News Release
Bicknell's Thrush
Habitat Protection Fund Announced
Organizations Come
Together to Help Protect a Rare Songbird
Released: July 17, 2007
WILMINGTON, N.Y. - A unique group
of partners, including The Adirondack Community Trust (ACT),
announced Tuesday at Whiteface Mountain the creation of a new
fund to protect the Bicknell's Thrush - a rare migratory songbird
that flies each year from the Dominican Republic and Haiti to
summer in the Adirondacks. The Bicknell's Thrush Habitat Protection
Fund will create a mechanism to protect the rare bird's wintering
grounds in the Caribbean.
"With more than 160 endowment funds that distribute over
$500,000 in grants annually to improve the quality of life in
the Adirondacks, we are thrilled to partner with this consortium
of organizations to establish our first international fund,"
stated ACT Executive Director Cali Brooks.
As part of the unit management planning efforts for the Whiteface
Mountain Ski Area, a working group was formed that includes representatives
from the Adirondack Park Agency, Olympic Regional Development
Authority (ORDA), Department of Environmental Conservation, Vermont
Institute of Natural Science, Wildlife Conservation Society,
Adirondack Council, Audubon New York, Cornell Lab of Ornithology,
and Adirondack Chapter of The Nature Conservancy. This unprecedented
partnership is resulting in many firsts, including the following:
- ORDA is the first organization
in the Northeast to develop and execute a ski area management
plan focused on the preservation of Bicknell's Thrush habitat.
- The Adirondack Community Trust
is administering its first fund dedicated solely to the habitat
protection of a migratory songbird that breeds on Whiteface and
other mountains in the Adirondacks.
- The partners are developing
compatible solutions to complex issues involving environmental
protection, economic development, and sustainability at both
ends of this songbird's flyway.
As part of the final unit management
plan, which was unanimously approved by the Adirondack Park Agency
Commissioners in May, 2004, ORDA's ski area expansion plans are
being carried out in an environmentally sensitive manner, keeping
trail development away from ecologically-important areas and
avoiding potential disturbances to nests by delaying construction
above 2,800-feet until after breeding season. Scientific field
research and monitoring will also continue on Whiteface Mountain,
and the partners will work together on outreach efforts meant
to increase public awareness of Bicknell's Thrush and this groundbreaking
cooperative effort to preserve its habitat.
Ted Blazer, Chief Executive Officer for the Olympic Regional
Development Authority stated, "ORDA is a willing partner
and proud to be included in this joint stewardship effort. It
is our goal to educate our residents and guests that as we enjoy
the mountain environment and the modern amenities within, there
is a sensitivity that we are all mandated to exhibit toward the
wildlife, including Bicknell's Thrush at Whiteface. I am happy
that we will enhance this process not only with words, but also
with deeds."
One visionary component of the unit management plan led to the
creation of an international conservation fund to protect Bicknell's
Thrush winter habitat on Hispaniola in the Caribbean, an island
shared by the Dominican Republic and Haiti. With a limited range
and extensive loss and degradation of winter habitat, the species'
long-term viability is especially precarious. This unique international
effort to protect the bird's Caribbean wintering grounds is an
outcome of the Bicknell's Thrush Habitat Cooperative Agreement,
signed by the participating partners on August 11, 2006, during
the regular monthly meeting of the Adirondack Park Agency Board
in Ray Brook.
APA Chairman Ross Whaley said, "The establishment of this
Bicknell Thrush Habitat Protection Fund will result in a unique
international conservation effort ensuring protection for the
Bicknell Thrush in its Caribbean wintering grounds. From the
onset, all involved agencies worked cooperatively implementing
policy that allowed for trail expansion at Whiteface Mountain
while avoiding environmental degradation. On behalf of the Agency,
I express a tremendous gratitude to the organizations contributing
financial today."
The habitat protection fund was established with the Adirondack
Community Trust as a geographic field of interest fund, which
allows donors to support a particular charitable cause, such
as environmental preservation. Contributions to the Bicknell's
Thrush can be made by a variety of donors, including individuals,
corporations, interest groups, and charitable foundations. With
today's announcement, Audubon, WCS, TNC, Adirondack Council,
VINS, and Cornell Lab of Ornithology are making initial contributions
of $1,000 each. As the fund grows, grants will be made to non-profit
groups working on the Caribbean Island of Hispaniola to protect
Bicknell's Thrush wintering habitat. The funds will support actions
such as land protection, improved enforcement of protected areas,
education, promotion of compatible land uses, and scientific
research.
"The Department of Environmental Conservation is proud to
support the Bicknell's Thrush Habitat Fund and commends the organizations
involved," said DEC Commissioner Pete Grannis. "While
we manage much of the Bicknell's Thrush breeding habitat in New
York State, we did not have the ability to preserve and enhance
the Hispaniola-based winter habitat of this protected species
- this innovative program will help fill that gap."
Another unique initiative will be funding this effort: Cocoa
Values Caribe Inc., a nonprofit chocolate organization based
in Burlington, Vermont has unveiled a fundraising effort to donate
15% of their proceeds of cocoa powder to the fund. The cocoa
powder is processed from organic cacao beans that are grown and
harvested by a cooperative of farmers in a rainforest reserve
in the Dominican Republic. The reserve creates a natural rainforest
canopy which provides a vital buffer to the Bicknell's Thrush
wintering grounds.
"Wildlife Conservation Society scientists have been banding
Bicknell's Thrush at the Bronx Zoo as part of a study of migration
ecology, and we have been monitoring the breeding population
here on Whiteface," said Zoe Smith, Adirondack Program Coordinator
with the Wildlife Conservation Society. "We are thrilled
that this initiative expands our reach as a coalition of organizations
and agencies to the southern end of the migratory route, on the
thrush's wintering grounds, which are critical for the protection
of the species."
"We are thrilled that New York State agencies and NGOs (non-governmental
organizations) in the Adirondacks are working together to protect
habitat for Bicknell's Thrush, a migratory species with a limited
distribution and in need of coordinated conservation efforts,"
said Andrés Ferrer, Director of The Nature Conservancy's
Central Caribbean Program. "On visits to the Adirondacks,
my staff and I have met many of the partners involved in today's
announcement and we applaud the initiative they are taking."
"Through migratory birds like the Bicknell's Thrush, the
Adirondack Park is ecologically linked to many faraway places.
A few years back, I was in the Dominican Republic with some fellow
Adirondackers while researchers were banding Bicknell's in the
high forests of that country. The experience reinforced for me
the importance of helping to conserve other places as part of
our efforts to preserve the Adirondacks," said Michael Carr,
Executive Director of The Nature Conservancy's Adirondack Chapter.
"The habitat protection fund announced today is a positive
and powerful step in that direction and we're delighted to be
working with so many capable partners."
In 2003, during planning for additional ski trails (Lookout Mountain
expansion) in the high elevation zone of Whiteface Mountain Ski
Area, the Bicknell's Thrush, a species of special concern in
New York State, was introduced to many people in the North Country
for the first time. This bird is a neo-tropical migrant that
flies thousands of miles each year to spend the winter almost
exclusively in mountain forests in the Dominican Republic and
Haiti and the summer here in the mountain regions of the northeastern
United States and eastern Canada. Scientists estimate that the
Adirondacks provide habitat for approximately 50% of the entire
Bicknell's Thrush population that breeds in the United States.
"Over a decade ago, Tim Barnett, past director of the Adirondack
Nature Conservancy, recognized a Bicknell's Thrush conservation
connection between the Adirondacks and the Dominican Republic,
where I was working with partner organizations on saving parks
in peril of deforestation from slash and burn agriculture,"
stated Brian Houseal, Executive Director of the Adirondack Council
and former Nature Conservancy official whose duties included
the Dominican Republic. "We are delighted to see New York's
leadership in creating this innovative international mechanism
which will mitigate for the construction of the ski slope on
Whiteface Mountain by protecting critically threatened wintering
grounds for this bird in the Caribbean. This model should be
used throughout New England."
While in the Adirondacks, Bicknell's Thrushes live in the thick
spruce-fir forests above 2,800 feet on mountainsides. This bird
seems to do well in regenerating forests that were disturbed
by natural events like "fir waves," which can be seen
on Whiteface and Esther Mountains. Fir waves are a natural phenomenon
of patterned forest disturbance whereby the tallest trees are
the first in line to be exposed to prevailing winds and rime
ice. The tall trees die and shorter trees grow up in their place,
but these trees eventually get exposed to the elements and die.
This cyclic pattern continues and appears as a moving "wave"
of dead and regenerating trees across the mountainside. For people
who like to hike, fir waves are a dense tangle of forests that
make for challenging conditions, as on Esther Mountain. For Bicknell's
Thrush, however, the habitat is well-suited for nesting and breeding.
"Because of its limited distribution, both on our mountaintops
here during the summer and in the Caribbean during the winter,
the Bicknell's Thrush is a very high priority for conservation,"
said Albert E. Caccese, Executive Director of Audubon New York.
"Establishing a conservation fund to protect its winter
habitat takes direct aim at the most critical threats facing
this species. ORDA and its partners are to be commended for their
leadership in taking care of this species on both ends of its
migration."
During the expansion of Lookout Mountain, Whiteface has pledged
not to cut any trees above 2,800 feet until August. By that time,
the young Bicknell's Thrush will have fledged from their nests,
so cutting will pose less of a disturbance. This two-year project,
which will open 4.5-miles of intermediate and expert trails,
will be completed in time for the 2008-09 winter season. Lookout
Mountain will be comprised of a triple chair, snowmaking, 55
acres of gladed terrain and cover 2,200 vertical feet. Preliminary
work is already underway with over 70 percent of the new terrain
flagged.
The Bicknell's Thrush Habitat Protection Fund is steered by an
executive committee composed of representatives of the following
organizations: Adirondack Council, Adirondack Chapter of The
Nature Conservancy, Audubon New York, Vermont Institute of Natural
Science, and Wildlife Conservation Society. The executive committee
will make recommendations to the Adirondack Community Trust on
the distribution of grants made from this fund.
All donations to the fund, made to the Adirondack Community Trust,
are tax deductible. For more information, please log on to www.GenerousACT.org
or contact Executive Director Cali Brooks at (518) 523-9904.
CONTACT:
John F. Sheehan, Adirondack Council
518-432-1770 (o)
518-441-1340 (cell)
518-456-4512 (h)
jsheehan@adirondackcouncil.org
ORDA:
Sandy Caligiore (sandyc@orda.org)
Stephanie Ryan (sryan@orda.org)
at (518) 523-1655
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