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his September, bird lovers across the globe were disturbed to learn of the data revealing the populations of 529 bird species in the U.S. and Canada dropped 29 percent between 1970 and 2018. In this issue of Wingspan, we bring you a double feature by our writer Chris Rose, including his interview with Adam Smith, one of the co-authors of that alarming study which was published in the respected journal Science. Rose brings these facts about climate change to Wingspan in two features and confirms what scientists say about much needing to be done, and quickly, to avert even greater losses. But they also say birds are resilient and can rebound, given the right conditions. While we wish the recent federal election had featured a leaders’ debate on climate change, in Wingspan we believe it is our responsibility to educate the conservation community on the most important issue of our time. Chris Rose also spoke with David Yarnold, president of the National Audubon Society, who was also shocked by the study. “This is a bird emergency with a clear message: the natural world humans depend on is being paved, logged, eroded and polluted. You don’t need to look hard for the metaphor: birds are the
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WINGSPAN FALL/WINTER 2019
canaries in the coal mine that is the Earth’s future,” Yarnold told Wingspan. Look for hopeful work that must be done to protect bird habitat across British Columbia. The Wild Bird Trust encourages our readers from wherever you are reading this issue to send us updates on your work promoting biodiversity and defending wild bird habitat. As BC’s leading birding magazine we want to do more and that includes offering Wingspan as a service to our readers to share your good work to defend birds. The Truth & Reconciliation Commission has challenged all of us to recognize Canada’s colonial past that created so much harm to Indigenous communities. The effects of habitat loss and displacement of Indigenous populations has gone hand-in-hand for the past century as western science and industrial progress was deemed of higher value than the Indigenous communities who have stewarded wild bird habitat for millenia. The Conservation Area at Maplewood Flats is a perfect example of this destruction, as we have spent the past 27 years restoring some biodiversity to formerly rich mudflats
