Protecting Old Growth Protects More Than Trees

Protecting old-growth forest has been a mantra for Conservation Northwest since its inception. Protecting the forest protects wildlife that need old growth habitat to survive. Marbled murrelets cannot live without old growth, because of the seabird's reliance on coastal forests for nesting and rearing their young.

The marbled murrelet population in the Northwest continues to decline 4 to 5% per year according to a recent scientific review. Today, only 21,000 murrelets remain in all of Washington, Oregon, and northern California. Marbled murrelets are considered threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

An amazing avian

The marbled murrelet is a small sea bird with a slender black bill and plumage that varies in color by season. Its diet consists of many sea creatures, including sand eels, herring, and shiner perch. The murrelet is characterized by its unique breeding habits. Unlike most other sea birds, marbled murrelets do not form dense colonies, and they may travel up to 50 miles inland to a nest tree. They generally nest in old growth western hemlock, Sitka spruce, and Douglas fir. This dependence on old-growth trees for reproduction has caused a clash between their survival and the economic interests behind logging these same forests.

Adverse living conditions

In the last decade, logging has destroyed more than a quarter million acres of murrelet old growth nesting habitat, 80% of which occurred on private or state land. The murrelet faces other dangers: oil spills pollute the water where murrelets feed, and gill nets from the fishing industry can drown or ensnare birds as by-catch. Rates of predation of murrelets have also increased, a direct result of habitat fragmentation, which allows predators access to areas that were formerly unattainable. For a thriving population of marbled murrelets to survive, an increase in federal protection is needed.

Ensuring a home for murrelets

In a recent decision, the Bush administration dealt a serious blow to continued protection of the marbled murrelet, declaring that marbled murrelets in the Pacific Northwest are not “genetically or ecologically” distinct from a larger population that resides in British Columbia and Alaska. If the population of murrelets in the Pacific Northwest, where fewer live, is combined with the larger population in the north, federal protection may be retracted from Northwest murrelets. The US Fish and Wildlife Service also in 2006 proposed a severe cut in protected critical habitat for the murrelet in Washington, Oregon, and California.

Through the continued efforts of Conservation Northwest and others, we will continue to work to protect the old-growth forest the murrelet calls home, and ensure a future for this elusive and beautiful, native seabird.