Date: Wed, 5 Mar 2003 22:13:14 EST Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Steve Huy Subject: Re: Blackwater Tree Planting MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit In a message dated 03/05/03 18:53:14 Eastern Standard Time, jandkcoleman@EROLS.COM writes: > In fact, grassland and shrub-land in eastern North America have declined by > more than 98 percent since the 1950 's "(Noss, Laroe and Scott, Biological > Report 28, National Biological Service, Washington DC, 1995). In fact, > grasslands are prob. the most endangered wildlife habitat in the east and > the drastic declines in grassland birds are excellent proof of that. > But were those grasslands natural or the result of a decline of forest? I'm not familiar enough with the natural history of the Delmarva to know if it was forest or grassland, but I had the impression that forested areas were a prime component and are as endangered as any open areas. I think it is important to look beyond preservation of an unnatural and artificial avian diversity for the sake of more checks on our lists and more towards a restoration of what belongs here. Steve H. Middletown, MD ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================