Fight For Flight

Kim Nelson and Paul Engelmeyer shed light on the importance of biodiversity through the story of a Northern Pacific shorebird.

By Kindra Roy

Dawn breaks in the old-growth stands along the Oregon coastline. The mossy forests, previously quiet and dark during the night, wake in a hurry as light pours in. The dawn chorus begins, often initiated with the singing of thrushes, with other birds joining in to create the bustling morning melody that’s so familiar. Kim Nelson, a research ecologist, takes in the joyful sounds as the birds call to each other and begin nesting. Yet, she waits in anticipation for the song of a single bird, listening carefully through the serenade. Suddenly, the recognizable tune joins the others as the first marbled murrelet flies into the forest.

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Nelson began working with marbled murrelets in 1988, but her attraction to biology began as a child. “I loved wildlife, ecology, and nature,” she says, “so I knew I wanted to work in biology and do something in science.”

She has immersed herself in the research of murrelets for over 30 years. When she first heard the call of the marbled murrelet, there was nothing known about the bird. In 1988, Nelson began working on her first project with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, which entailed going out on the coast range and surveying the different stages from young forests to old-growth. At the time, there had only been a few nests found. Since then, she has continued to find nests and characterize sites, nesting behavior, and requirements for successful nesting. However, during her time working with the marbled murrelet, which relies heavily on both land and sea, Nelson has observed various changes and threats that have brought the bird to national attention.

Nelson explains that the marbled murrelet is facing several obstacles, from habitat loss to poor ocean quality. After the bird became threatened, organizations have worked to fight these challenges, but many things still need to change in order to protect the species.

Since the dawn of history, the planet and species inhabiting it have gone through periods of immense change. It's a fact that is crucial to our understanding of the world. However, human development has led to a loss of species and natural habitats greater than imagined. It is no surprise that the choices of mankind have been destructive to the natural world. Yet, many feel only a few species will be lost, and that it will not cause too much harm.

Portland Audubon Society Ten Mile Sanctuary manager and conservationist Paul Engelmeyer says that this mentality is dangerous. He compares our lost species to the integral parts of a working machine: “You say ‘oh, we don’t need that species, and we don’t need that one, and we don’t need that one.’ I describe it as us flying an airplane. We can get by without this part, that bolt, and this thing here, and we don’t really need that, and next thing you know the plane does not fly very well.” Engelmeyer concludes, “In fact, we could easily be doomed without knowing it.”

Many nuts and bolts on our airplane have already been lost. We are living in the greatest period of species extinction in the last 60 million years. Over 75 percent of primate species are decreasing in population and 40 percent of bird species are facing dwindling populations of their own. Amongst those bird species in decline is the marbled murrelet.

The marbled murrelet was federally listed as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act in 1992. According to the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Office, the main cause of population decline is the “loss and modification of nesting habitat in old-growth and mature forests through commercial timber harvests, human-induced fires, and land conversions.”

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The marbled murrelet is a seabird that feeds on the fish and invertebrates found in near-shore waters. Though they spend most of their time out on the ocean, these murrelets move inland to nest between April and September. During these months, old-growth forests up to 50 miles inland become home, and the limbs of conifer trees host the single egg laid by a sexually mature adult. Marbled murrelets are selective in their nesting grounds, and require large areas of oldgrowth to nest, as they avoid fragmented, small, or partiallydeveloped forests.

The loss of this habitat—combined with increased habitat fragmentation—which is already directly responsible for the decline, then leads to more trouble for the marbled murrelets. “Fragmentation has an impact on nesting success,” says Nelson. “It changes the microclimate in the forest and the predator numbers. Their main predators, like steller’s jays and ravens, have populations above historic levels because of changes in the habitat.”

Researchers have discovered another challenge for the marbled murrelet: the ocean. As Engelmeyer explains, the marbled murrelet “go down to 150 or 200 feet, bob to the surface and then fly in and feed their chick the forage fish. They’re one of the species that really need a healthy ocean as well as a healthy forest.”

Nelson has researched this problem firsthand during her current project of tracking marbled murrelets to better understand their space usage. “We are learning more now about the ocean. I think the ocean has always been volatile. Some years are good and some years are bad,” she says, “but we have changed the habitat and made it less optimal for the birds, and now, with the quick-changing ocean that seems to be changing faster and having poor ocean years occuring more often, that's having a double whammy on the birds.”

Ocean health is playing a crucial role in nesting and movements. Nelson’s current project involves going out on the ocean and putting VHS transmitters on the birds so that she and her team can track their movements, nesting sites, and foraging hot spots. The project has brought great insight into various parts of the marbled murrelet’s challenges, especially the effects of ocean quality on the species.

In 2017, none of the birds being tracked by Nelson’s team had nested. “It was a very poor ocean year and there was not a lot of upwelling or small forage fish available for them on the near shore, so the birds went in search of food instead of deciding to nest,” Nelson says, “so many of our birds left and went to California, all the way down to San Francisco Bay, while some went up to Washington.” The team has observed a similar movement every year since then.

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As crucial as these oceans and forests are to the marbled murrelet, they are also valuable to the communities around them. “It’s no surprise that they are listed under the Endangered Species Act because of loss of old-growth forest,” Engelmeyer says. “We have converted so much of our coast range bioregion, either through development or converting it to agricultural land or plantations.”

For many rural coastal towns, logging supports the local economy and is a way of life. The forest that provides the nesting site for the bird also provides logs for mills, forestry jobs, and income for the nearby counties. For many cities, portions of logging revenue on certain land help fund roads and libraries. The mutual dependence on forests and different ideas of suitable management have launched the controversy into a two-sided argument, in which conservationists and the general public are pitted against each other, where only one can win.

Nelson believes differently. “It should be a win-win for everybody,” she says. “I think there are a lot of ways to be creative and conserve species at the same time as we continue with things humans like to do. It’s not about stopping logging or anything like that. It’s [about] being creative and coming up with a way to help mitigate an impact. People just need to get together at the table and talk more about how we can help each other, because those are the things that will make this work.”

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When the marbled murrelet was classified as threatened, specialists knew that without purposeful support the species would struggle to survive. California, Oregon, and Washington then joined together in an effort to protect the seabird. Since then, the project has blossomed as groups, individuals, and organizations work together to conserve crucial habitat.

Advocates and scientists have shed light on the situation as news reaches private landowners and government organizations. Now, within the three states’ boundaries, almost four million acres of land have been designated as critical habitat. Three million acres of federal land and one million of state, county, city, and private lands have since been protected to promote the recovery of the species. Within the next 100 years, the protected areas should increase marbled murrelet nesting habitat. These lands are not completely logging-free, though on federal lands consultations with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are required to assess possible harm to the marbled murrelet habitat.

More interior forest will not only allow for more nesting sites, but can increase nesting success and mitigate the effects of predation. Growing buffers, or new forests around old stands, can have positive impacts on the birds and is a creative way to help the population by using the old-growth forests still in place.

Marbled murrelet tracking, like that Nelson is involved in, has allowed for a greater understanding of bird movement, foraging sites, and changes happening year to year. The tracking of their movement is imperative for state population surveys, and may allow for a more accurate representation of marbled murrelet numbers.

The effort is made possible by a variety of people and teams buying in, willing to discuss matters with those who disagree, then develop a plan and take action. Organizations such as Conservation Northwest, focusing on conservation in Washington, and the Oregon Marbled Murrelet Project, initiated by the Oregon State University College of Forestry, are just a couple examples of groups studying or interacting in the field to protect the species.

Nelson encourages anyone interested to learn about ecology and get involved. “Pay attention to laws and changes in laws, review plans or go to meetings,” she says. “There is always something to be done, whether it's writing letters or talking to scientists, congress people, or managers. Everyone can help with a solution somehow.”

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The effort to protect the threatened marbled murrelet on the Oregon coast is just one of many conservation efforts across the United States in response to the decline in species population and healthy habitats. Nelson and Engelmeyer believe the process is just getting started, and explain that natural solutions to increase the health of ecosystems have many benefits because of the connectedness of species.

“All species are important and they are all interconnected,” says Nelson, “and a lot of people think if you lose one species it really does not matter, but it does.”

Nelson explains, “one thing we are learning about marbled murrelets is the birds are carrying whole fish in their beak into the forest to give to the chick, and while the chick stays at the nest for 30 days, it’s defecating around the edges of the nest. That then deposits a ton of nutrients into the forest. The rain washes that away and microbes and bugs eat it. It truly is all connected.”

Adding to this idea of intricate connections, Engelmeyer says, “if we plant a tree and shade a stream because the water is too warm, those are two benefits. There are then 30 or 40 species that are actually riparian-dependent species that use those ecosystem benefits. So you have water quality, fish recovery, multiple species, and now there is a new overlay.”

The interwovenness of ecosystems makes it imperative for humans to protect species, as each relies on another. As people strive to protect marbled murrelets, salmon, or any species, they are taking a stand for our planet, and for the health of every living thing on it, including ourselves. When we take care of the bolts in our plane, they, too, take care of us.

The effort to protect biodiversity is a fight just getting started. “It's challenging, but there are some folks that are the beginning, the pioneers of change, folks that are behind them, and next thing you know there is a wave of people engaged,” Engelmeyer explains. “There are places that are healing, but there is still a lot of work left to do.”