Pennsylvania Game News - April 2015 - 15

Benjamin Franklin may have been referring to fire safety
when he wrote that refrain centuries ago, but the concept
also certainly can be applied to wildlife management.

O

UR CONSERVATION history
is riddled with lessons learned
the hard way and costly recovery efforts.
Take, for example, the iconic passenger pigeon that went extinct, by
our hand, just more than a century ago.
In the 1800s, it was inconceivable
that this vastly abundant bird could
ever be driven to extinction. Historic
accounts describe a 'blackening of the
skies' and 'shuddering of trees' as the
estimated 3 billion to 5 billion birds
flew overhead on their way to nesting
sites in the northeastern deciduous
forests, including Pennsylvania.
Nevertheless, it took only 40 years of
unregulated market shooting to cause
the demise of this keystone species and
plentiful food source in the wild, and
less than half that time for the last of
the species to die in captivity.
Lesson learned.
Soon thereafter, wildlife laws were
introduced to prevent future extinctions, but they came too late for some
species.
But it's not all bad.
On a brighter note, America celebrated the removal of the bald eagle
from the federal endangered species list
in 2007 and, just last year Pennsylvanians celebrated the recovery of this
national symbol in our state.
The bald eagle's tremendous recovery from the brink is a testament to
how removing threats like DDT, direct

persecution and poor water quality, and
working together can result in success.
The total cost of bald-eagle recovery
at the national level was significant.
The species first received protection in 1940, equating to decades of
persistent, targeted efforts to prevent
this species from extirpation in the
lower 48.
Reactive conservation efforts take
considerable staffing and resources to
accomplish; and you typically start with
the odds stacked against you.
What if we noticed problems in the
eagle population before it was in need
of costly emergency-room care and
began to address them - proactively?
This concept was realized in the
2000 congressional legislation that
created the State and Tribal Wildlife
Grants Program.
This made available - for the first
time in history - funding to states
explicitly for "programs that benefit
wildlife and its habitat, including species that are not hunted or fished."
A state's eligibility to receive these
funds was contingent upon approval
of a State Wildlife Action Plan that
identifies species in greatest need of
conservation, the extent and condition
of their habitats, lists threats to the
species or their habitats, and prioritizes
conservation actions to address the
threats.
It is a proactive approach to conservation, and the nation's core program

The photo of the yellow-crowned night-heron on the opposite page was taken in
Harrisburg, one of the only places in Pennsylvania this state-endangered species nests.

APRIL 2015

15
Pennsylvania Game News - April 2015

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Pennsylvania Game News - April 2015
