Thanks for the information, Ned. My faxes will go out today if I can calm
down enough to write them.
Other arguments that can be made against this action:
1) Our presence on the CBBT has a genuine and ongoing scientific value.
The citizen science aspect of ebird is that we are the eyes and ears of
the scientists. Those are real ornithologists doing real science with the
data we provide. (The 13,000 Scoters last winter and the Magnificent
Frigatebird documented by a birder on the CBBT in May come to mind.)
Closing the islands will eliminate a good source of data, maybe an
exceptionally good source.
2) Those islands are unique birding locations that aren't duplicated by
anything else, as far as I know. Access to the islands is essential if
those birds are going to be documented because very few birders will get
out there by boat.
I think it is legitimate to make this arguement as if most birds are
reported to ebird, even though in fact they aren't. The reporting can
improve, but if access to the birds is lost then no data will ever be
obtained or reported.
I hope news of this crisis gets into the national birding network and we
get support from the whole country. Losing our freedom in small steps like
this is hard to stomach, with such microscopically small justification for
it.
John Fox
Arlington
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