Every spring for decades, a colony of barn swallows has returned to the same barn at Goss Farm in Rye, New Hampshire. This spring, they came back to find the doors closed.
The Rye Conservation Commission shut the historic Goss Farm barn to the swallows in February — citing accumulated fecal matter from previous nesting seasons — and authorized alternative nesting structures to be built on the property instead. The swallows, which have no way of understanding what a nesting structure is, have been observed repeatedly attempting to re-enter the barn they have called home since before the mid-1900s.
Twenty-five to thirty breeding pairs make up this colony. These are not random birds passing through. This is a specific, established community of animals with decades of connection to one place — a colony that migrates thousands of miles each year and returns, reliably, to the same barn. Locking them out mid-nesting season does not redirect them. It destroys them.
Four Rye residents have filed a lawsuit arguing the Conservation Commission's decision will cause "irreparable damage" to the colony. They are right. The window for these birds to successfully nest this season is not infinite.
The Commission manages Goss Farm as a conservation property. Conservation means protecting what lives there — not evicting it.
Sign this petition to demand the Rye Conservation Commission immediately reopen the Goss Farm barn to the swallow colony and work with wildlife experts to find a solution that protects both the historic barn and the birds that have made it their home for generations.