Greetings All, For all of you who have been seeing the Snow Goose "breathtaking spectacle" throughout the Finger Lakes area and think it's just the coolest thing you've ever seen - think again. A number of years ago I attended a program at MNWR which focused on the out-of-control Snow Goose population and the devastating effect they are having the tundra where they breed. Bottom line is that Snow Geese are destroying the ultra-fragile tundra, which is made up of primarily of lichens which grow exceedingly slow. Snow Goose foraging behavior causes them to uproot the lichens entirely rather than nip them off above ground, which results in a Tundra desert. I encourage everyone to Google: Trouble on the Tundra: Snow Geese Under The Gun, by Howard Schneider, 1997. If this was a major concern 25 years ago, imagine what the effect is today.
Charlie Rouse Geneva, NY -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
