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NEIGHBORHOOD'S LOOKING UP: Conservation efforts vital to protecting important bird habitat
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BY TRAVIS BARRETT Kennebec Journal & Morning Sentinel 07/06/2008

LITCHFIELD -- Jeff Wells walks along a trail at the Webber-Rogers Farmstead Conservation Area, literally a stone's throw from his house, as if he's never been here before. A bend in the woodsy trail takes him to the crest of a ridge and he stops.

He listens.

"Hear that?" he asks. "There's a red-eyed vireo, an ovenbird and a (eastern wood) peewee. When you've got those, you've got all the signs of a classic eastern deciduous forest. And maybe a scarlet tanager, too."

The Webber-Rogers Farmstead Conservation Area -- a working farm for hundreds of years which is still home to a vineyard -- has more than 115 acres of that classic forest Wells talked about, with a stream and open hay fields on its edges. Wells sees the property as a neighborhood fit for all of the birds who venture into our own backyards on occasion, ones that flit about our own dooryard feeders.

"These kinds of birds that are most common in the forest, they won't occur in fragments of land," Wells said. "They'll only occur in very large blocks of habitat. They avoid (clearings) for various reasons, or they are driven out by factors like lack of neighborhoods or nest predators."

And that fragmentation is hurrying its way toward central Maine, according to a recent U.S. Forest Service report.

It's not exactly classified information that the strip of land running along Maine's coast, from Kittery all the way north past Bar Harbor, is among the most popular for development in the state. But the Forest Service's research puts into perspective just how coveted that area is for developers -- suggesting this area of Maine is projected to see some of the highest levels of new housing and business developments in the entire country.

And as parking lots, houses and giant storefronts are built, another segment of our population is hit exceptionally hard.

For every house people build, it's another home lost to birds.

"It happens so slowly in a way, with a house here or a house there," said Wells, the lead scientist for the Boreal Songbird Initiative, one of the nation's leading bird experts who lives in Gardiner. "Even if you haven't been somewhere in a few years, you can drive by and look at a mall and say, 'I remember when there was a big field there.'

"We wonder why we'll stop seeing them in our yards but then when we look at how their habitat is being fragmented, it's really quite obvious," Wells said.

Welcome to Vassalboro

Bright midday sunshine creates a stark, majestic silhouette. Nearly a dozen great blue herons perched in nests some 50 feet high over the bog create an image one thinks only exists in postcards from exotic locations.

Vassalboro, however, isn't the Caribbean or the Mediterranean, but the neighborhood sure is nice.

For the herons.

"Habitat is simply the bottom line for everything I care about," said Elizabeth Davidson, a spark plug of a Boston native who donated the Davidson Nature Preserve to the Kennebec Land Trust in 2005.

The preserve is home to wild blueberry fields, walking paths and the heron rookery. Part of the rookery is on the Davidson property, part is on land owned by Mark Brown's family of foresters. Beaver dams have wadded up the water flow, leaving the bog's character Davidson loves so much but flooding out the trees Brown finds value in.

Most of the heron nests are actually on Brown's property. Through an "ongoing compromise," according to KLT stewardship director Theresa Kerchner, Brown and Davidson continue to work out the particulars of what can be forested and what should remain wetland. Thus, their cooperation protects the heron rookery.

The neighborhood is nice.

"My neighbor is a forester who cares about the environment," Davidson said. "What's better than that? I mean, really, what is better than that?"

Colby College student Andy McEvoy is spending this summer in Vassalboro, monitoring bird populations at Davidson and at the Vassalboro Wildlife Habitat, another Kennebec Land Trust holding. There's no question in his mind that these protected areas are needed.

"Obviously, it's really important," McEvoy said. "It's a lot of secondary growth here. It's been forested and what not, so that opens it up to all sorts of birds. There are a lot of birds out there too -- it's very noisy in the mornings."

 

A conservative approach

Jeff Wells works with different conservation groups in central Maine, including the Kennebec Land Trust and the Boothbay Area Land Trust. His reasoning is simple.

"We think of (development) as happening somewhere else, but it's here," Wells said. "These kind of projects are kind of critical to maintaining wildlife neighborhoods within our own neighborhoods so they can survive."

As he talks, he watches with interest a pair of nearby bobolinks -- migratory birds which build nests in Maine's grassy fields during the spring -- wondering if the neighborhood is sufficient for supporting more than a few of the birds. Near the sign marking the entrance of the Webber-Rogers Conservation Area, Wells sees more of the bobolinks, striking birds with yellow and white markings on their backs.

He sighs, relieved. This neighborhood seems to be thriving, with so many different species of woodpeckers, warblers, hawks and others.

"The largest birds tend to need the largest spaces," Wells said. "There are dozens of ovenbirds (at Webber-Rogers) and red-eyed vireos, a couple pairs of broad-winged hawks. Those things can only occur where there's a bigger chunk of unfragmented forest.

"So, it's great to see that there. It's definitely a place worth checking out again."

Travis Barrett -- 621-5648

tbarrett@centralmaine.com

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