A century of shorebirds - public participation and conservation science

摘要

As Wader Study Group Bulletin readers and contributors will be aware, Delaware Bay in the NE United States has been a site of extensive shorebird study for over two decades, as well as the locus of a heated political debate over the effects of horseshoe crab Limulus polyphemus harvest on shorebird populations - the rufa subspecies of Red Knot Calidris canutus getting much of the attention. The expertise informing this debate is part of a longer history of science and policy concerning the conservation of shorebirds and other migratory wildlife in North America. Following Peter Alagona's suggestion that professional history and biology can mutually benefit each other (Alagona 2004), this essay presents a partial synopsis of shorebird study and conservation in North America, drawing attention to the legal and institutional contexts that have surrounded these birds over the last century or so. At the turn of the twentieth century, and again at the turn of the twenty-first, shorebirds like the Red Knot have found themselves embroiled in environmental crises. In both cases, fears of extinction prompted study of, and intervention in, animal populations by wildlife agencies in the U.S. and Canada. Separated by nearly a century, however, the particular forms of these interventions were shaped by the institutional homes and mandates of the wildlife biologists involved. Spanning the ebb and flow of shorebird science and conservation, however, has been enthusiastic volunteer involvement in field ornithology (bird counts, banding, etc.). The essay concludes, therefore, with some reflections on the value of encouraging and maintaining public participation in shorebird science.