Bird & Nature Blog
A clutch of the latest stories from Southern Wisconsin Bird Alliance
Apparently birders prize sightings or listenings of the Connecticut Warbler. A rare bird, it is secretive ("skulky" is the Wisconsin DNR's word) and breeds in stands of black spruce or mature jack pine in far northern Wisconsin, the southern end of its breeding range.
Photo by Andy Reago & Chrissy McClarren
Sometimes a friendship takes time to develop. I planted sawtooth sunflowers in my front yard years ago. They proved to be an aggressive neighbor and have occupied swaths of the front and back yards. I really was upset with myself until I noticed three years ago, the goldfinches and some other birds swarmed the seeds. Last year, dozens of bumblebees spent much of August and mid-September on the blooms. This year, I've decided the sawtooth sunflowers are the best thing since ice cream and lots of pollinators agree.
Cover photo by Peter Gorman
Please see the link to Gathering Waters’ announcement regarding the funding of four conservation and parks projects around the state. Please also take the time to read the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's story on the topic, and the Wisconsin State Journal's editorial. That's a lot of reading but I think it will provide the background for what I fear will be a major conservation controversy and battle over the next year.
Cedar Gorge-Clay Bluffs along Lake Michigan. Photo by Aaron Volkening FCC
The news, in my opinion, is fabulously good. Governor Evers was able to use federal COVID funds to assist in the purchase of the Lake Michigan bluffs and shore in Washington County, some park improvements in Milwaukee, and thousands of acres in northwest and northeast Wisconsin. You probably remember the ongoing struggle to preserve the Lake Michigan land and water. Almost all of the land in northern Wisconsin will become part of the county forests in Forest and Bayfield Counties. I was lucky to work with some of the county forests years ago and consider them to be one of the great, too little known conservation projects in Wisconsin. Some of this blog is about to get a little grim. You can balance that out by checking out some of the county forests in northern Wisconsin, especially if you're visiting that area. Start with Bayfield County's.
The sun shines today. The Governor's funding supports some excellent projects. The bluff/shore purchase is a wonderful enhancement for the enjoyment of a spectacular natural resource in southeast Wisconsin. $4.5 million for all these projects is a lot of money but we get a lot of land across the state and it's a modest percentage of the state's federal COVID money. Folks can reasonably disagree over the appropriateness of using those funds for these lands and improvements. One lesson that COVID taught us is how important accessible public lands and parks are, especially when folks cannot gather and recreate in other settings and need to be outdoors. So, personally, I think it's an acceptable use of the funds.
Beware the storm clouds on the horizon. Republican legislators had used an obscure and, here comes another opinion, loathsome procedure in the Joint Finance Committee to stop some of these projects. If you haven't already, please read that WSJ editorial on how unfair and cowardly that procedure is. The Governor's action blew up that roadblock, at least for these projects. Many Republican legislators will become and stay angry.
The conservation community might well face a watershed moment. Essentially, the conservation community, led by Gathering Waters and joined by dozens of other organizations, have played nice on Stewardship. We have thanked and praised any legislator who had supported Stewardship in any form. We've invited all of them to join citizens to visit Stewardship projects in their districts. We have begged our members to contact legislators with the friendliest, most positive language possible to request their support of Stewardship. Some of them have come through big time and we owe the continued if diminished existence of Stewardship to their efforts.
We might have a grimmer, more public fight on our hands and have to call out the legislators who seek to destroy Stewardship and/or cripple its effectiveness. Republican legislative leaders might find themselves caught between some angry members and a more forceful conservation community.
A prairie at Faville Grove Sanctuary, protected in part thanks to Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Funds. Photo by Galen Hasler
For now, my advice is:
Thank the Governor for the funding. I really believe those projects are most worthwhile and the Joint Finance Committee's anonymous veto is unconscionable.
If you know a Republican legislator contact him or her and ask that she or he urge the JFC to take up Stewardship recommendations such as these and discuss and vote on them publicly.
By the way, if you read this blog regularly you might think this guy is a Democrat, he just wants Democrats elected. You'd be half right. I almost always vote Democratic. But what I want even more for the long term health of conservation in Wisconsin is for some Republicans who really care about conservation to be elected to the Legislature. Even if the Legislature would not be gerrymandered, the Legislature might well have Republican majorities. We won't have stable conservation policy in Wisconsin without some legislators from both sides of the aisle serving as conservationists.
Take care; enjoy the sunshine while it's here,
Topf Wells, Madison Audubon advocacy committee chair
I vividly remember two consecutive Saturdays mornings at Madison's Downtown Farmers' Market when Sally and I found dead warblers at the base of the one the big new buildings on the Square. They had flown into the building's windows. Such lovely birds and what a sad end to such beauty and vitality.
A warbler died after colliding with a window in Madison. Photo by Corliss Karasov
Such deaths are happening all over Madison and the nation. Probably most folks who saw the dead birds on the Square or elsewhere assumed these were sad but inevitable losses. Madison Audubon’s executive direcotr, Matt Reetz, and communications and outreach director, Brenna Marsicek, and other bird loving activists thought differently. They devoted themselves to finding solutions.
This effort advanced on several fronts: documenting the extent of the bird deaths and injuries in Madison, researching solutions, and implementing those solutions locally. Matt and Brenna, the national researchers and activists, and local and national Audubon Board Members worked on these issues. In Madison, more importantly, Brenna recruited incredibly dedicated volunteers, the Bird Collision Corps, to find the spots where the deaths were occurring, collect the dead birds as documentation, and transport injured birds to care and rehabilitation.
Research showed cost-effective solutions existed. Window designs and treatments greatly reduce the number of bird collisions.
Locally, some building owners took those steps—UW Madison has a couple of good examples. A more comprehensive step was needed, a local ordinance to ensure that big new buildings were as bird safe as possible. Brenna's and Matt's determination to have a volunteer, grassroots base to bird saving paid off. Those folks persuaded Madison's City Council and Mayor to pass that ordinance. That legislation was another example of how Madison Audubon’s work blended local and national efforts. We received a lot of great legal advice and wording to create as sound an ordinance as possible.
In what I still marvel at as an awful step, a group of Madison developers enlisted a conservative legal entity to sue to stop the ordinance (I actually wonder who enlisted whom). The City defended the suit ably and again some of our bird-loving legal allies had helpful advice.
Two days ago, the judge ruled to protect our birds. The ordinance stands.
Based on what I've been able to read, the judge's decision is right. The challenge claimed that the Legislature had prevented cities from adding further requirements to building codes. The judge made the right distinction. Building codes are specific sets of ordinances setting requirements so that buildings are fundamentally safe for human use. Stuff to make sure, for example, that buildings don't collapse.. But other ordinances are not in building codes and focus on other issues such as design. The judge ruled, correctly in my opinion, that ordinances concerning the design of windows to protect birds are not in the building codes subject to the legislative preemption.
Dots added to windows can drastically reduce window collisions. Photo by Aaron Williams
The developers might appeal. Just my opinion but I think they should not. The judge got this right. Secondly, the developers said this would add too much expense to new buildings. You just have to drive around town, dodging dump trucks, cranes (the equipment, not the birds), and other construction gear to see that developers and builders are flourishing in Madison these days. The notion that using one of several affordable steps to make sure the windows don't kill birds will hamper the development and construction business is laughable. Developers should recognize they have a responsibility to take reasonable, affordable steps to protect our environment and that includes our birds. Finally, developers and builders might want to consider that this lawsuit made them look like, to speak bluntly, jerks.
I'll probably have one dispute with Madison Audubon about this blog. Matt and Brenna are exceedingly modest folks who might think this blog praises them too highly. I'll try to maintain their recognition. One purpose of this blog is to let you know what Madison Audubon does. In this case, you need to know how our staff protected our birds quickly, decisively, and effectively.
Written by Topf Wells, Madison Audubon advocacy committee chair
Cover photo by Monica Hall
