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Recommended: "East's vanishing forests take a songbird with them"



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The Christian Science Monitor's electronic edition.

Update on Cerulean petition
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Headline:  East's vanishing forests take a songbird with them
Byline:  Warren Richey
Date: 03/09/2001
A little blue bird is sending a dire message to mankind.

But the US government says it is in no position to heed the warning.

Bird-watchers have long lamented the gradual disappearance of the 
cerulean warbler, a colorful songbird that once was easily spotted in 
deep forests throughout much of the Eastern half of the US.

Its numbers have declined by 70 percent since 1966. And ornithologists 
say that unless something is done to prevent further degradation of 
old-growth forests in the US and South America, the tiny cerulean 
warbler's song may fall silent forever.

"Right now, there is no law or regulation specifically protecting the 
cerulean's forest habitat," says Douglas Ruley, a lawyer with the 
Southern Environmental Law Center, which is based in Charlottesville, 
Va. "If the destruction of these forests continues, we will lose this 
bird in our lifetime."

Last fall, a coalition of 28 environmental groups asked the US Fish and 
Wildlife Service to list the cerulean warbler as a threatened species. 
Including the bird on the endangered species list would trigger federal 
protection, including safeguards to critical forest habitat under 
pressure from lumbering and development.

But the Fish and Wildlife Service says it is unable to even read the 
group's petition, let alone take action to protect the struggling 
species.

Since December, the service has confined its efforts - and its $6.3 
million budget - to carrying out court-ordered actions in scores of 
lawsuits initiated by various environmental groups. The suits involve 
designating critical habitat for plants and animals already on the 
endangered species list. The net result is that there is no staff or 
money left to consider placing new plants and animals on the endangered 
species list, officials say.

"We have a literal flood of litigation against us," says Hugh Vickery, 
a spokesman for the Fish and Wildlife Service. He says the legal logjam 
has stripped the agency of any discretion in determining how to respond 
to cases like that of the cerulean warbler.

"We don't want to do this," Mr. Vickery says. "It is not a choice, it 
is reality."

It is also a situation likely to trigger more litigation and an even 
bigger logjam.

Mr. Ruley says the cerulean warbler coalition is considering filing its 
own suit to force the government to protect the songbird.

"The cerulean warbler is really a good example of what we should be 
doing," he says. "Recognizing that a species is headed toward the 
brink, we should get in there and arrest the decline by maintaining 
adequate forests for the birds."

He adds, "If you do it now, you can do it more effectively and 
efficiently than if you wait until the species is on the brink."

Cerulean warblers migrate between the Eastern US in the summer and the 
slopes of the Andes Mountains in South America during the North 
American winter.

The birds prefer to build their nests in old-growth forests with tall 
canopies that offer camouflage and protection from predators. Logging 
and development have reduced such undisturbed nesting areas in the US.


In addition, the birds are under pressure in South America, where the 
forested mountain slopes they prefer in Colombia, Bolivia, and Peru are 
being denuded and replanted with coca plants for the illicit cocaine 
trade.



Conservationists hope that if the US government takes a leading role in 
protecting cerulean warblers, it will help trigger international 
efforts to save the embattled birds.

Marty Bergoffen of the Southern Appalachian Biodiversity Project in 
Asheville, N.C., says the US government's first action must be to 
preserve and restore large tracts of mature forest. "We have an 
ecosystem tottering on the brink, and the cerulean warbler is an 
indicator of that," he says.

Mr. Bergoffen adds that many decades ago cerulean warblers were a 
common sight in American forests, particularly in the Ohio and 
Mississippi River valleys. But he says those days are gone.

"I have friends who like to watch birds who have been looking for the 
past 10 years and haven't seen a cerulean warbler."

(c) Copyright 2001 The Christian Science Monitor.  All rights reserved. 

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