of individuals observed was a bit low at 34,953.

Many thanks go out to the 20 participants who contributed their valuable time and energies collecting data this year.

Jim Cox and Katy NeSmith, Count Masters
 

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The class will be offered in three class settings and two field trips.  Participants are asked to come to class with a field guide and a pair of binoculars.  The participants are to read the introductory and descriptive pages at the beginning of the guide (the pages that precede the description of the Loons) and also read and study the page or pages that describe the Loons.

The course will be team taught by Jim and Ellen Shelton, and Bob Henderson. The cost of the course is $35.  All proceeds go to the Chapter treasury.

The course schedule is:

Class (Tuesday) April 20
Class (Thursday) April 22
Field Trip (Saturday) April 24
Class (Thursday) April 29
Field Trip (Saturday) May 7

To register for the course, call the Sheltons at  942-5194.
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