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Re: swifts, stewardship, and endangered birds (long)



Joshua Rose wrote:

<<In 
the old days before this country was settled by humans, disturbances
like 
fire and flood would maintain parts of the system at the right age for 
these species. Now, after centuries of fire suppression, clear-cutting, 
fragmentation, and so on, there may be no hope for such habitat- 
specialized bird species without active maintenance of the land.>>

Er, Josh, correct me if I'm wrong, but my impression is that humans have
been in this country for at least 12,000 years.  I'm not a
palaentologist, but it seems reasonable that the Pleistocene flora and
fauna were probably quite different.  [I know that you didn't mean
"humans" to equate only with white Europeans, right? :-) ]

As for human interference, there is a lot of evidence that Native
Americans deliberately set fires to clear out underbrush and alter the
habitat, which probably helped promote certain specialized bird species
(while of course probably edging others out).  Active maintenance of
this sort seems unlikely to happen in this day and age, however, for
obvious reasons.

Elaine Corvidae
Rehabilitation Assistant
Carolina Raptor Center
704/455-4674
Huntersville, NC