Maine Audubon Perspective

Balancing Act

IN MAINE AND THE WORLD this year, we’ve seen that both the beauty and power of nature are hard to fathom.

In the early spring, the indelible ivory-billed woodpecker reemerged from the bayous of Arkansas nearly
six decades after scientists believed it went extinct.

Here in Maine, the threatened Canada lynx continued making a comeback in the North Woods, where
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed designating 10,600 square miles as critical habitat crucial to lynx recovery and survival (>>more).

Conversely, the fall Habitat brought you the news that unusually high storm tides this spring and summer washed away the nests of more than 22 percent of
Maine’s already endangered piping plover population.

And, of course, people throughout the nation and the world have been transfixed and left horrified, witnessing the brutal power of devastating hurricanes and
earthquakes.

You—our members, donors, and volunteers—showed us this year as in others that you respect the natural forces that ultimately make life on Earth possible. You
demonstrated you care about wildlife—and understand there’s balance in nature—by taking action to improve the health of wildlife in your state, your town, your own back yard.

Maine Audubon is proud to be your partner in that work, and proud to be a respected, active state leader. It was rewarding to learn that in a poll this fall,
Maine voters again ranked Maine Audubon as the number one most credible voice among state organizations working for conservation.

Just as nature ultimately finds a balance between extremes, Maine Audubon’s mission requires that we help find balanced, sustainable answers to Maine’s most
pressing wildlife issues. Year round, we work to protect species and habitat and curtail the sprawl that threatens them. We work to connect thousands of adults and children with nature and, in the process, help them become conservation stewards. We work to assess wildlife issues and bring credible, science-based information to Maine’s decision makers.

Here are just a few items on our “to-do” list for next year:

• Advocate for major revisions to the proposal by Seattle-based Plum Creek Timber Company to rezone and develop a massive area of the Moosehead Lake region—a proposal which, from the standpoint of wildlife conservation, currently exemplifies development in the wrong place;
• Equip Maine communities with tools to conserve natural areas and limit the impacts of sprawl through the award-winning Beginning with Habitat program;
• Implement a new collaborative education
program, EcoScienceWorks, to introduce Maine seventh and eighth graders and teachers to hands-on experiences in ecology and environmental science; and
• Show landowners in Maine how to practice sustainable, wildlife-friendly forest management through our Focus Species Forestry program.

This is critical work that Maine Audubon is uniquely positioned to do, with your help. Your contributions to membership, volunteering, and advocacy are invaluable. And your gift this year to Maine Audubon’s Annual Fund is a gift of sustainability for Maine and its future generations. It will sustain the work of staff and volunteers incredibly dedicated to wildlife—and incredibly effective, so long as they have the resources to be.

Mainers statewide have demonstrated their innate generosity to those in need this year across the nation and the world. We need your help here at home, too.

From all of us, our heartfelt thanks, and very best wishes for the holidays and new year.

Kevin Carley
Executive Director