Did you know that this is the “Year of the Bird.” No, that is not the Chinese year. This is different.
The National Geographic Society, Audubon Society, Cornell University Lab of Ornithology, and BirdLife International along with cooperation of several other public and private organizations have banded together to designate 2018 as the Year of the Bird.
The effort is, in part, in celebration of the centennial of the 1918 Migratory Bird Treaty Act. It is also a coordinated effort to educate the public on the importance of birds and bird conservation. Before the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, the harvesting of all birds, migratory or otherwise, was unregulated. The late 1800’s and early 1900’s was the time of the market hunters, when birds were killed in mass to be shipped to eastern markets for human consumption and high fashion.
The stories of this period are legendary and infamous. For example, in 1906 two market hunters in California killed over 400 ducks in one day. Restaurants in and around Texas during 1902-1903 served up around 120,000 robins, purchased from a single market hunter. Plover on toast was considered a delicacy. The guns used here were not your typical 12 gauge shotgun, but punt guns, basically canons. A single shot could drop a whole flock of birds.
But as you might expect, a backlash to this slaughter was soon underway. The Audubon Society was incorporated in 1905, largely as an effort to protect herons and egrets from “plume hunters.” And President Theodore Roosevelt designated Pelican Island in Florida as the first federal bird sanctuary in 1903. The establishment of Pelican Island was the beginning of what we now know as the National Wildlife Refuge System. Then in 1918 congress passed the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, which gave protection to migratory birds.
So why do birds matter? They are the proverbial canary in the coal mine. Environmentally speaking, biologist and conservationist Thomas Lovejoy said it well when he stated “if you take care of the birds , you take care of most of the big problems in the world.”
If you read the January issue of National Geographic, you may have read the cover story “Why Birds Matter” by Jonathan Franzen. You will see more information about birds in National Geographic as well as other periodicals and media throughout the year. But if you are interested in learning more about the Year of the Bird now, check out their website at www.birdyourworld.org
Chuck Lura
Natural North Dakota is supported by NDSU Central Grasslands Research Extension Center and Dakota College at Bottineau, and by the members of Prairie Public. Thanks to Sunny 101.9 in Bottineau for their recording services.
