Date: Sun, 10 Nov 2002 22:28:38 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Denise Ryan Subject: Bicknell's Thrush Article - NY Times MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 I hope the Thrush wins. New York Times November 10, 2002 Tiny Bird vs. Ski Slopes, With the State in the Middle By KIRK JOHNSON ILMINGTON, N.Y., Nov. 6 =97 Across most of the big-business, big-resort ski industry, from the Tiffany-tinged aeries of Aspen to the sunny slopes of Stowe, the tale of the Bicknell's thrush would likely have a familiar ring to it. Environmentalists and resort owners would stake out the usual positions and say the usual things about bottom lines versus biodiversity, and private gain versus public good. Here at Whiteface Mountain, not far from Lake Placid, the environmental clich=E9s do not work. This ski resort is owned by the people of New York an= d operated by a state-chartered agency called the Olympic Regional Development Authority. It is one of only a handful of government-owned ski resorts in the nation. The goal is not profit, but economic development, in a remote and snowy corner of the Adirondacks where livelihoods rise and fall on the vagaries of the tourist dollar. And that has put the Bicknell's thrush at the center of some strangely conflicted agendas. One arm of New York State, through the Olympic Authority, contends that the resort must expand significantly over the next few years, offering new trails and amenities =97 including a fancy mountaintop restaurant =97 if it is to keep from faltering and falling behin= d its corporate competitors. Another mandate, expressed through state conservation law, requires New York to protect mountaintop bird nesting areas, like the fir forests where the elusive nut-brown thrush returns every spring from its winters in the Caribbean. "The state knows what it must do," said William Cooke, the director of government relations at Audubon New York. "If this comes down to a choice between improving ski area trails or protecting these birds, I don't see where the state can put in the trails, knowing that it would put birds over the edge." A spokesman for the Olympic Authority, Sandy Caligiore, said the state also knows it must continue to build up Whiteface and Gore Mountain =97 the other= ski resort it owns here in the Adirondacks =97 or lose market share, and thu= s the jobs that the State Legislature has ordered it to create. "To be competitive, we have to put money into snowmaking and grooming and all those things that bring people here," he said. The Whiteface expansion would require the removal of about 55,000 trees from the summit and slopes of Little Whiteface Mountain, a process that could begin as early as next year, pending approval by the Adirondack Park Agency, which governs development in Adirondack Park. Bird experts say that while the Bicknell's thrush is not endangered, its habitat is. In the northeastern United States, they say, acid rain hurts both the trees where the bird nests and the snails it eats. In the islands of the Caribbean, especially places like Haiti, development pressures and poverty have destroyed many of its wintering grounds. And for the Bicknell's thrush, they say, habitat is everything. Like many migratory species =97 and human visitors to the Adirondacks for that matter = =97 the birds return year after year to the same mountaintop. If the terrain is transformed, the birds might adapt and find nests elsewhere, the experts say, or they might not nest at all. The Olympic Authority's own consultants, on the other hand, say that based on research conducted in Vermont and elsewhere, thinning the trees here would in fact improve thrush habitat. Environmentalists have not expressed serious concerns about other species on Little Whiteface. But this is the storied Adirondacks, the ultimate high ground of environmentalism in New York, and that too makes everything different about the battle of the Bicknell's. Protecting the Adirondacks became state business a century ago, with a constitutional amendment that the lands here, with certain exceptions, remain forever wild. It is the nagging question of those exceptions =97 in the language that governs development at Whiteface, the "appurtenances" required for skiing =97= that define the battleground over the Bicknell's thrush. "Skiing is an anomaly in a protected forest, and that makes every exception important," said Michael G. DiNunzio, the director of research and education at the Adirondack Council, a conservation group. "I'm afraid the Bicknell's thrush could be nickel and dimed to death." Environmentalists say that fighting a state-owned ski resort can be both harder and easier than battling a private land owner. When a local conservation group called New York Rivers United questioned Whiteface officials recently about water use from the west branch of the Ausable River, for example, the group simply filed a request under the federal Freedom of Information Act. That is not something a private corporation would have to comply with. Other environmentalists say they fear that the Olympic Authority might be allowed to do things that a private company could not, precisely because of its government status. The proposed summit restaurant and lodge, for example, would be visible for miles in many directions. Private developers have mostly been barred from building anything that would spoil the wilderness effect that backpackers and nature lovers come here to seek. Mr. Cooke at Audubon New York said that he remained optimistic, because New York's bird conservation rules have tended to work well, and because he believes the state will have to follow those rules. Mr. Caligiore at the Olympic Authority said the question of impact on the Bicknell's thrush would be "revisited." Denise Ryan Washington, DC =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D =========================================================================