It’s time for real action to save North America’s vanishing birdscape

By Anders and Beverly Gyllenhaal

One of our very favorite examples of the work across North America to protect birds is the California Spotted Owl. An enlightened blend of high-tech research, forestry management and commitment is helping stabilize one of the West’s most beloved species far up in the Sierra Nevada mountains.

We tell the owl’s story in an essay running this week in CNN Opinion seeking to make the case that it’s time for a new level of aggressive and creative action to protect birds. We hope you’ll take a moment to read the piece – which is accompanied by exquisite illustrations of the species featured in the narrative.

The essence of this essay is that we’ve reached a point where this country is going to have to do more to protect its birdlife – and in fact examples of what it will take are spread all over the hemisphere like pieces of a puzzle.

The encouraging outlook for California Spotted Owl is especially meaningful: its cousin, the Northern Spotted Owl, is gradually disappearing from the Northwest in the aftermath of one of the starkest failures of wildlife protection a generation ago. This time around, however, a consortium of scientists, forestry officials and industry representatives has come up with solutions for rescuing the California branch of the family.

A big part of what’s saving the owls is the use of sound to pinpoint their locations spread across millions of rugged, often impassable acres. Using recording devices strapped to trees all over the mountains, researchers gather the sound of the bird’s hoots, and then use artificial intelligence to scan the massive amounts of recordings to find the owls. Once the birds are mapped, foresters and scientists are able to protect them from predators, improve their habitat and track their progress.

The problem is that the attention the owl is getting is uncommon. Scores of species are gradually losing population, many with so little research and conservation nobody’s sure what’s working against them. More than half of North America’s bird species are in decline. A ground-breaking examination in 2019 found that nearly a third of North America’s bird abundance has eroded away since the 1970s.

The history of North America’s birdlife is dotted with initiatives where this country stepped forward to make wildlife a priority. The CNN piece happens to coincide with the 50^th anniversary of the creation of the Endangered Species Act, signed into law by President Richard Nixon on Dec. 28^th, 1973.

That half-century birthday is an excellent time to place a spotlight on the kind of measures it takes to protect birds in a time of environmental disruption. Passage of the act is not the only instance. As our CNN piece recounts, every time birds have been imperiled over more than a century, various U.S. Presidents of both parties, Congresses, nonprofits and scientists have figured out ways of protecting birds as part of the nation’s treasured natural resources.

We have lost that willingness in an era of deep division that has made even the principles of conservation, which once drew strong bipartisan support, part of the political standoff. This is a tragedy, because we are better equipped now than ever to watch over our wildlife.

Advances in tracking technologies, genomics, breeding methods – and technology like the use of sounds that’s saving the owls — provide all sorts of remedies to counteract the threats to birds and other wildlife. The cost of caring for these species is relatively low compared to the price of letting them continue to decline.  

As our CNN essay emphasizes, birds do far more than provide nature’s soundtrack. They are a harbinger of the health of the environment. Along the way, they help pollinate plants and flowers, spread seeds that bolster forests, grasslands and wetlands, help control insects and play a central part in the balance of nature.

In the case of the California Spotted Owl, they are a crucial wing of the wildlife that keeps the Sierra Nevada robust, which in turn is a key to water that fuels much of the state’s economy. In a very real sense, the Central Valley of California that supplies a large portion of the nation and world’s fruits, nuts and vegetables is dependent on the well being of the spotted owl.

That’s why we are especially fond of the story of this owl. It’s a symbol of the role that birds in general play. The more we come to understand their contributions, the more likely we’ll  be to protect their future with the tools that are very much within reach.