Story originally printed in the Winona Daily News or online at www.winonadailynews.com

Published - Sunday, May 04, 2008

This tax idea is for the birds

By Stewart Shaw / community columnist

Early and middle May are probably the best times of the year for birding in our area. Neo-tropical migrants — warblers, flycatchers and wrens — arrive from their warmer, southern wintering areas.

Some of the migrants arrive much earlier, of course. The bald eagles and other raptors that are unwilling to experience our severe winters and the robins and bluebirds already have arrived, and some of them, like the purple finches have already left us for the boreal forests of northern Minnesota and Canada.

And some of the birds that share our winters like the slate-colored juncos have also gone north. But May is the month when we see the largest numbers of species, and when the birds are most active — feeding, mating, building nests, hatching and feeding their young, as well as passing through. May is paradise time for avid birders.

Locally the popularity of birding in May is reflected in the number of field trips sponsored by the Hiawatha Valley Audubon Society. “Warbler walks” and other birding hikes led by experienced birders, but open to people who enjoy being out in nature and want to increase their skills at identifying birds, are frequent at this time of year.

Situated in the middle of the Upper Mississippi River Flyway, the area around Winona is a center of migratory bird activity. The Trempealeau Refuge, Perrot and Merrick state parks, Aghaming, Prairie Island, the confluence of the Mississippi and Chippewa Rivers at Reed’s Landing, the National Eagle Center in Wabasha, Whitewater, Latsch and Great River Bluffs state parks, and the Whitewater Management Area attract birders from considerable distances.

It has been said that birding is currently America’s fastest growing recreation. More new people are watching birds than starting to do any other leisure activity.

While the numbers of licensed hunters and anglers are decreasing, birders are increasing. Almost everyone marvels at the exploding numbers of white pelicans seen this spring on the river’s backwaters and several of our nearby lakes. Few are unaffected by the alternating white and dark of the birds as they “kettle,” or glide in concentric circles, high in the sky above downtown Winona.

It is perhaps because of the increasing popularity of birding that some people, looking for sources of funding government programs, favor imposing fees on people who watch birds. Oh, it wouldn’t be a license fee. The practical problems of licensing the citizen who stands on the corner of Third and Huff streets, admiring the dozens of pelicans circling high above him, or the lady who hangs a bag of suet in her back yard for the joy of watching woodpeckers at close range, are recognized.

Unlike the license fee, which is how we pay state government for the privilege of hunting or fishing, revenue from birders would be collected from special taxes imposed on bird feed, and perhaps, birding equipment, such as feeders, houses, binoculars, spotting scopes and field guides.

Bird feed taxes would add to the recent inflationary increases in the cost of bird seed. Mike Kennedy, owner of the birding specialty store, BirdSong, says that the cost of black oil sunflower seed has doubled during the past 12 months. Bird seed inflation has been caused by many of the same reasons that grocery prices have increased significantly recently.

Increases in land used to produce corn to make fuel have decreased production of food crops. In a market economy reduced supply and increased demand drive up prices. Rising gasoline and diesel fuel prices inflate costs of transporting bird food from farm to market.

According to Dave Palmquist, naturalist at Whitewater State Park, more than $1,000 worth of bird seed, at current prices, is used each year to feed the birds that come to the feeding station behind the park’s visitors center.

There is one significant difference between birding and hunting and fishing. The whole point of hunting is to kill the animals. Dead animals have to be replaced for the sport to continue. Even though “catch and release” fishing is becoming more popular, most of the season and on most waters throwing the fish back is not required. And many fish returned to the water do not survive the trauma of being hooked. Game censuses result in carefully considered open season lengths, and bag limits allow nature to do much of the replacement. Even so, the hiring of wardens to monitor compliance is necessary.

Contemporary birding, on the other hand, does not involve the annihilation of the quarry. As a group, birders respect the need for birds to feed, nest and raise young without feeling threatened. More than 160 years ago, John James Audubon thought it was necessary to shoot the birds he wanted to illustrate. But today the spotting scope and the camera are used to look at birds at close range.

It might be argued that although birding does not involve the destruction of animals, birders favor a variety of conservation projects that require public support, and therefore ought to be specially taxed. One of the most important of these kinds of projects is the conservation of large tracts of land and water that are habitat for the birds. Areas left in their natural condition are not developed, and do not increase the tax base. Birders know that declines in populations of bird species are often due to loss of suitable habitat.

But like mutations in frogs, declines in bird populations signal damage to the environment that we share with all other living things. Taxing birders because they support conservation of nature makes about as much sense as charging coal miners fees for taking canaries into mines because they want to be warned of the presence of poisonous gases. The fortunes of canaries and other birds alert us to changes in our environment that might destroy life and health. We should watch them carefully. We should not tax people who watch for us.

Stewart Shaw is a former Winona State University registrar who is getting a second education in retirement. He also volunteers for several local organizations.