David Beatty wrote:

So what do you do when your home town Port Authority decides to bring a
new
steel mill next to one of the premier shorebird staging areas on the
Pacific
coast? (Yes, Bowerman Basin)

So what do you do when you sponsor a Spring shorebird festival?

David and Tweeters:

What kind of economic impact does the shorebird festival have annually?
At Cape May, 100,000 birders bring in $10 million annually to the local
economy, so I hear. If the your local festival (and birding at other
times) pulls some economic weight, shouldn't that have some effect on
the decision making process? The advent of a steel mill will bring in
how much income? If the steel mill brings in x number of jobs, but the
loss of habitat and therefore birders takes out y number of tourism jobs
and adversely affects a number of small businesses, perhaps the
tradeoffs look less attractive. What are the numbers: how many tourists
and tourist dollars do the shorebirds bring in? How do the economics of
birding work here?

And what about that shorebirder mailing list of yours? Couldn't it be
used to marshal protest for habitat loss?

Kristi Streiffert
Coulee Dam, WA 99116