Good morning,

Protecting and enhancing migratory bird stopover habitat, especially along
the Lake Erie coast, is very important for bird conservation in Ohio and to
OBCI and its partners. These areas are important for overall bird
conservation and birders for the same reasons: large numbers of birds use
these habitats. In fact, priorities for overall bird conservation and for
birders should have very little conflict. It is important to protect and
enhance areas with high concentrations of birds and doing so will ensure
long term recreational opportunities. Therefore, restoration efforts in the
Headlands Dune Preserve would be an excellent opportunity to support bird
conservation while promoting bird-based recreational opportunities, both of
which are core OBCI goals. It is my hope that successful restoration of
native plants at site that is frequented by birders will serve to
strengthen the essential connection between birding and bird conservation,
and could serve as a model for invasive species removal efforts across the
state which are so desperately needed.

Thanks to everyone who has responded in support of this project! Please
visit our website and subscribe to our newsletter to stay updated on this
and other OBCI projects.

Amanda Conover
Ohio Bird Conservation Initiative
Program Coordinator
614-432-8489
obcinet.org
Find us on Facebook<https://www.facebook.com/OhioBirdConservationInitiative>



On Thu, May 10, 2012 at 7:44 PM, Haans Petruschke <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I have looked over the OBCI plans. They are professional and well done,
> the mission of the OBCI is not about birding areas, but bird conservation
> and habitat in general.  A good cause, but this is not the issue at hand.
>  In order to get the birding community behind habitat restoration and
> invasive plant replacement issues, efforts must first concentrate on areas
> used by birders to find and watch birds.  If this is not the concentration,
> and the effort is not highly visible to people visiting birding areas, it
> will go the way of all previous initiatives.  That is: It will fail to gain
> wide spread support.
>
> I would hope the OBCI is willing to cooperate with efforts to restore
> habitat and replace invasive plants in areas which are important to the
> birding community, such as the Mentor Headlands. As far as overall
> bird conservation goes, this area has little importance, yet it is one of
> the most important and well known birding areas in the state. As a result
> it might be very low priority on an overall conservation plan, but is very
> high in priority for birders.  An inherent conflict which needs to be
> resolved for any effort to succeed.
>
> Haans Petruschke
> Kirtland
>
>

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