A conservation goal: Keeping the land ‘whole’

My latest newspaper column:

In fish and wildlife conservation lingo, the concept of “wholeness” is everything.

Wholeness means a whole habitat, one whose ecological values are intact, not chopped up (what conservationists refer to as “fragmented”) into smaller chunks.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, in a fact sheet for the 2002 observance of International Migratory Bird Day, states: “Habitat is defined as an area that provides the food, water, cover and space

that a living thing needs to survive and reproduce. The quality and quantity of a particular type of habitat determines the

number and variety of its inhabitants.

 

“Unfortunately, in altering or creating habitat for human uses, people often cause the loss or damage of habitat needed by birds and other wildlife. This loss and degradation of habitat has resulted in widespread declines and extinctions of many species.

 

“It is not possible for people to live and prosper without affecting their surroundings. However, people do have the ability to consider the needs of other species and can choose to modify their activities to decrease the negative effects they have on wildlife habitat.”

 

This means that the little five-acre woodlot down the street (the one with the real estate agency’s sign on it, declaring the land as “available”) has much less ecological value to native flora and fauna than the 5,000-acre (or larger) forest that grows on yonder ridge.

 

Conservationists, whether toiling in Utah or New England or Pennsylvania (or any other place) know this to be the case. That’s why proposals to build mammoth land-devouring things like airports and highways and such generate lots of opposition. People who value, cherish and fight to protect Pennsylvania’s natural heritage really should be (excuse the cliché) “up in arms” over the still-alive chance that a cargo airport (isn’t “freight” airport a more accurate term?) will be constructed on terrain near Hazleton.

 

Before “authorities” allow bulldozers to be cranked to life and their land-eating blades lowered, let’s take a gander at the fate today of closed, former Air Force bases. I served at two such places that are within a one-day drive of Hazleton.

Both Griffiss AFB, near Utica, N.Y., and Plattsburgh AFB (four hours due north of Albany, N.Y.) were Strategic Air Command bomber bases. Aircrews at these, and many other SAC installations pulled what everyone referred to as “alert duty,” living together in secure dorm-style buildings referred to (no joke) as “alert facilities.” The base at Plattsburgh, not too long after the Air Force pulled out) became Plattsburgh International Airport. (In this case, unlike the Avoca airfield which still bills itself as an “international” port, the label is true as suburban Montreal, Quebec, is only an hour due north). Plattsburgh already had a 13,000-foot runway, loads of adjacent tarmac, and office space and aircraft hangars. Learn more at http://www.flyplattsburgh.com/opportunities/facilities.asp

 

Griffiss was home to a B-52 bomb wing (Plattsburgh had a fleet of the smaller FB-111 bomber). Visit http://ocgov.net/airport/tenants to learn about the civilian tenants that now operate at Griffiss International Airport. And by visiting http://ocgov.net/airport you get to see a nice aerial photograph of Griffiss. A brief look is all that’s needed to realize just how much land the place covers. Then, consider how a “cargo” airport in northern Schuylkill County would look from the air.

 

People who know the real “value” of Pennsylvania’s natural heritage (a value that covers a lot more territory than just dollars) ought to be nice, yet vocal in battling the very notion of putting a new airport near Hazleton. And think how you would reply to this question: If there’s such a grand need for a new “cargo” airfield, here or anywhere else in the Northeast or mid-Atlantic, how come the many ex-military airfields that dot a map have not already been pressed into service for such a mission?

 

Oddly, this ongoing discussion and debate brings to mind a late-afternoon chat I had with a pickup truck driver on a road splitting apart a Pennsylvania Game Commission holding in the Lehigh River watershed. The motorist (also a hunter, as evidenced by the .30-.06 rifle in the window rack behind his head), lamented that he didn’t see one white-tail, not even one, while driving down the road.

Give everyone, not just license buyers, a chance to fund conservation

That’s the theme of my latest newspaper column. You can read it here.

Welcom to Pennsylvania Wild!

So proclaims a couple of official  Commonwealth of Pennsylvania signs along Interstate 80. And so proclaims this billboard that sprung up in response to the trashing of Pennsylvania Wild by the natural gas drilling business. I’ve always hated the Pennsylvania billboards as all blight. And I feel lucky to be living in a state where billboards were outlawed more than 40 years ago. What do you think? And why, after twenty years of residency in Pennsylvania, do I still hear nothing from state agencies, like the Game Commission and Fish and Boat Commission regarding the loss everyday of wild places and the crying need for a public land acquisition program.

To help forests and birds, stop helping deer

Yes! The writer of this op-ed deserves a medal for making the point that so many alleged conservationists (aka “sportsmen”) seem to ignore as they roam around in their pickup trucks with the windows rolled down looking for white-tails (in the East) and mule deer (in the West). Too many deer is THE issue facing forest after forest in Pennsylvania, where I lived for two decades and know only too well what browsing deer can do to other life forms. Why Bambi must go!

Canned hunting: Don’t call it fair-chase anything

Because it isn’t. Plain and simple. It’s a crying shame, while I’m on the subject of hunting, that many state agencies like the Pennsylvania Game Commission derive nearly all of their budget money from the sale of hunting and trapping licenses. What does that tell the other citizens of that state who chose not to hunt, trap and fish for keepers? Do they also have a seat at the table?

Deer poachers look out, Robo-deer is here

Actually, as this article notes, robo-deer have been around for many years and continue to be successful in helping wildlife conservation officers catch poachers and slob hunters and the like.

Washington sportsmen rally against bill merging parks, wildlife agencies

When I hear of initiatives like the one described in this article, I always think of the New York Department of Environmental Conservation. With NYDEC, there is one agency, with branches or divisions responsible for specific areas of concern, like fisheries, huntable wildlife, environmental issues like water and air [pollution, and so forth. Pennsylvania, on the other hand, is the classic case of backward thinking, with four separate agencies, each with its own budget and hierarchy: Fish and Boat Commission, Game Commission, Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, and Department of Environmental Protection. Why not have one department making better use of the available dollars? What do you think? I’ve seen New York DEC in action, on the ground, and believe the one-agency model to be the best for protecting the natural heritage. Isn’t that what it’s all about anyway?

As hunting tradition wanes, conservation funding dries up

This trend has been in place for more than a decade, I’m sure. Still, nearly all states, including Pennsylvania, have not taken legislative steps to get all citizens — hunters and non-hunters alike — involved in the funding of conservation programs and efforts, like land acquisition. The Pennsylvania Game Commission, which, by the way, operates independently of the state’s fish (and boat) agency, gets nearly all of its operating dollars from hunting and trapping license revenue. Why not have all citizens involved in funding? Say one-eighth of one percent of the every state sales tax cent directed toward conservation. Missouri does this. Why can’t Pennsylvania and other states? Duh? Read the NY Times’ article about the hunting tradition and the conservation follar right here.

I especially like this quote from my friend Jerry Feaser, the Game Commission’s press secretary:

“Whole farms turned into housing developments or shopping malls,” he said. “Once that land is lost, you can’t get it back.” Right on Jerry.

New York DEC chief’s ouster not a popular move

That’s putting it lightly. A too-gentle headline from the Buffalo News for this fine editorial. The New York Department of Environmental Conservation, by the way, looks after the more than three million acres of public land that’s part of the six-million-acre Adirondack Park. And, unlike Pennsylvania which stupidly still has four entirely separate agencies tasked with enforcing (among other things) enforcing conservation and environmental regulations), New York has one, the DEC, which, in turn, has divisions for this and that. Why? Because Pennsylvania refuses to allow the non-hunting and non-fishing resident participate in the actual funding of on-the-ground conservation work. That’s why the state Game Commission (not “wildlife”) still depends almost exclusvively on the revenue from the sale of hunting and trapping licenses for its operating revenue. And that’s why the state Fish and Boat Commission similarly gets operating revenue from the sale of licenses. And that’s why the revenue from the sale of “trout stamps” goes almost exclusively into operating fish hatcheries to continue the debacle of put-and-take fisheries across the state. The Fish and Boat Commission actually buy land to protect a stream? Are you kidding.

White-nose Syndrome found in N.E. Pa. bats

I just read a concise article about White-nose Syndrome in the Adirondack Eplorer newspaper. According to the Pa. Game Commission, the syndrome has now turned up in Lackawanna County (the Scranton area), killing hundreds of bats in and near two abandoned coal-mine shafts. It has been several years at least since we last saw a bat hawking insects in the evening sky near our home. Here’s the Pa. Game Commission’s news release on the Lackawanna County findings:

By Joe Kosack

Wildlife Conservation Education Specialist

Pennsylvania Game Commission

HARRISBURG – Several hundred little brown bats are dead from White-Nose Syndrome (WNS) in Lackawanna County, and the Pennsylvania Game Commission is looking to residents for help uncovering other sites where this deadly disorder may have surfaced.

Game Commission biologists had been uncovering signs of what appeared to be an impending WNS outbreak in Pennsylvania since last spring. Over the past two years, the disorder has killed more than 90 percent of some wintering bat colonies where it first surfaced in New York and spread through New England. Its confirmation in Pennsylvania and New Jersey came in the past two weeks, but Pennsylvania had a surprisingly unique distinction among the states where WNS has been documented; Pennsylvania bats were not leaving their wintering quarters – caves and mines – and weren’t dying. Unfortunately, that no longer can be said.

Last week, bats were found dead outside of an abandoned mine near Carbondale by a citizen who later reported the findings to the agency. Game Commission Wildlife Conservation Officer Chris Skipper visited the site immediately and confirmed the findings. Bats were dead on the ground; flying from the mine; dropping from the sky. Then on Groundhog Day, agency biologist Greg Turner found bats flying from another Lackawanna County mine near Throop. They shouldn’t have been emerging for another six weeks.

“Roughly 50 percent of the bats in the mine near Carbondale displayed the characteristic white fungus,” said Kevin Wenner, an agency biologist stationed at the agency’s Northeast Region office in Dallas. “Bats have been and are staging close to the entrance of the mine; some dying in the mine while others were flying around and dying outside on top of the snow.  The bases of several trees near the mine entrance had piles of dead bats around them.  Hundreds were visible on top of the most recent snow, so I suspect there are thousands of dead bats.”

The findings in Lackawanna County are not unexpected, according to Game Commission Executive Director Carl G. Roe. But they do portend a disturbing and uncertain future for cave bats east of the Mississippi River and quite possibly beyond.

“The Game Commission has worked hard to stay abreast of White-Nose’s escalating presence in Pennsylvania,” Roe said. “Our bat biologists have been actively involved in field monitoring and research and are working closely with some of this country’s best and brightest minds in biology and epidemiology in their pursuit of clues. But a year later, there are just as many questions about WNS, and more dead bats.”

A couple weeks ago, the National Wildlife Health Center in Madison, Wisconsin, informed the Game Commission that bats it submitted from an old iron mine in Mifflin County had tested positive for a cold-loving fungi found on many bats diagnosed with WNS. The bats were discovered by Dr. DeeAnn Reeder, a biologist with Bucknell University, and Turner during ongoing field investigations into bat hibernation patterns that included weekly monitoring for the disorder’s presence in several Pennsylvania hibernacula. During this work, dozens of bats had a fungus appear around their muzzles and on wing membranes, while many others relocated from warmer, deeper areas of their hibernacula to areas close to the entrance, or failed to arouse during hibernacula disturbances.

Turner reported that he found the health of hibernating bats deteriorating in the abandoned Mifflin County iron mine near Shindle during his weekly visit with Dr. Reeder. Fungus was advancing on bats that had it and appearing on more bats – now about 50 percent of the colony. But, more important, dead bats were found in the water that flows through the mine.

“This mine may be the next hibernaculum where bats ‘fly and die,’” Turner said. “There’s a good chance bats are leaving other hibernacula instate and dying on the landscape, but we haven’t found them yet.  That is why we are asking for the public’s help.”

Currently, researchers still are unsure exactly how bats contract WNS and how it initially and, ultimately, affects a bat’s body. They cannot confirm whether the fungus appearing on some bats is a cause or a symptom of the disorder. New York and New England have lost tens –maybe even hundreds – of thousands of bats to WNS over the past two years.

Lisa Williams, Game Commission biologist, said the public can help the agency better understand the distribution of WNS by reporting sick-acting or dead bats they find while out and about this winter.

“We’re not asking people to go out of their way to help, but if you hike or walk or drive along back roads, and encounter dead or dying bats, we’d really like to hear from you,” Williams said. “Please don’t go in caves or mines or underground. And do not handle bats – dead or alive – and keep children and pets away from grounded bats. Even though there currently are no known human health implications associated with WNS, the Game Commission would prefer that people not handle any bats; we’ll take care of all of that. We just need residents to let us know if they find something suspicious.”

There are two quick and easy ways to report sick-acting or dead bats this winter. The first is by calling the nearest Game Commission region office. The second is by using the Game Commission’s “Report Sick Bats” form that can be accessed in the left-hand column of the agency’s homepage (www.pgc.state.pa.us).

Wenner also reported another interesting finding while investigating the state’s latest WNS site on Monday.

“It’s important to realize that once the bats leave the mine, the fungus is not very visible as moisture and flight seem to wear it off the bat,” Wenner said. “So, simply looking at a bat for white fungus will not necessarily confirm whether it is a clean, WNS-free bat. That’s why all bats should be left where found and reported to the Game Commission.”