I have a Master's Degree in…

I have a Master's Degree in Environmental Studies and have been monitoring bird populations as a volunteer for the last 6 years in Ontario. About half of Ontario's bird populations are declining significantly and more will follow as the affects of the climate crisis combined with human-caused habitat loss continue to harm our wild species. Amphibians, reptiles, animal, bird and even insect populations have been falling in Ontario for many years now. We should be trying to conserve the intact natural habitats that are left in our province, some for which only small remnants remain. With only remnants of prairie and forests too small to maintain interior forest birds, our wildlife resources will continue to dwindle irreversibly if we don't start taking responsibility for our human over-indulgences and lack of respect for our natural world. The rapidly expanding human population is destroying natural lands so quickly that our wild species really haven't got a chance at the current pace. And at the rate of species extinction in Ontario today, I'd be willing to bet that humans will lack the resources WE need to survive in a shorter time than scientists predict as well. Temperatures are already warming up much faster than predicted, and evidence of ecological collapses are starting to show as well (i. e. with insects, shorebirds and amphibians presently in grave trouble). So, the last thing we should be doing is allowing more completely unnecessary capturing of wild birds for sport! After grassland birds have declined enough, raptor populations will follow because raptors eat small birds. It truly is a 'web of life' and all species are connected.

Over the last 6 years, I have monitored birds at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Hamilton/Burlington. I have especially noticed a decline in Red-tailed Hawks most recently -- a species that we used to see much more commonly only 5 years ago. The trend of population declines at this location is nothing short of alarming. Different species of thrushes, warblers, and waterfowl were already in decline but this year the lack of sparrows is most notable as well. Every year there is a decline of more groups of species while increases are more modest unless it is of an invasive species like European Starling, House Sparrow and the like. In North America, we have lost 2.9 billion birds since 1970, about one third of the total number of wild birds. What happened to them? Irresponsible human action is always part of this equation -- from chemicals that soften eggshells to species hunted to extinction and habitats continually paved over. We should be protecting the birds we have left no matter what direction their populations are moving in.

Let's face it, people in Ontario do not have a reputation for wildlife tolerance in urban or rural areas often. We're spoiled and allowed to legally cause damage to wild species in many ways already. We trap and remove every "pest" that gets in the way of our polluting lavish life style. We trap wild species for pets and discard them when we don't want to care for them any longer. We drain wetlands full of rare species because they are not compatible with our heavy agricultural machinery. We also do other things that we shouldn't, including hunting merely for sport, which is completely unnecessary in today's society, using either bullets or birds! It was just recently that the government proposed a 50-bird bag limit for Double-crested Cormorants in Ontario too -- why does anyone need to shoot 50 cormorants? Just because people think they are ugly birds doesn't give us licence to eradicate them, and that kind of high 'limit' just might! We are taking our natural resources for granted and they won't last long if this human-centric thinking continues, especially by our elected leaders who's first mandate is to protect the public's future health. We need to be directed onto a better path which respects all wildlife, and that will actually help to protect us in the long-run.

We aren't even tolerant enough to protect species at risk often! For example, sunbathers on northern Ontario beaches refuse to leave the beach front natural for just a few weeks each spring to allow rare Piping Plovers to nest -- where they had traditionally nested for years before humans expanded into the bird's nesting territory. Why do humans demand that beaches be raked and have new clean sand dumped on them every spring? So we don't get our toes poked while we're taking a swim or tanning (which is bad for us anyway -- skin cancer anyone?). We are pathetically intolerant and selfish when it comes to the natural world. We even poison ourselves by aerial spraying for mosquitoes and gypsy moths while nature is teaching us that it probably isn't necessary (parasitic wasps are attacking gypsy moths before they mature). I disagree with unethical practices, and it is unethical to kill by hunting if a person doesn't need the food to sustain themselves... especially today when we need to conserve natural resources more than ever before. We need to respect our natural resources including all wildlife species before we lose them -- and we are definitely headed down that path at present. Humans do not know better than nature, we just think we do.

Climate change is perhaps the newest serious threat to every living species, including humans. The more wildlife we take for ourselves today, for whatever use -- necessary or not -- the less wildlife will survive to support our human population in the future. There is only a decade remaining before predictions of "runaway climate change" may alter the world forever, so we need the natural world to be as intact as possible so that we have time to find solutions for our ever-increasing environmental crises. Taking more wild birds for human use will definitely not help the situation!

And yet, astonishingly, our own provincial government proposes that humans -- already responsible for endangering and threatening hundreds of bird species -- capture even more wild raptors to use for sport hunting?? Does that really make good sense? No one needs to keep a wild raptor in a cage to find food in Ontario today! Falconry is an ancient tradition because it was needed to feed families long before grocery stores existed. In some poorer countries, this method of obtaining food is understandably still in use in order to obtain life-sustaining meals for parents and their children. And in countries where falconry was a tradition, it is still in place as a tourist attraction which poorer countries may need for revenue (like in Kazakhstan for example). In Ontario however, more falconry is not necessary at all. I understand that there are some responsible falconers that use their birds for some understandable purposes like controlling invasive species, but encouraging falconry as a popular hobby for everyone is not responsible in any way. Birds will suffer in human hands and b raptor populations will be negatively effected as the popularity of your idea increases. The average person does not have enough skill or respect for nature to care for a raptor responsibly. Their are so many hazards to raptors in human living conditions too -- traffic, windows hits and diseases are just a few threats to wild birds in captivity. We definitely can't afford to regulate how all captured wild birds are treated by Ontarian residents after their training is completed either.

And in any case, a raptor removed from the wild means less wild birds to breed in the wild too. Why does any falconer need more than one bird to hunt with if it is only for sport anyway?? I recommend that no wild birds be taken to use for sport hunting. I believe promoting falconry in Ontario as a popular hobby would lead down a very slippery slope! Leave the falcons where they naturally occur and only allow the use of birds bred in captivity to be used as falconry birds, please! Especially leave the Northern Goshawk alone -- I have never seen one, so they can't be as "common" as you say. Also remember that wild populations are subject to wilderness conditions which are becoming more challenging with a more and more rapidly changing climate. Therefore, wild bird populations can change quickly from year to year. Do you really think that removing wild birds will have no effect ever? That is a very naive way of thinking.

If you don't need to allow falconers to take birds from the wild, then don't! Many other countries only allow captive-bred falcons to be used for falconry birds, and that would be the responsible action in Ontario as well. Please don't harm wild raptor populations with careless legislation like this -- you can't predict the excessive harm it may cause over the next tumultuous decade of increasing climate chaos.

Based on my observations of bird numbers over the last six years in the Golden Horseshoe area, allowing more wild birds to be taken from the wild for falconry would be a terrible mistake. Do not allow this to happen please!

Please read the book, "Bringing Nature Home" by Douglas Tallamy. It explains clearly why we need to protect nature more than ever before.