To the editor:
One of America's rarest songbirds is the Adirondacks' own Bicknell's thrush, which is being considered for endangered species status by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, according to Mary Esch's AP article (Aug. 14 Enterprise). The secretive bird stays high in the mountains, breeding in the Northeast and wintering in the Dominican Republic and Haiti (Hispaniola). Conservation efforts are important now, especially on Hispaniola, before habitat loss pushes risk of extinction any closer to reality.
The Nature Conservancy's Adirondack Chapter, Adirondack Council, Audubon New York, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Vermont Center for Ecostudies and the Wildlife Conservation Society joined with three state agencies - Olympic Regional Development Authority, Department of Environmental Conservation and Adirondack Park Agency - to mitigate the environmental impacts of ski trail expansion above 2,800 feet on Whiteface in 2006. A year later, the group created a fund for habitat protection on Hispaniola that will help ensure a reliable winter home for Bicknell's thrush.
That fund, the Bicknell's Thrush Habitat Protection Fund at the Adirondack Community Trust - P.O. Box 288, Lake Placid, NY, 12946, www.generousact.org - is open and welcomes contributions. Gifts are tax deductible to the full extent of the law.
Sincerely,
Cali Brooks
Executive director
Adirondack Community Trust
Lake Placid