Subject: Astonishingly good news for  birds
From: Scott Weidensaul <scottweidensaul AT  VERIZON.NET>
Date: Sat, 19 Jul 2008 08:42:07 -0400
   One of the biggest conservation stories ever emerged last week, but

received relatively little press here in the States. The premier of

Ontario has pledged to set aside half of the province -- about 55

million acres, an area the size of the entire UK -- for permanent

conservation, with requirements that industry work with First Nations

and the government to craft sustainable development plans for the

rest.



   Given that the boreal forest is the great bird factory of North

America, producing billions of migratory songbirds, waterfowl,

shorebirds and raptors, this is arguably the single biggest win in

history for bird conservation.



   Anyone who enjoys the seasonal flow of warblers, thrushes, sparrows

and other Neotropical songbirds passing through Pennsylvania - and

I'm guessing that's all of us -- owes a huge debt of gratitude to

Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty for his visionary move, part of the

larger Boreal Forest Conservation Initiative, a collaboration of

conservation groups, First Nations and industry which aims to protect

at least half of the 1.4 billion-acre Canadian boreal forest.



   Here's how my good friend Jeff Wells of the Boreal Songbird

Initiative put it on his blog (http://www.borealbirds.org/blog/) this

week, sending his own thanks to McGuinty:



   "I don't know if you have ever heard the soft flutely song of a

Swainson's Thrush, but try to imagine three million of them singing

at once. That's the sound emanating into the sky on a June morning

from the number of Swainson's Thrushes that would be found in the 55

million acres of northern Ontario's Boreal that you have just

announced will now be protected. Even better yet, imagine 4.5 million

renditions of the "Oh-sweet-Canada-Canada-Canada" song of the

White-throated Sparrow echoing across the Boreal."



   As Jeff went on to point out, the land that Ontario will

permanently protect from timbering and mining is home to 5 million

juncos, 4 million magnolia warblers, 3 million palm warblers and 2

million Tennessee warblers, just to name a few species.



   You can find a story from the Toronto Star about the land deal at

http://www.thestar.com/article/460305. You can also read a piece I

wrote in 2007 for The Nature Conservancy on the Boreal Forest

Conservation Framework at

http://www.nature.org/magazine/summer2007/features/?src=m1.



   And finally, you can send a note of thank you to Premier McGuinty

via BSI's website, http://www.borealbirds.org/ -- something every

American birder who reaps the benefits of the boreal forest should

take a moment to do.



   Scott Weidensaul

   Schuylkill Haven, PA





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