Connecticut State of the Birds 2011 press conference

Here is a CAS press release from our Senior Director of Science and Conservation, Milan Bull:


Connecticut Audubon Society to Issue " Connecticut State of the Birds 2011" report:
Conserving Our Forest Birds

What: Press Conference
When: Thursday, March 3, 2011 at 10:00 a.m.
Where: Legislative Office Building, Room 1A, Hartford, CT
Who: Robert Martinez, President, Connecticut Audubon Society (CAS); Milan Bull, CAS Senior Director of Science & Conservation and Editor, Connecticut State of the Birds; Linnea McHenry, Animal Care Supervisor, CAS Center at Fairfield with "Bella,"a Broad-winged Hawk; State Representative Richard Roy, Environment Committee Co-Chair; and State Senator Edward Meyer, Environment Committee Co-Chair (invited)
What: Release of "Connecticut State of the Birds 2011" report

The Connecticut Audubon Society is committed to the conservation of our native birds and their habitats. With nearly 50% of Connecticut's bird species in decline, we undertook an important endeavor seven years ago and took the lead in culling the best scientific information currently available on important conservation issues affecting birds and their habitats right here at home in Connecticut. Each year since have delivered an important report on the State of the Birds. The "Connecticut State of the Birds 2011" report reveals new and startling information about our forests and the birds that depend on them.

Did you know that for the first time in over 150 years our forest resources are declining permanently? Fragmentation and parcelization are reducing our forests into smaller and smaller blocks that can no longer support productive populations of forest-dependent birds. Unlike the past changes in our forests, when they have been converted to agricultural and wood product use, then regrown when abandoned, today our forests are disappearing due to "hard development," such as highways, residential and commercial expansion that permanently destroy forests that may never return.

The eight contributing authors to the State of the Birds report 2011 include leading experts from CT and around the East who have identified the problems and have recommended strategies and solutions to end this negative trend of declining bird populations. Copies of the Connecticut State of the Birds Report 2011 will be on hand. Our 2006-2010 "Connecticut State of the Birds" reports are also available on our website; click here to read them.