Subject: Re: amateurs in research
Date: Oct 25 15:16:53 1995
From: Tim Shelmerdine - shelmert at mail.clackesd.k12.or.us


>Don Baccus writes:
>
> > But, the truth is, there are a fair number of recreational birders
> > who don't care about conservation - and not from ignorance.
>
>Now, it's my turn to be ignorant :-)
>I know that some birders don't care about conservation,
>but I *cannot* understand how it is possible.
>
>Anybody wanting to make me less naive?
>
>
>--
>--------------------------------------------------
>A bird in the bush is better than two in the hand.
>
>Serge Le Huitouze

Sorry to be so late on this. As other people have already pointed out,
most do care. And care greatly. It is a sad truth that a very few birders
do not care about conservation. I prefer to think, however, that most of
those we might be trempted to pigeonhole in this category show their
concern in other ways. I do not put window stickers on my truck for the
Nature Conservancy, the National Wildlife Federation, or the other
organizations that I belong to. Maybe I should, but I do not. No one
knows the extra contributions I make toward conservation causes. I could
go on.

Don mentioned that some people at Portland Audubon make jokes at the
expense of those birders who come to Birders' Night the first Tuesday of
the month. How unfortunate and how ignorant. Most of the experienced
birders are not just listers. THey are members of the Oregon Birds Record
Committee, field trip leaders for Portland Audubon and Oregon Field
Ornithologists, contributors to Oregon Birds, etc. More are members are
several conservation groups, such as the Nature Conservancy. It is always
unfortunate to categorize a group by picking one example and making a
generalization.

Well, I'm way off the point I wanted to make. Maybe I'm the naive one, but
I do think that virtually all recreational birders care about conservation.
Do only activists count any more?

Glad I got that off my chest. Cheers.


Tim Shelmerdine
shelmert at mail.clackesd.k12.or.us