Excerpted from: Do We Need Birds? 

(Also visit the website at SaveBelmarPark.com )

If we don’t protect viable bird habitats like Belmar Park in Lakewood, Colorado and the nearby collective tree canopy habitat at 777 S Yarrow Street, bird populations will continue to decline.

And birds provide essential benefits to all of us (including the children and grandkids) that will be diminished as birds decline in numbers.

As we lose birds, we lose their contribution to biodiversity.  As biodiversity declines, the web of life weakens and may fall apart.

The web of life is the house we live in.  If your house is on fire, would you call the fire department or wait to see how big the fire gets?

Habitat loss and degradation are key reasons for declining bird populations!
 
‘IN PUSHING OTHER SPECIES TO EXTINCTION, HUMANITY IS BUSY SAWING OFF THE LIMB ON WHICH IT PERCHES.’   Stanford ecologist Paul Ehrlich
 
Benefits birds provide include:

• Birds save us millions of dollars a year by eating pests in gardens and farms, thereby reducing the amount of pesticides needed to control these populations, and mitigating the damage pests inflict on our crops and ornamental plants.
• Birds feed on a variety of insects, rodents, and other small animals, naturally keeping those populations in check and ensuring a proper balance in their ecosystem.
• They are essential as pollinators and for seed dispersal of many plants including forest trees and native plants.
• Protection from climate change.  As bird populations decline, so does biodiversity.  And biodiversity is the strongest natural defense against climate change.
• Carcass scavenging
• Economic impact: according to the US Fish and Wildlife Service, bird watching is the fastest growing outdoor recreation in the country with over 47.8 million participants in the US.
• Birding improves people’s lives. Not only is birding a great family activity that appeals to all ages–it also provides individuals with physical and mental fitness, a sense of community, and a personal connection with nature.  

These things are increasingly important in our urbanized and technology-driven world where adults and children alike suffer from ‘Nature Deficit Disorder’ (a term coined by Richard Louv in Last Child in the Woods) whose symptoms include obesity, depression, attention deficit, and deficiencies in problem-solving and critical-thinking skills.

It may not be possible to fully anticipate the exact effects of declining bird populations but there will likely be more insects, reduced crop yields, higher food prices, fewer trees, more rodents and even more animal remains decaying outdoors.

As birds decline in numbers, entire species eventually go extinct over time.  Some are already gone.

Recent research indicates that as bird species go extinct, the remaining species may become increasingly more similar to each other and “will lose their unique characteristics and trend toward a physical “average”: a small to medium body size and a strong, short beak, like sparrows and crows have.”

“A reduced variety of bird types will most likely lead to a reduction in the variety of insects consumed, flowers pollinated, seeds dispersed and so on.”

Therefore, it is critical to protect viable habitats like Belmar Park because it may not be possible to fix or replace lost habitats at a later date.

Investments in understanding and preventing declines in populations of birds and other organisms will pay off only while there is still time to act.

The US Fish and Wildlife Service advises: “The best way to avoid habitat impacts is to avoid placing development in or near important bird habitat.”

Please try to attend and comment at the next Lakewood City Council Meeting on January 8, 2024 at 7:00pm.  

Your participation is important!

You may attend in-person or online.

https://www.lakewood.org/Government/Upcoming-City-Meetings 

Thanks to All of You,

Save Belmar Park Community Action