Maine Audubon Perspective

No Spectator Sport

Nearly 100 people came looking for polar bears recently at Gilsland Farm Audubon Center. Even more surprising is that they found them.

The bears were in photographs, of course, but that was fine with those who had come to see them. The group had come to learn about the world’s largest terrestrial
carnivores—and how they could see them for real—in advance of a Maine Audubon trip heading out in November to watch polar bears in probably the world’s best place to do so, the western shore of Canada’s Hudson Bay.

At the Audubon center that evening, talk also turned to another well-known habitat for polar bears, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Just three days earlier,
the U.S. Senate had voted by a slim majority to allow oil drilling in the refuge, a fragile and unique part of the world that is home to polar bears, caribou, grizzly
bears, wolverines, snow geese, and myriad other wildlife. Many people at the center were disappointed—angry, in fact—over the Senate’s vote. They signed cards thanking Maine senators Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe for voting consistently
against oil drilling in the refuge.

Clearly, Maine people value natural areas and the wildlife they support.

Mainers want the call of loons to always haunt our lakes, the footfalls of lynx to always grace winter’s first snow. We want to protect the seabirds we watch at the beach, and the eagles and hawks soaring overhead when we paddle Maine’s rivers.

But are we willing to pay for the work it takes to protect Maine’s outdoor heritage?

Among major threats to Maine’s wildlife are habitat loss, pollution and toxics in the environment, nonnative and
invasive species, and lack of public awareness of wildlife management needs.

Add financial problems to the list. While we don’t usually think of loons, lynx, or eagles as financially insecure Maine residents, they’re put at risk when the state
agencies that should be protecting them are not adequately funded.

For years, Maine Audubon has been fighting for sufficient funding of the state’s Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife, the agency charged with caring for and managing wildlife across Maine. Its efforts on behalf of nongame wildlife are severely hampered by its limited funding.

As Habitat goes to press, Maine Audubon is advocating strongly in support of the budget proposed this year for DIFW. If it is passed, DIFW wildlife experts will be able to work cooperatively with landowners to help them protect at-risk and endangered species. DIFW biologists will be able to conduct important surveys of Maine’s rare plants and animals. There will be funding to make protection of wetland and shoreland habitat a high priority. And DIFW staff will be able to help implement Beginning with Habitat, an award-winning collaboration among Maine agencies and organizations, including Maine Audubon, that helps communities curtail sprawl by conserving natural areas and rural landscapes and directing growth away from important wildlife habitat.

It’s a paradox that Maine’s natural resource agencies are constantly challenged to win funding for their programs and services when the wildlife they protect
contributes so much to our economy. In 2001, the latest year for which figures are available, almost 800,000 people watched wildlife in Maine. That year, outdoor recreation generated over $1 billion for Maine communities.

Soon nature-based tourism may help Maine even more. This summer, Governor Baldacci will share the findings of a current study on how Maine can expand nature-based tourism to boost economic development. The 10-month study has focused on how Maine could improve natural and recreational offerings in three regions: the western mountains around Rangeley, the highlands around Baxter State Park, and downeast Maine/Washington County. Maine Audubon
played a key role in work that initiated the study (Habitat, spring 2004), and Habitat will continue to report on it.

While wildlife watching is a spectator sport, wildlife conservation cannot be. All of us who are outdoors enthusiasts, everyone who cares about Maine’s great
natural heritage, anyone who wants children and grandchildren to know the wildlife of Maine the way he or she does—we all need to be involved, contribute to the protection of the outdoors, and support reliable funding for natural-resource agencies.

And if you need to remember why, get outside! Click here to find plenty of opportunities this spring and summer to explore Maine, from the mountains to the sea.

Kevin P. Carley, executive director