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TOM WHEELER:

Welcome to the Econews Report. I'm your host this week, Tom Wheeler, Executive Director of EPIC, the Environmental Protection and Information Center. Joining me is my colleague and coworker, Matt Simmons, Staff Attorney at EPIC. Hey Matt.

MATT SIMMONS:

Hey, Tom.

WHEELER:

And also joining us is co host and executive director of Humboldt Baykeeper, Jen Kalt. Hey, Jen.

And we are joined by local bird nerd Ken Burton. Hey, Ken. We're talking about local bird news, in particular, the upcoming Godwit Days Festival, our favorite annual celebration of birds here on the North Coast. So we're going to talk about a lot of bird related topics for the show. Ken, do you want to give kind of the broad overview of Godwit Days this year, and then we can go into some of the things that we're all looking forward to, some of the different panels and whatnot that that are exciting us? Well, the first thing is that we're going to talk about the bird season.

KEN BURTON:

Godwit Days Spring Migration Bird Festival was, before COVID, an annual event. And this will be the first time since 2019 that it's been held full on in person the way it used to be. And we're all pretty excited about that. For the listeners who forgot what it was all about, it's a weekend plus. So like four days of bird-related events. I think there are 73 events on the schedule. They go all over the county and some beyond to Del Norte County, possibly Trinity, I'm not sure. There are also lectures and presentations at the Arcata Community Center, which is where all of it's based. Lots of booths and tables set up by vendors and local conservation-oriented nonprofit organizations. So it's just like four full days devoted to birds and a few other aspects of local natural history as well. So we hope that offers something.

JEN KALT:

Before we get too far, we should say that this is April 13th to 16th, mostly on the weekends. Those are the dates. Yeah.

BURTON:

That's Thursday to Sunday.

WHEELER:

This is a huge affair. As you said, there are just dozens and dozens and dozens of workshops and talks and birding trips. Who puts on Godwit Days? Because this is obviously a very significant amount of labor to get this all together.

BURTON:

It is. Godwit Days itself is a registered nonprofit organization, so it is primarily independent, but other organizations support the effort. This year in particular, the local Audubon Society chapter, Redwood Region Audubon Society, is playing a large supportive role.

WHEELER:

And so Jen, I know that you have some workshops that you are particularly excited about. What are you looking forward to at this year's Godwit Days?

KALT:

Well, the really exciting thing, which is actually full, it looks like, is that these will be the first field trips looking for condors, because the California condors were first released in the Bald Hills area since the last Godwit days. On Friday night, there's going to be a free lecture by two of the condor experts from the Yurok tribe. So that's always really exciting. I mean, you know, the release and reintroduction of the condors here is super exciting. There's also a kids free art day, which is really cool. I think this is the first time they're doing that. Usually I don't know, I'm guessing that this will be happening again is usually the wildlife care center brings in some raptors. So you can go in and check out live raptors and sometimes people go in there and paint or draw them and it's really, it's really special to be able to see those birds.

WHEELER:

Have the first Godwit Days since the release of California Condors. That's pretty exciting. Ken, have you been able to see California Condors, our local population yet? As our resident bird nerd?

BURTON:

Actually, no, I have not. I haven't put a whole lot of effort into it. I haven't been fortunate enough to see any of the birds when I have been out in the area. But it seems that they're becoming somewhat easier to see. There are more of them now since the second release. They're, I think, moving around some but within a more prescribed area. So I think the chances of seeing them if you're out looking for them and the weather conditions are good, I think, is pretty high. But of course, there are never any guarantees on these things. The release facility itself is completely off limits to the public. So that's the surest way to see them unless you're actually working on the project. It's off the table.

WHEELER:

Well, there are webcams available for the release facility, which I really recommend going to. You can find a link to those webcams in the show notes on the Last Coast Outpost. There is a whole community of folks who I think just sit at home and watch the webcams basically all day because there's like an active chat going on and people will update when a bird comes and goes. So there's a very vibrant online community of folks who are terribly excited about these condors. I'm going to pass this question to Jen. Jen, do you have anything at this year's Godwit Days that is particularly exciting to you?

BURTON:

Well, there are a bunch of new field trips, you know, trying out things that haven't been offered before. And I'm actually going to be co-leading one on Sunday that's visiting a bunch of local habitat restoration projects. And we're going to be meeting with the local restoration team members at those sites, talking about, about the restoration programs, about the benefits to birds and other wildlife. A lot of these efforts are actually more fish driven than bird driven. You know, they're going to benefit the entire, the entire suite of organisms in those habitats, which are primarily intertidal estuarine habitats. Very important.

WHEELER:

Cool. I think a lot of people are probably in the boat that I'm in, which is I always hear about birding. I'm friends with birders, but I've never really been birding myself. It's like the spring and what people should be looking for if they're to go out at this time of year. What's really exciting to the birding community right now? What are we anticipating to see out in the wild?

BURTON:

Well, it's no accident that Godwit Days occurs in April. It is spring migration kind of at its peak. April is one of the highest bird diversity months in the region. So we've still got some winter birds that haven't left yet. There's waterfowl and shorebirds around. The shorebird migration peaks in April. A lot of those birds are already in their breeding plumage, so they're looking much more spectacular than they have through the winter. That's really fun to see. And Humboldt Bay is really, really amazing and important location for shorebirds. It's an internationally recognized site of importance for shorebird conservation. It's part of the Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network. You know, certain species and populations of shorebirds that are absolutely dependent on Humboldt Bay for their continued survival. We can have easily over half a million shorebirds here at any given time during certain parts of April. It's really practical.

WHEELER:

I've heard that we are part of something called the Pacific Flyway. Can you explain the regional importance or the connectivity importance of our area for migratory birds?

BURTON:

Yeah, so this flyway concept was developed in the 20th century, primarily around waterfowl and to manage waterfowl as game birds. But it applies pretty well to other groups of birds too. With shorebirds in particular, they migrate, a lot of them migrate up and down the Pacific coast. And you know, they're not called shorebirds for nothing, although they don't spend their entire lives on shorelines. They do spend most of their time in coastal environments. And there are habitats that are important to them, are not distributed equally across the coastline. They're quite patchy and usually in estuaries such as Humboldt Bay, which isn't really even a bay, it's a lagoon. So they, these migrating birds have key stopover locations that they absolutely depend on. They have evolved their migration to utilize these key sites where they spend some time to refuel and rest before moving on to the next stage of their journey. Humboldt Bay is absolutely one of the most important of those stopover sites. And we're, you know, we're just really blessed to have that right there on our doorstep. It's, well, it's an amazing resource and let's do everything we can to keep it healthy.

WHEELER:

Jen, any additional thoughts on Humble Bay since you are a designated defender?

KALT:

Ken mentioned the fact that a lot of restoration projects in the area are focused on restoring salmonid habitat, but of course, you know, the whole reason we have the Endangered Species Act and we protect individual species is to protect the habitat and the ecosystem as a whole. It's not just about one fish or, you know, a few different species of fish. So, another one of the new projects since Godwit Days happened last time in 2019 is at the end of School Road in McKinleyville on the Mad River Estuary. That project is also focused on restoring salmon habitat, coho salmon habitat in particular, but it's in a riparian area in a tidal estuary. So, there's all kinds of benefits for birds and the insects that the birds rely on that are all reliant on the plants that are being restored as part of the project as well. So, it's all big picture and, you know, the birds and the fish and the plants are all connected, obviously, in so many different ways.

BURTON:

And that is one of the sites that we'll be visiting on the Godwit Days trip. And I just looked, there are a couple of spaces still open on that trip.

WHEELER:

So to get into somewhat kind of controversial territory, you know, we've just been talking about the importance of Humboldt Bay, this region for shorebirds, for pelagic birds. We also have proposed offshore wind turbines in our area. And Jen, I know a report just came out from Audubon about the potential compatibility of offshore wind and what to do about potential impacts to bird communities. So first, do you want to just kind of again situate what we're talking about when we're talking about offshore wind and then get into what Audubon's perspective is on how to balance the need for renewable energy versus impacts to individual birds?

KALT:

Sure, well, as most people probably are aware, the Humboldt Bay area is going to be the focus of one of the first offshore wind projects on the west coast of North America, along with Morro Bay. The project here involves lease areas that have been auctioned off between 21 and 29 miles offshore west of Humboldt Bay. So a lot of us are reading up and studying and thinking about the potential direct impacts to all kinds of wildlife and people and how to best lessen or avoid those impacts. But Audubon just came out recently with an article talking about the importance of not just thinking about the direct impacts to individual birds, but the bigger picture of where those birds are breeding and what sort of impacts are happening in their breeding colonies. And many of the seabirds nest in areas that are low-lying islands that are very, very vulnerable to sea level rise. And so the article talks about the importance of, of course, slowing down climate change and sea level rise by shifting away from fossil fuels, but also as mitigation for the impacts to what should be, from all accounts so far, what we know, far fewer impacts to individual birds than a terrestrial wind project, because it is so far offshore. Instead of impacting those direct impacts on a few birds, put the mitigation funding into restoring breeding colonies in these vulnerable islands.

WHEELER:

So this is the idea of compensatory mitigation. So we will compensate for impacts to individuals over here by doing improvements to habitat elsewhere. And in theory, we will be able to have almost a positive impact from the result of these projects because we're going to do such habitat improvements that the demographic change in birds, we can anticipate that we'll have more birds as a result of this project in some sense.

KALT:

Right, benefiting the species as a whole rather than just the few that might be impacted here.

BURTON:

I think that's always the goal with these mitigation projects, that you're not just offsetting the damage, but actually trying to wind up with a net benefit.

SIMMONS:

I just want to hone in on what Jen talked about, the climate impacts to these birds, right? Because it's not just rising sea levels impacting habitat. It's also warming sea levels, changing where fish are located. It's changing airstreams as the climate changes. The number of impacts from climate change on these birds are going to be, they're more than we can even imagine right now. And I think focusing on the benefits of projects that reduce our reliance on fossil fuels is really important because when you don't think about those benefits, you're missing a huge part of the equation when making a decision about how these projects will impact species. That's not to say that we don't do everything we can to mitigate like you're talking about, but it's just such an important part of the equation.

WHEELER:

And we are still learning a lot about this offshore wind area. I think it is somewhat fair to say that the offshore environment is one of the most poorly studied of our ecosystems. We know a lot about what goes on on land. We still don't know very much, but we know a lot more about what goes on on land. We know a good deal about near shore environments, but when you get 20 miles offshore, it is relatively poorly studied. So I think there is another potential benefit in these projects that we will have a lot of funding directed towards understanding how birds utilize these offshore wind areas. And also just a note that this is a completely new and novel technology here in the Pacific. We have some floating offshore wind on the Atlantic in Europe. There are three active projects. We have fixed bottom wind, which is far closer to shore on the Atlantic. We have never done this on the West Coast. So there is a degree to which this is kind of an open and active experiment. At the EcoNews, we are talking birds with Ken Burton, our local bird nerd. And so data collection as a result of this project is going to be huge, both before the project goes in, as well as data collection during the projects. And something that I think Jen and I have been really interested in is ensuring that we have good, open, and transparent portals for that data sharing so that the public, bird researchers, can see real time. It might trigger kind of red or yellow lights, might trigger alarms for us, but then we have the data to trigger that. We have potential for feedback mechanisms to change projects, to reduce avoidable harms from these projects. So that's something that I believe EPIC as an environmental stakeholder, that Baykeeper as an environmental stakeholder, that we've been pushing. And we are talking to some of these offshore wind developers about, as we speak.

BURTON:

And maybe it's worth just touching on what exactly these expected impacts are. As I see them, they fall into two main categories with birds and with other wildlife as well. There's direct collision mortality, and then there's displacement. They're two very different types of impacts, but I think they're both really important to consider. And I'm not an expert in wind technology myself, but I think that the best solution resolves into figuring out the optimum spacing of these turbines so that maybe they're not so dense that they completely exclude wildlife from an entire area, and yet they're significant enough that they're noticeable and that the animals are not going to collide with them. I think there's an optimum spacing there. We just don't really know what that is.

WHEELER:

So I just wanted to further clarify, I think the idea of bird collisions, bird strikes, that's one that a lot of people are familiar with, because that's been kind of the large media narrative about wind turbines, both onshore and offshore, is the risk of birds colliding with one of the spinning turbines. Displacement, when we're talking about that, it's what Ken was saying, it's birds potentially no longer utilizing an area that they once had for feeding or for movement or for any other kind of vital life function. So that's a section of the ocean and it's becoming kind of off limits to birds. That's likely going to have an impact to bird population. So it's a really important thing for us to learn about when it comes to offshore wind.

BURTON:

If we can find a windy area that doesn't seem to be used much by birds, then that's the optimal thing. But, you know, my experience out there on the ocean is that areas that can be just teeming with life one day can be just completely dead the next. It's a very unpredictable environment. As the ocean and wind conditions change and food resources move around, it's much more dynamic than land-based environments. All right.

WHEELER:

Any closing thoughts on offshore wind from you?

BURTON:

Well, I'm just going to echo Jen's comment that we need to look big picture here and do everything possible to slow down climate change. And some animals are going to die in the process, but I think that is a sacrifice that we have to be prepared to make and for the greater good of those species. And that is the prime consideration, and we can't afford to be nimby about these things.

WHEELER:

Well Ken, I really appreciate you saying that because I feel like I've gotten kind of a reputation as a pro-wind apologist. And so for local bird nerd Ken Burton to share my opinion makes me feel pretty good. So yeah, there's that.

SIMMONS:

All right. So I had another thought before we move on. And this actually ties back to the first part of our conversation, but I think ties in with offshore wind. So we've talked a lot about data collection, right? And I think now more than ever, it's possible for regular, everyday people to conduct data collection. There's an app called iNaturalist. That's if people aren't familiar with it, you just take a photo of a bird or animal or fish, and you can upload it to the app. And you kind of take your best shot at guessing what the species is. But then a whole bunch of other people see your post and tell you whether you were right or wrong. And as someone who's also a pretty new birder, I have found iNaturalist to make the experience a lot more sort of fun and engaging, right? Because it adds a little bit of certainty to it that I think back in the old days where you just had your book and you were sort of like, I think that looks like this kind of bird, that it was harder for me to get into when it was sort of more of a solo experience. But iNaturalist has made it a bit more of a community feel. I'll also say just for anyone in my generation who ever grew up playing Pokemon, it feels exactly like that, where you're collecting species and sightings. And so just a pitch for people who haven't done birding before but have played games like Pokemon or anything like that where you're out there collecting something, it's the real world version of that that you get to do right here in your community.

WHEELER:

That's problematic than Pokemon because we're not capturing these wild animals and storing them in Pokemon.

SIMMONS:

Hopefully not. Hopefully that's not what anyone is doing. But I bring this up because the other great thing about iNaturalist is that it actually does provide data to local scientists about what is out there. And not just for offshore wind, but for about everything. Like those sorts of sightings can have real impacts on environmental decision making. And so if you want to feel like you're both enjoying a day out birding and also, you know, conducting science as a community member, it's a great way to get started. And you know, Gawa Days is an opportunity to do this, but you can also do it 365 days a year. And I highly recommend it. Yeah, I...

WHEELER:

Well, I want to emphasize that it's been really useful for organizations like EPIC when we're doing project-based environmental review to go to iNaturalist and look at what has been reported in the area. There are other databases that the state often relies on that don't kind of capture all of this citizen-generated data. And so if we're only going off of, you know, the California Native Diversity Database, we're only getting a fraction of the picture of what life is actually out there. So it's been very useful for EPIC in doing our work. So please, iNaturalist, go use it.

KALT:

A really good one is called the Merlin app. And I love using this because I'm, I try to learn bird songs, but birding by ear is a really, you have to work hard at birding by ear. There are a few workshops at Godwit Days, but you know, that just brings up the fact that the Audubon Society has been around for what, a century Ken? And they're like kind of the originators of this idea of community-based science and gathering, you know, of just regular people who love birds going out and documenting them, whether it's the Christmas bird count or their life lists, or there's also something called the eBird where birders track all the birds they see. But can you talk a little bit about that, Ken, in the history of the Audubon Society?

BURTON:

Yeah, sure. And maybe we want to get into the issues about the whole name Audubon, although I know we're running out of time. So the National Audubon Society actually started in response to the millinery trade. Bird plumes, bird feathers, especially egret breeding plumes were very fashionable on ladies' hats in the late 1800s and early 1900s. And so entire populations of these birds were being wiped out on the breeding grounds to obtain these feathers. It was just absolutely brutal. And so the Audubon Society formed as a way to bring the public's attention to the issue and it did result in a halt to that practice. And since then, it's grown to a nationwide organization made up of local chapters. And it's inarguably the best known national bird-related organization out there. We have close to 600 local members in our chapter. But as with many other noted figures, it has turned out that Audubon himself, John James Audubon, was less than savory character in many ways. Aside from the fact that his ornithological and business scruples were not always what we would hope for. In fact, it seems that he made up some birds in order to sell more copies of his book. He was born into a slave-owning family. He was a slave owner himself. He was quite racist in his attitudes towards Blacks and Native Americans. And the more we learn about him, the less admirable he becomes. And so part of this movement to do away with honoring people like that, there's been a push to change the name of the Audubon Society. And the National Audubon Society recently decided not to do so. Their decision was that the Audubon mission transcends any single person. And that name is just so identified now with bird conservation that their goal is to further that process while not ignoring the problematic aspects of the namesake. Certain Audubon chapters have opted for a different approach and have changed their names. The New York chapter, the Seattle chapter, I think the Washington chapter. And I don't know what our local chapter is going to wind up doing. But I think that I am on board with National's decision on this and that changing the name of such a well-known organization at this point is just going to muddy the waters.

WHEELER:

I do appreciate the conversation that this is kind of forced within the Audubon community and the kind of larger conversation that we've been having within the environmental community about some of our problematic pasts, whether it's Save the Redwoods League and its kind of ties to eugenics or it's John Muir's problematic writings about Indigenous people. We have a lot to kind of grapple with as a historically white-dominated field. So I think the conversations that we're having are wonderful and I think regardless of where people come down on the issue, I think having the conversation is fantastic.

BURTON:

There's actually been a push to eliminate all honorifics from all bird names, change the name of any bird that's named after anybody to some other type of name. For example, changing Wilson's warbler to Black-crowned warbler or something like that. I don't know of anything negative that's been dug up about Wilson. He's just kind of getting caught up in the swell here. I learn so much about reading the biographies of the people after whom these birds are named for better or worse. I learn about history. I'm not going to learn anything from Black-crowned warbler. I can look at the bird and know that it has a black crown. In fact, females don't have black crowns. I think if we change Wilson's warbler to Black-crowned warbler, then we're being sexist instead of whatever else we might be being. I think it's a slippery slope and we should tread very carefully.

WHEELER:

Well, so we're just about out of time ... unless, Matt, you have a thought you're dying to

SIMMONS:

I have a closing thought on that and I really do appreciate, you know, what you were saying about learning the history I just for my own part. I know that the children's biography of John Muir that I read as a kid Didn't give me the full history, right? and and I think a lot of the times when we have histories of these figures they evade or Decide not to disclose Like the true the true beliefs and impacts of a lot of what they did And so something that I've always thought is that you know, maybe it's not so much about changing the name as much as it's about Being honest about the past and and like really looking at squarely in the mirror and I think having the conversation is healthy right and like and and and Getting all that out there in the open and then making a decision sort of as a community is healthy and that if anyone If any name or any person is sort of like totally off the table and you say oh we can't talk about that They're like they're too important. That's a problem But also, you know totally trying to erase that history and not talk about it is also a problem and so you've got it you got to sort of look these things in the Squarely in the face and say okay, that's that's part of who we are. How do we how do we deal with that? Yeah. Yeah

WHEELER:

Well, this is another fascinating topic probably for a longer discussion on a future Econews, which is confronting our problematic past. So well, you'll hear that on a future Econews, I guess, because we are out of time. Thank you, Ken Burton, for joining the show and I look forward to seeing you at the upcoming Godwit Days. Ken, where can people find more information about Godwit Days?

BURTON:

Godwitdays.org.

WHEELER:

Godwitdays.org. All right. Join us again on this time and channel for more environmental news from the North Coast of California.