Dear editor:

I thought the documentary Falling into the Lake did a fantastic job describing the need to consider species other than ourselves when making land use decisions.

Birds such as bank swallows, a species at risk featured in your video, play essential roles in food webs and the ecosystem, from seed dispersal to pest control. A recent paper published in the journal Science and the 2019 State of Canada’s Birds tells us that we have lost three billion birds in Canada and the U.S. since 1970, and that loss of habitat is one of the primary causes. 

Acknowledging the fact that bank swallows need this shoreline habitat for their survival and incorporating this knowledge into future plans goes a long way towards conserving not only bank swallows, but other species at risk when they’re faced with similar situations. Too often our natural world has been ignored in favour of human development. I’m not saying development is bad. I’m saying there needs to be balance and we need to remember that we share our land with many creatures that have been using it much longer than we have and depend on it for survival. 

Thank you so much for your amazing efforts in keeping species at risk in the conversation when contemplating natural and human land use change.

Sincerely,

Megan Hiebert

Bird Studies Canada