MisTIMBERstood: Birds in Decline
Birds such as the Golden Winged Warbler and Wood Thrush are more than just songsters of America's eastern woodlands – they're indicators of our forest health. But alarmingly, studies reveal a 60% decline in the Wood Thrush population since 1970, echoing the fate of other migratory songbirds.
Why?
Our forests have become too uniform, often dominated by middle-aged trees, lacking the mosaic of young and old stands that many species desperately need. While nature's resilience has allowed forests to recover from historical overharvesting, we now face a challenge of a different kind: lack of structural diversity. To safeguard our avian treasures, we must adopt proactive forest management, using tools like timber harvest and commercial thinning.
The birds are sounding the alarm – it's high time we heeded their call and took decisive action.
ABOUT WE THE FOREST
We the Forest transforms forest management through storytelling. Our approach helps forestry professionals who want to build support for responsible forest management by sharing enlightening perspectives and helping forest stakeholders find common ground.
We are dedicated to building common ground on the many sides of the timber production conversation, showing sustainable forest-first practices can provide solutions for catastrophic wildfire prevention, bug and disease reduction, climate change mitigation, and resource stewardship.
Ensuring our forests are around for years to come is something that should be our utmost priority. Through education like this, we can come together to understand the importance of restoration and collaboration to protect our forests from catastrophic wildfire, and create a more sustainable reality.