Loon Magic/Loon Magic - Wayzata Technology (8011) (1993).iso/mac/text/15recov.a

Text File | 1993-07-26 | 5KB | 99 lines

   RECOVERY EFFORTS

   "Though the loon's breeding territory has shrunk dramatically,
there is no reason that humans and loons can not share the same
remaining northern waters, provided appropriate care is taken. It is
the belief of The North American Loon Fund and the dedicated
people who operate its programs that loons can not only survive in
the modern world, but can thrive."   -Rawson Wood, 1982

   For loons, the present is better than the past, and the future will be
better than the present. The first half of that summary judgment on
loons requires little supporting evidence. In the late nineteenth and
early twentieth centuries, loon populations dwindled. At best, loons
were considered a silly bird. At worse, they were seen as fishermen's
competitors. Countless thousands were shot to protect fishermen's
table fare. In the first quarter of the twentieth century, Edward H.
Forbush documented an annual rite of spring when hundreds of
loons were shot off Buzzards Bay in Massachusetts. In Maine, on
postcard perfect Lake Umbagog, tourists shot loons for sport from
cruise steamers. As late as the 1950s, loons served as targets on
some Minnesota lakes.

   Changing Attitudes

   Carroll Henderson, the Minnesota DNR's Non-Game Coordinator,
recalled at a Minneapolis loon conference that "sportsmen" in the late
1950s considered it their special responsibility to shoot all
cormorants and loons on one western Minnesota lake. Henderson
quickly noted that in a relatively short time people have come a long
way; there are no more organized shoots for non-game water birds in
Minnesota. Believing education programs about non-game wildlife
are working, Henderson points to the recent re-establishment of
white pelicans in Minnesota. Because their take of fish averages four
pounds a day and their fishing technique is showy, even boisterous,
fishermen despised the white pelican. By the late nineteenth century,
these beautiful birds disappeared from Minnesota lake-victims in a
battle over fishing rights. The white pelican again nests on many
Minnesota lakes and produces over a thousand young per summer.
People are learning to live with predators, both feathered and furred.
After years of expatriation, timber wolves have returned to northern
Wisconsin's forests. And ospreys and bald eagles are expanding their
range throughout the north. These are signs of the times. Postive
signs.

   In the 1980s, loons are riding a high tide of good will. In New
Hampshire, Rawson Wood has watched interest in loons grow
tremendously over the past decade. He senses a deep emotional
attachment between loons and New Hampshire's lake country
residents and states the case quite graphically: "The Old Man of the
Mountain is a beautiful part of New Hampshire. Anyone who
destroyed it would probably be shot. Loons are a beautiful part of
New Hampshire also. People feel strongly about loons. I don't think
that will change."

   Wood knows how deeply people in the East treasure the feeling of
wilderness. He recalls the often quoted line from Edward Forbush's
1939 book, The Natural History of Birds of Eastern and Central North
America: "Of all the wild creatures that persist in this region today,
the loon seems best to typify the stark wilderness of primeval
nature." Forbush was speaking of the Northeast in the early
twentieth century.

   His sentiment is echoed by many in the Northeast today. In New
Hampshire and other areas of the East and Midwest, the loon is the
only remaining symbol of wilderness. Rawson Wood estimates that
few people in New Hampshire have ever seen an eagle, and ospreys
are still rare. That makes loons all the more precious. In Wood's
view, the future for loons depends upon how rapidly lakes are
damaged by development, and how effectively people concerned
with loons rally to protect them. With many other observers, he
believes loons and people can live together, citing as proof recent
productivity gains on New Hampshire lakes where heavy
recreational pressure has been neutralized by aggressive public
involvement and loon protection measures. He has watched with
some pride the numbers of loons in New Hampshire increase from
254 in 1978 to over 400 in 1988. The return of loons to
Massachusetts is also encouraging to Wood and other North American
Loon Fund officials. The first loon pair in years was spotted on the
Quabbin Reservoir in 1975. By 1977 there were three pairs, and by
1984 there were five. Small numbers but in the right direction.
Management programs have made these gains possible.

   For centuries people have needed loons, but now, at least in some
areas, loons need people, too. The right people. In New Hampshire,
Jeff Fair of The Loon Preservation Committee considers public
education and public involvement, his primary management tools,
more important even than artificial nesting islands.

   A Squam Lake resident for many years, Rawson Wood knows how
important people are in the loon's future: "Loons can't possibly
survive in New Hampshire without complete protection; the loon
nests singly, in scattered locations, and can only be protected by the
people who live on or visit its breeding lakes." In New Hampshire
and in nearly every area where loons nest, loons are being well
protected. Once common, harassment of loons by boaters is going the
way of spring loon shoots. People are getting the message.

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