Dearest Tweeters and Obolonians: this just came zinging across the wire,
fyi.

Tom Love
tlove at linfield.edu



From: Roger Pasquier at EDF on 01/06/98 01:06 PM

Subject: # 9: MURRELETS: BIOLOGISTS MAY MISS LARGE NUMBER OF BIRDS


---------------------- Forwarded by Roger Pasquier on 01/06/98 01:06 PM
---------------------------

From: Amy Farrell on 01/06/98 11:09 AM EST

To: Roger Pasquier, Michael Bean, Robert Bonnie, David Wilcove, Rod
Fujita, Margaret McMillan
cc:
Subject: # 9: MURRELETS: BIOLOGISTS MAY MISS LARGE NUMBER OF BIRDS


---------------------- Forwarded by Amy Farrell on 01/06/98 11:09 AM
---------------------------
Tuesday, 01/06/98
G R E E N W I R E
# 9: MURRELETS: BIOLOGISTS MAY MISS LARGE NUMBER OF BIRDS

A U. of Washington biologist who used radar instead
of
eyesight to detect marbled murrelets in forest tracts
says field
observers are missing 90% of the endangered birds.
Brian Cooper's findings "suggest that if huge
numbers are
being missed, then nest sites are being logged in
violation of"
the federal Endangered Species Act. His research,
however, does
not suggest there are more birds than biologists
thought.
Rather, his data point to a large difference between the
number
of murrelets counted at sea, where they are easily
spotted, and
those counted in forests.
Some in the timber industry say the research "could
prove
costly to commercial landowners." Washington state in
8/97
passed a regulation identifying the type of forest
habitat in
which murrelets are most likely to build nests and
requiring
timber firms to conduct bird surveys of such forest
stands and to
protect the habitat (AP/mult., 1/5).





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