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 > > ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]