a little good news

•

And now for something completely different: a little environmental good news.

If you spend several hours a day monitoring the news, you are surely convinced that human beings have lost their way. We have all become scoundrels, robbers, killers, crooks, racketeers, scammers, hackers, liars, cheats, frauds, corrupt to the core.

But that is just not true. The vast bulk of us are good-hearted people. Good friends. Good neighbors. Good samaritans.    

Case in point. If we hear that a species is in trouble, we rally to do whatever we can to help it. In the 1920s, Eastern bluebirds were in trouble, we built boxes, now they are not. Bald eagles were once in trouble, we outlawed DDT, now they are not. Monarch butterflies were declining so we rallied and planted more milkweed. Even the snail darter, once the poster child for endangered species, is about to be taken off the Endangered Species List. (Read my first UT Press book: Natural Histories for the story of both bald eagles and snail darters.) 

Hurrah for our side!

And yesterday, we heard more good news out of the Wolverine State. The Kirtland's warbler was delisted, i.e. removed from the Endangered Species List. In this case, its decline was caused by habitat loss, or namely the intense reduction of its very limited range: the "young" jack pine tree forests found in Michigan and Canada. The bird was headed towards extinction only 40 years ago, but it has rallied because of efforts to bring back more of its young jack pine habitat. 

I have never seen a Kirtland's warber or a young jack pine or even Michigan, so I messaged a friend who had.

Janet Lee McKnight is the owner of The Home Decor Resale Store in the heart of Greenback. She is also a passionate birder. In 2002, she made the pilgrimage to Grayling, Michigan to see the species before it was gone. 

“I studied recordings of their song ahead of time so I would recognize it once I was amongst the jack pines where they nest," Janet remembered. 

"And sure enough, when I heard that first song, I was able locate the singing male and see him through my binoculars. He was big for a warbler and so stunning in his black and yellow breeding plumage. I felt it worth the 723 miles I had to drive to see him, he was that beautiful.”

Do the math. That's a 1,446 mile round trip to see a bird. I said she was a passionate birder!

Yes. A little good news.

Photos of the Kirtland's warbler from Wiki Media © Jeol Trick 

•