I am sure that you have all heard by now that a few days ago a group of armed, domestic terrorists calling themselves ‘militia’ took over the headquarters of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in southeastern Oregon. They are doing this to protest what they see as government overreach. There are lot of reasons why I am both personally and professionally opposed to this group and their actions. But that is not what I want to discuss here right now. Instead, I want to focus on something else. The birding community.
Birders, as a whole, are wonderful, amazing, crazy people! They love the birds they see, and by extension, the rest of the natural world. They spend millions of dollars and thousands of hours each year buying equipment to go out birding, and then spend millions more dollars and thousands more hours actually looking for birds. And I am one of them. It often sounds odd when I tell people about birding or that I am a birder. I can see the looks on their faces. Their expressions say to me; ‘huh’ or ‘weird’ or ‘geek’ or ‘whatever.’ But the facts of the matter remain. Birding is one of the fastest growing activities in the country, no estimated at something 40 million people nation-wide. There are hundreds of books, magazines, newspaper articles, blogs, websites, discussion groups, and community events that focus on birds, and hundreds more each year. There are many towns that derive a large part of there annual revenue from birders, birding tours, and birding festivals. This is not a small group of fringe individuals. This is a well organized, passionate, and massive movement of people.
And that is why the people who have taken over the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge are not going to get very far. The online reaction to the Malheur situation in the birding community has been fierce! Here is an article featuring one birder’s letter on the subject. Here is one from The Portland Audubon Society. And here is the Facebook page for Restore Malheur, a group that has long had a focus on habitat restoration in the refuge and is now one of the central points for information and coordinating efforts to help. Finally, here is a wonderful article that appeared in the New York Times, and if you don’t read any of the other links I just posted, read this one.
Since Malheur is a National Wildlife Refuge, the protesters who have taken over the Malheur headquarters are denying the rights of all Americans to access and enjoy a part of the country that already belongs to them. And birders will be among the most vocal in telling these terrorists that denying rights to all Americans and endangering our natural heritage will not be taken lightly.
abirdingnaturalist 