One of the most heroic things I've seen recently is one little town in northern Michigan that kept a bird from going extinct.
The town is Mio, population of about 1800. The bird is the Kirtland's warbler, a small gray-and-yellow songbird that breeds in exactly one kind of habitat, mostly in a single corner of Michigan.
In 1974, the entire global population dropped to 167 singing males. The bird was one of the first species listed under the original 1966 Endangered Species Preservation Act, and it looked like the species was going to be extinct within a generation.
The problem was the habitat. Kirtland's warblers need fire-disturbed jack pine. Their entire breeding range is one specific successional stage of a fire-adapted forest. Decades of fire suppression had let the jack pine grow up past the age the birds could use. The birds had nowhere left to nest.
Mio became the staging point for the recovery. They built a forest management program: clear-cut, replant, burn, repeat. About 76,000 hectares are now managed on roughly six-year rotations to keep a continuous supply of young pine in the bird's preferred age range.
The work has paid off with the total population estimated at over 4,500 birds. The Kirtland's warbler was removed from the endangered species list in 2019, a rare full delisting.
The bird still requires active management. If the work stopped, the jack pine would age out within 20 years and the species would collapse again.
@Spence25S@giveashitnature Yeah, all those robins that live in our small town neighborhood in Michigan are only playing in the snow during the winter while living in little tree igloos!!!
@RandallGoins1@Cultaholic I don't want to speak for any of the people you listed but one sticks out and it would be interesting to see them working together to take on that spear.
@TheJimCornette about about this special little old lady demographic from back in the day. I said Cornette probably has a story or three we could find.
I will have to show her this as well. Thank you for sharing!
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@TheJimCornette My father passed away just over a year ago on April 7th. Since then I have gotten my mom into wrasslin'. She even listens to segments of your shows from time to time now which makes me smile as I type this. We appreciate the chuckles.
Anywho, I was just telling her...
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Happy Easter to all who celebrate.
And to those who don't maybe have a piece of chocolate.
And if you don't like chocolate then have an apple maybe.
And if you don't like apples maybe pet your cat.
And if you don't like cats then most likely your dog is staring at you.
Maybe say something sweet to it.
And if you don't have a dog.
Get one.
Or just go back on Instagram and forgot everything i just said.
Happy Something or other to all.
An overlooked, inspirational story from earlier today:
At the Phillips 66 U.S. National Championships at the Texas Swimming Center in Austin, 15-year-old Michael Phelps broke a world record in the men's 200M butterfly event with a time of 1:54.92.
This astounding accomplishment makes Phelps the youngest swimming world record holder and the first man to achieve under 1:55.00 in the 200M Fly.
A massive 12-ton shipment of Nestle's crunch KitKat bars was stolen in a chocolaty heist that risks causing a shortage in stores right before Easter. https://t.co/lY76zzhwIe