ENVIRONMENTAL GROUPS
& STATE JOIN FORCES TO PROTECT
ONE OF NORTH AMERICA'S RAREST SONGBIRDS
For more information:
John F. Sheehan
518-432-1770 (ofc)
518-441-1340 (cell)
518-456-4512 (home)
Released: Friday, June 9, 2006
WILMINGTON, N.Y. - A state authority
and a coalition of environmental organizations announced today
that they have stopped arguing and have instead joined forces
to create an international habitat preservation fund for one
of North America's rarest and most threatened songbirds.
The Bicknell's Thrush Habitat Mitigation and Education Fund is
a joint project of the Olympic Regional Development Authority,
Adirondack Council, the Adirondack Nature Conservancy, Audubon
New York, Cornell University Laboratory of Ornithology, the Vermont
Institute of Natural Science, and the Wildlife Conservation Society.
The plan includes educational displays and collection boxes at
Whiteface Mountain to explain the need to preserve the bird's
summering range in New York and the Caribbean island where is
spends its winters. Money collected there - as well as through
individual efforts by the groups - will be used to preserve critical
habitat on the Island of Hispaniola.
Bicknell's Thrush is one of North America's rarest songbirds.
American and Canadian surveys indicate that the total population
is between 21,000 and 52,000, and its habitat is at risk in both
its summer and winter ranges.
In the Adirondacks, the bird nests and raises offspring in stunted
spruce and fir trees above 2,800 feet. The Adirondack Park provides
its best-protected habitat.
Nearly all of the Park's mountaintops above 2,800 feet are part
of the "Forever Wild" public Forest Preserve, where
tree-cutting and development are banned. As a result, roughly
70,000 acres of mountaintop forest in the Adirondack Park supports
as much as 50 percent of the global population each summer. Gov.
George E. Pataki has declared all state-owned mountains above
2,800 feet to be Bird Conservation Areas, where the state will
make an extra effort to protect vital habitat.
About 90 percent of the global population of Bicknell's Thrush
winters on Hispaniola, which contains the nations of Haiti and
the Dominican Republic. In Haiti, mountaintop forests are disappearing
rapidly. While the Dominican Republic has established several
national parks to protect a portion of the birds' wintering grounds,
other mountaintops remain vulnerable to deforestation and development.
Continued funding for the national park is uncertain as well.
Together, the group will sponsor a fundraising and education
effort centered at the Whiteface Mountain Ski Center. The center
is run by the NYS Olympic Regional Development Authority (ORDA),
which will erect educational displays about the bird and the
fund. Although Whiteface is on the Forest Preserve, a constitutional
amendment allows ORDA to operate the ski center.
"We are very pleased to see that what had started as an
argument in 2003 over the location of proposed buildings and
ski trails has turned into a partnership that will assist the
survival of the Bicknell's Thrush," said Brian L. Houseal,
Executive Director of the Adirondack Council. "Our concern
for the bird's habitat had led us to oppose the construction
of a mountaintop lodge on the summit of Little Whiteface Mountain.
We were also concerned about the locationof proposed rental cabins
and the construction of new ski trails on Whiteface itself.
"ORDA agreed to a study of the bird's habitat on Whiteface
Mountain before undertaking any trail construction," Houseal
said. "ORDA also dropped the summit lodge and rental cabins
from its development plan. Now that the study has been completed
by the Vermont Institute of Natural Sciences, ORDA has agreed
to undertake its trail expansion plans after the bird's nesting
season in the Adirondacks has ended."
The Vermont Institute of Natural Science (VINS), which has spearheaded
studies of Bicknell's Thrush in the Dominican Republic and Haiti
since 1994, originally proposed the idea of a winter habitat
mitigation fund in its report to ORDA.
"This is a truly exciting and innovative initiative,"
said Chris Rimmer, Director of Conservation Biology at VINS.
"The opportunity to conserve threatened winter habitats
of Bicknell's Thrush through this fund demonstrates a far-reaching
outlook among the partners. We hope it will be a model for similar
conservation efforts."
With this is project, ORDA is nearing the end of its authorized
trail expansions at Whiteface. A total of 25 miles of trails
was authorizedunder the Constitutional Amendment that allowed
the initial construction of the ski area.The new expansion would
bring the actual total mileage to more than 24.
"The New York State Olympic Regional Development Authority,
in its operations at Whiteface and Gore Mountains, is pleased
to work cooperatively to sustain the habitat of the Bicknell's
Thrush," said Executive Director Ted Blazer. "The combined
efforts of all and the creation of a funding mechanism to aid
the winter habitat of this species will only stand to enhance
the perpetuation of the Bicknell's Thrush. We are happy we are
part of a solution and to work together with all concerned individuals
and organizations."
"ORDA is to be
commended for its commitment to the cooperative process leading
to this progressive management plan that protects Bicknell's
Thrush here and on its wintering grounds," said David J.
Miller, Executive Director of Audubon New York. "The establishment
of an international habitat conservation fund to protect winter
habitat on Hispaniola addresses the most critical threats facing
this important bird species,while still making a serious and
significant attempt to accommodate Bicknell's Thrush and its
habitat on Whiteface Mountain."
"As a science-based organization, we have been pleased to
help ensure that good research and good science have been informing
the Whiteface planning process on Bicknell's Thrush breeding
grounds," said Michale Glennon, a Wildlife Conservation
Society ecologist. "We are thrilled that this initiative
expands our reach as a coalition of organizations and agencies
to the thrush's wintering grounds, which are critical for the
protection of the species."
"The Bicknell's Thrush is a wonderful example of how migratory
birds can connect distant nations. Using funds from this initiative
in New York to benefit the bird's critical habitat in Hispaniola
provides an excellent model for effective bird conservation."
said Ken Rosenberg, Director of Conservation Science at the Cornell
Laboratory of Ornithology.
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