Secretary Salazar Releases Study Showing Widespread Declines in Bird
Populations, Highlights Role of Partnerships in Conservation
March 19, 2009
Music/Announcer: This is a podcast from the U.S. Department of the Interior.
Ron Tull: Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar today released the first ever comprehensive report on bird populations in the United States. The report shows that nearly a third of the nation’s 800 bird species are endangered, threatened, or in significant decline due to habitat loss, invasive species and other threats. At the same time, the report highlights examples including many species of waterfowl where habitat restoration and conservation have their first previous declines, offering hope that it’s not too late to take action to save declining species.
Ken Salazar: You know this ah state of the birds’ report 2009 is a very, very important document because it is a scientifically-grounded document that tells us what the state of the bird population is here in our country and in North America.
And as I was coming to the press conference, I was thinking about what miners used to do, that is to put a canary in a coal mine, to know what was happening in the mine so that you could use it for mine safety measures. In many ways, this report is the canary in a coal mine of the status of our bird population here in North America.
And I think out of this report, you will find two things: The first is that there are challenges that we face in terms of our bird population and as we have seen declines in bird population especially with some of our species from a variety of factors. Factors that have to do with the growth of our population in North America, factors that have to do with global warming and climate change, factors that have to do with the quality of waters in our stream.
So all those environmental factors in some way have diminished the status of the bird populations here in North America. And I think it’s important to put our finger on the facts of that reality and that is what this scientific group has done working with Fish and Wildlife Service to make sure that we understand what the facts are. So these are the facts in terms of what the status of the bird population is here in America.
The second thing that this report, I think, should tell us all is that there also is a way in which we can address these problems in a systemic way and the conservation efforts that have been under way for we have created partnerships with the states and with nonprofit organizations; The Nature Conservancy, The Trust For Public Land, and a whole host of other organizations show us that conservation can really work.
And in fact, there are places where wetland birds, for example, in some of the areas of the coastlands; we are doing better today than we were ten or fifteen years ago. And one of the things that that tells us is that those success efforts should really lead us to what we should be doing in the future with respect to the conservation and the treasured landscapes of America in this continent and this world.
So it is my hope that as secretary of interior working with the agencies in my department, working with the partnerships with state governments, working in partnership with local governments, and very importantly, with private landowners and with the conservation community, that we can begin a whole new effort of conservation.
I have spoken often about legacy of the great Republican President Teddy Roosevelt who helped found the National Wildlife Refuges and who really spearheaded our great efforts in terms of our national parks system. I think, this time in 2009, it is a time for a new beginning in terms of how we move forward with a treasured landscape agenda for the 21st century. And that’s a kind of agenda that will build off of the very successful conservation efforts that we have seen sprout up around the country. Some of my colleagues up here were involved in helping to start the great outdoor program in the state of Colorado. We need to have a great outdoors America program and as part of that, what we need to do is to make sure that our wildlife habitat is protected and that our habitat for bird species are protected.
So today, as Secretary of Interior, on behalf of President Obama, I want to say thank you to those who worked on this report for a very long time. To the Fish and Wildlife Service, to my friend Lynn Scarlett, who is in the audience who helped initiate this report and to all the scientists and to the conservation community that is here today.
This report should be a call to action but it is action that is within our reach. And when we move forward with a new ethic of conservation, we will be able to move forward to restore the bird populations of this continent and this world to a brand new level. So thank you for participating here today.
Ron Tull: This has been a podcast from the United States Department of the Interior Radio News Service. I’m Ron Tull, Washington