A hypothesis about the disconnect between going birding and doing conservation: the influence of temporal scales

     You may have heard the adage -- take someone birding and get them excited about conserving bird habitat.  This may be a reasobably accurate statement, but of course, there are lots of steps between seeing cool-looking birds, recognizing the need for habitat conservation, and actually takinig some kind of action.  Some people's conservation actions include donating money to one  or more conservation groups, and that is a fine thing to do. 

     I wonder about the connection between going birding and doing conservation work at a very local geographic scale -- say your favorite birding patch.  For ease of discussion, consider the following four cause-and-effect loops of activities and consequences: (1) a BIRDER COMMUNICATION loop in which birders go birding, see birds, report their sightings, attract more birders to go birding there, who report their sightings and so on, (2) a BIRD DISTURBANCE loop where just a few birders in the patch have little affect on birds occurring there, but as more and more birders show up, it could affect the numbers of birds or the species that occur there, (3) a HABITAT DISTURBANCE loop whereby the first birders leave almost no trace of their presence, but more and more birders showing up end up trampling vegetation, making new trails, inadvertently bringing in seeds of invasive species and otherwise messing up the habitat for birds, and (4) a HABITAT RESTORATION loop in which birders visiting the area recognize the damage to the habitat and ultimately take action to restore the bird habitat.  These loops are shown in the Figure below. 

Figure 1. Four cause-and-effect loops of birding activities showing how the events in each loop occur at different time scales.

     Note that the BIRDER COMMUNICATION loop at the bottom of the figure occurs very rapidly.  We've all seen this happen.  If a "good" bird shows up somewhere, it doesn't take long for word to get out and for more birders to show up.  If it's a "really good" bird, birders might show up from all over the country in a matter of a day or two.

     The next loop up from the bottom (BIRD  DISTURBANCE loop) takes a little longer to unfold.  the reason for this is that it really depends on the speed of the bottom loop.  Sure, a small number of birders might disturb birds to the point of inadvertently chasing them out of an area.  But, the likelihood of this kind of disturbance happening increases dramatically as the number of birders increases and the birding pressure is sustained for several days. 

     The HABITAT DISTURBANCE loop can take awhile to play out.  Trampling of vegetation, removing it to get better looks at a pond or other site, or human behaviors that alter plant species composition take not only numbers of people to occur but usually repeated presence of people over a relatively long period of time.

     The loop at the top of the figure (HABITAT RESTORATION loop) is the slowest loop to occur.  One reason is that the HHABITAT DISTURBANCE loop has to occur first (or at least some recognition that the habitat is degraded if it already was before anybody started birding the area).  In addition, it takes somem  time for people to get geared up to do any habitat restoration activities, and of course, the habitat needs time to respond to those restoration activities.

     Thinking about the time scales on which different events and activities occur can help us all develop realistic ideas and expectations about how introducing people to birding might turn them into conservationists.

Go bird!