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The recent storms killed all of the young birds in the experimental flock that had recently arrived from Wisconsin. It is entirely possible that severe storms associated with global climate change may increasingly threaten the Florida birds, as well as the wild flock that winters on the Central Texas coast. You can spend millions of dollars trying to save these birds, but with small populations, chance storms and other events like this are a huge threat. That's why it is important to keep populations of birds from getting to small, and a the real reason that we should be concerned about Cerulean Warblers, Greater Sage Grouse, Rusty Blackbirds, and other species that are seriously declining. Its a travesty that the Bush Administration refuses to list some of these species. Once their populations get even smaller, they will be harder to save, and even more threatened by freak storms or other events.
In managing endangered species, the question shouldn't be "how small can the population get" before we have to step in to help it, but "how can we get even more birds than we think we need, so they can make it through freak events like this?" Its like when you learned to drive a car--you shouldn't be seeing how close you can drive to the edge of the cliff, but how far away from the cliff you can get.
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2 comments:
Increasing devastation from severe storms and other natural events will happen with or without global warming. As human populations increase, habitats and populations of other species are increasingly fragmented and diminished, so the same event will have more potential to eliminate these habitat and population islands. At the same time, more and more people will be living in the areas hit by these events, and the human toll will rise. The ultimate solution to nearly all environmental problems (as well as many societal problems) is the one that many consider the most unspeakable: People need to stop breeding, or at least drastically cut back on it. All people. Educated liberal Americans included.
Such a sad loss and blad they did find that one bird around! This shows how important it is for conservation of such imporant birds are! Hope everyone takes the time to support this group.
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