[TN-Bird] From the Courier-Journal...
- From: Cynthia Routledge <routledges@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: Tn Bird <tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 26 Dec 2011 11:37:23 -0600
GOOD READ FROM THE COURIER-JOURNAL...AND A NEW PLACE TO VISIT TO BIRD!!
Cyndi Routledge
Clarksville, TN
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Promote eco-tourism
While Kentucky hunters are shooting sandhill cranes, our neighboring states,
Illinois and Missouri, are celebrating the opening of a nature center in West
Alton, Ill. As the centerpiece of the Riverlands Migratory Bird Sanctuary, the
new Audubon Center at Riverlands is situated on the Mississippi flyway near the
confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers.
Local officials are predicting significant economic benefits for the
surrounding area. According to an article in the Oct. 7, 2011, issue of the St.
Louis Post-Dispatch, the optimistic projections are based on “a 2006 survey by
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which said that 48 million Americans
identify themselves as birders, and they generate $36 billion in spending.
Twenty million of them say they will travel to view birds; 77 percent of those
who travel observe waterfowl.”
The director for the Alton Regional Convention and Visitors Bureau told the
newspaper, “In January and February alone this year, about 22,000 people
attended eagle watching tours and events, which resulted in an economic impact
of $1.6 million.” The director of the Missouri Division of Tourism said,
“315,000 people — about 9 percent of Missouri tourists last year — came to
enjoy nature activities.” Both directors view the new center as a must-see
destination for eco-tourists.
The center is one of seven projects which have been developed adjacent to the
convergence of the rivers in the past 10 years to encourage the rising interest
in nature tourism. According to the chief of public affairs for the Army Corps
of Engineers, “That’s good for a couple of reasons: We have the benefit of
preserving nature and connecting people to it, but it’s also good for the
economy.”
I plan to visit the new center in Illinois soon. I expect fellow nature
enthusiasts from Kentucky and the rest of the country to be going there, too.
Wake up, Kentucky. We are losing more than several hundred magnificent birds.
CAROL A. McALLISTER
Prospect, Ky. 40059 –
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( \
/ |` Cyndi
"When one tugs at a single thing in Nature,
he finds it attached to the rest of the world."
~John Muir
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