Protecting Migratory Wintering Birds
Among the birds spotted during Skagit Audubon’s October 11th Big Sit fundraising event were several Red-throated Loons, the advance guard of many hundreds that Christmas Bird Count participants will note there near Deception Pass this December 27th. At this mid-October writing, Snow Goose flocks calling high overhead and the loons’ arrival remind us all that the Skagit region connects to faraway places whose birds depend on habitat both there and here. The same day as the Big Sit, coincidentally World Migratory Bird Day, Lynda Mapes’ article A push for ‘global energy dominance’ puts Alaskan wildlands at risk appeared in Seattle Times’ Pacific NW Magazine (A push for ‘global energy dominance’ puts Alaskan wildlands at risk | The Seattle Times and Home - World Migratory Bird Day). Mapes vividly describes a Red-throated Loon pair bringing fish to feed their fledglings on a pond in the Teshekpuk Lake Special Area, an ecologically valuable place nominally protected within the National Petroleum Reserve – Alaska just off the Beaufort Sea. The reserve is the largest block of public land in the U.S. with much of its 23 million acres designated for supposed protection due to conservation values.
Red-throated Loons and other far north breeding species wintering in the Skagit for millennia are at risk from the Administration’s attempted acceleration of oil leasing in Alaska’s huge conservation areas. In 2006 National Audubon began a campaign to save Teshekpuk Lake and vicinity from oil leasing, and the area did receive some protection. Nonetheless, not many miles from the loons Mapes described, Conoco Phillips is preparing to drill for oil. The federal administration’s push for more fossil fuel extraction ramps up the threat to vital wildlife habitat in the far north. In the Arctic, global warming is proceeding much faster than at lower latitudes, changing the environment on which northern breeding species depend, affecting Red-Throated Loons in Alaska, affecting Skagit’s Snow Geese, all of which nest on Russia’s Wrangel Island.
Sign up for National Audubon’s Action Alerts so that you can add your voice to protecting vital Arctic breeding grounds: https://www.audubon.org/takeaction
Washington State Wildlife Action Plan - - Please comment
To be eligible for federal funding to conserve species at risk of decline, each state must have a State Wildlife Action Plan (SWAP) and update it every 10 years. Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife has released the draft of Washington’s updated plan for public review and comment. You can find the draft at https://wdfw.wa.gov/publications/02665 and fill out a comment survey at https://publicinput.com/j35032 (deadline: November 17, 2025.)
Wildlife Action Plans have existed since 2005, but funding to implement them has never been adequate. The Recovering America’s Wildlife Act would remedy this by greatly increasing federal funding. This Act passed the House in 2022 on a bipartisan vote but has since failed to pass the full Senate. There does not appear to be movement on this legislation right now, but the bipartisan effort is still underway to remind Congress of the need. Skagit Audubon has supported passing this bill. The premise of the legislation is that spending money to stop the decline of species now will save money by preventing them from becoming endangered later and requiring much more expensive recovery efforts. For more information about this bill and the thinking behind it, see https://nwf.org/RAWA.
There is much that we can do: act locally, even while lending your voice to state and national campaigns to uphold environmental protections. Please see the conservation report in the September Skagit Flyer for suggestions on how you can help.
Photo credit: Red-throated Loon nesting on Arctic tundra by Kai Frueh/Macaulay Library; www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Red-throated_Loon
