The nation’s forest birds are in decline, their populations dropping in 65% of states since 1970. Even once-common birds are disappearing. The Wooden Thrush, for instance, has declined by 60 % over that point. Throughout current excursions with Congressman Glenn Thompson (R-PA), chair of the Home Committee on Agriculture, and Congressman Bruce Westerman (R-AR), chair of the Home Committee on Pure Assets, Audubon workers and companions shared these regarding tendencies whereas demonstrating how habitat restoration and sustainable working forest administration will help reverse them. The visits additionally supplied a possibility to spotlight the important role congressional leaders play in supporting healthy forests, rural economies, and the communities that rely on them.
Forest Conservation at Work in Pennsylvania
In Pennsylvania, Audubon welcomed Chairman Thompson in early July for a tour of a privately owned working forest, providing an on-the-ground take a look at how considerate administration can enhance forest well being and create higher habitat for birds and different wildlife. Becoming a member of the tour have been landowner Dr. Shane Sergent and Audubon-endorsed forester Calvin Norman of Blue Ox Forestry, in addition to Audubon workers and companions from the Pennsylvania Division of Conservation and Pure Assets and the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay.
Strolling the property, the group examined practices together with invasive species management and noticed how strategic elimination of decrease shade and underplanting can create more healthy, extra resilient forests. The go to additionally prompted a broader dialog concerning the challenges and alternatives dealing with personal forest landowners, together with the necessity for on-the-ground technical help and viable markets that may assist make sustainable forest administration economically possible.
Audubon shared with Thompson the significance of proposals like creating a brand new Forest Conservation Easement Program to assist preserve working forests and stop fragmentation, which is included in variations of the Farm Invoice being thought of in Congress. We additionally highlighted the necessity for the Forest Landowner Support Program (FLSP) to present help to personal forest house owners, serving to implement administration practices that profit species depending on wholesome forest construction and regeneration.
Arkansas Forests Help Birds and Communities
Farther south earlier this month, Audubon welcomed Chairman Westerman to the Little Rock Audubon Heart for a dialog about wholesome forests and their significance to Arkansas. Westerman was joined by Audubon workers and an AR-based board director to be taught extra about Audubon’s forestry conservation work and the connection between forest administration, hen habitat, and wholesome communities. With almost 19 million acres of forests protecting greater than half of Arkansas, forests are an integral a part of the state’s panorama and financial system.
Through the go to, the group mentioned the Chuck-will’s-widow, a declining forest hen that breeds within the woods surrounding the Audubon Heart, offering an area instance of the connection between wholesome forests and hen conservation. The go to supplied a possibility to debate how federal conservation coverage can complement the work already happening in Arkansas and throughout the nation.
As with the Thompson go to, Audubon workers highlighted the potential of FLSP to present personal forest landowners entry to the on-the-ground technical and monetary help wanted to actively handle their forests. In a closely forested state like Arkansas, that assist may assist landowners undertake practices that enhance forest well being and habitat whereas protecting working forests productive and environmentally viable.
For Audubon, these visits are about greater than sharing the story of declining forest birds. They present a possibility for congressional leaders to see the conservation options already engaged on the bottom and listen to instantly from the folks placing them into observe. And they’re particularly essential as Congress considers the way forward for federal personal land conservation via the Farm Invoice and different laws.
Continued investments in voluntary, collaborative conservation will help be sure that America’s forests stay locations the place birds can thrive, and the place landowners, rural economies, and communities can thrive alongside them.
