Kelly Cassidy wrote:

>One of the major impacts of people is to remove not only cover,
>but nest sites and good insect-producing habitats. For example,
>snags, downed logs, rock piles, etc. are always 'cleaned up'.
>Soooo, I've wondered, what if every bird enthusiast hauled a
>snag or *big* dead log into their yard, or made a nice brush
>or rock pile? Would the fire danger be too great? How about
>the resulting rat population? (I doubt if you could persuade
>homeowners that a bushy-tailed woodrat was different than a
>black rat.) What if a snag fell over and killed someonw? If
>the idea caught on, what about the impact of all those snags
>being removed from forests and put in urban areas?

I think that your comments are quite appropriate and surely will reach at
least some of the people on tweeters. I'm trying hard to turn part of my
back yard into wildlife habitat, almost with the "abandoned empty lot" look
but with planted rather than successional trees and shrubs. We don't mow
parts of it just so it will grow up into a tangle of grass and weeds. The
seed-eating birds just love all the composite and grass seeds in the fall.
I've tried to convince (I think I have) our next-door neighbors not to cut
down a small bigleaf maple tree that's about half dead, as it extends over
into our yard as an important habitat component. It's always visited by
flickers and downies and its dead branches serve as perches for many of the
birds that come into the yard.

There's no doubt that we have to be concerned with dead trees and their
branches, when it comes to public safety, but I don't think brush or rock
piles come under that category. Or leaving part of the yard to weeds. And
we have our very own roof rat that comes out to the bird seed in the middle
of the day; it's the best we can do in an area from which native woodrats
have been long gone.

>Nah. It would never fly. People are generally happier watching
>wildlife on TV from the comfort and safety of the couch or
>making brief forays to visit it.

Kelly, you're too young to be so cynical!

Dennis Paulson, Director phone: (206) 756-3798
Slater Museum of Natural History fax: (206) 756-3352
University of Puget Sound e-mail: dpaulson at ups.edu
Tacoma, WA 98416