As predicted, last night southerly winds (finally) ushered in the arrival of some migrants this morning. As I birded Hedgehog Mountain Park and Florida Lake Parks, I encountered numerous large flocks of American Robins, scattered flocks of Dark-eyed Juncos, and my first Hermit Thrush of the season. And, here at the store, a Fox Sparrow has arrived under our feeders. Spring (migrants) is here!

Many of the migrants – such as most of the Dark-eyed Juncos that I saw today – are on their way north to breed in Canada’s Boreal Forest. And timely enough, this was the topic of the presentation by Jeff Wells, Senior Scientist of the Boreal Songbird Initiative, hosted by Merrymeeting Audubon last night in Brunswick.

It was a very good presentation, full of both awe-inspiring images of Jeff’s visit to the Northwest Territories last summer as well as sobering statistics and images of the decline of many Boreal breeding birds. Covering 1.5 billion acres between Alaska to Newfoundland, the Boreal Forest of North America is the largest remaining forest in the Western Hemisphere and in fact it has about 25% of the world’s remaining intact forest! Nearly half of the species that breed in North America have at least a portion of their population breeding in the Boreal. This includes 50% or more of the entire breeding populations of at least 96 species, including over 80% of the breeding population on 35 species, including such favorites as Surf Scoters, Great Gray Owls, Bohemian Waxwings, Cape May Warblers, and Dark-eyed Juncos.

But, despite the vastness of this region, all is not well. Industrial logging, mineral and oil exploration and development, and climate change are the biggest threats to what has been deemed “North America’s Bird Nursery.” However, this presentation did not just dwell on the negative. Since there is still a lot f good, healthy, virgin Boreal Forest still around we can act proactively and protect this vast forest while it is still a vast forest.

Jeff gave a number of suggestions as to how we can help: recycle paper, eliminate unnecessary paper waste (i.e. junk mail), purchase recycled paper products, purchase sustainability-certified lumber. The Natural Resource Defense Council has a handy chart for purchasing “greener” household paper products.

One thing we can ALL do RIGHT NOW is to reduce how much junk mail we get. Over 80% of forest products from the Boreal goes to the United States and much of that ends up as catalogs and junk mail! What a waste of warbler woods! For months now – we don’t know why it took us this long to start – Jeannette and I have significantly reduced the amount of junk that clogs our mailbox. We call each an every unrequested catalogue that we received and request to be removed from the company’s mailing list. Most have toll-free numbers, most make the process very easy, and it works – less trees being wasted on a catalogue I will never open! What if we all did this?