Dear Editor,
The plight of the black swift and many other species of insectivorous birds whose populations are in steep decline is a frightening one鈥攂oth because our world will be an emptier and more precarious place if they vanish, and because they are only the tip of the iceberg, the visible expression of a deep environmental crisis.
There are those who like to think that human life is some kind of great evolutionary masterpiece, the end result of 4.5 billion years of life on this planet. Not so: every living species today can equally claim to be the crown of creation. We all arrived here together and can boast of the same glory if we really think that it鈥檚 all about now.
Regardless, their fate matters profoundly. None can be replaced. We need to stop poisoning the planet with pesticides, chemicals and waste gases because while we have the right to poison ourselves, we have no right to take other species down with us.
But please, let鈥檚 not use the real and pressing ecological crisis into which we have dragged the black swift as a club in an argument over taste. Hang gliders aren鈥檛 going to affect black swifts. How on earth would they? Ever seen a swift fly? Do you know how far they travel in a day to find a gullet-full of food for their young?
The credibility of people with otherwise valid concerns, and the quality of our ability to have reasoned and serious discussions about conservation issues that really do matter, suffer when folks try to link unrelated issues in an attempt to gain leverage.
Jasper gets more than two million visitors a year. Black swifts will benefit more if those visitors are given experiences and interpretation that sends them home determined to stop using biocides in their gardens, to insist on foods grown without Franken-chemicals, to keep their cats indoors and to pass bylaws requiring that tall buildings be left dark at night. If all they hear is that the hang gliders might be disturbing swifts, we will just be deepening the ecological illiteracy and skepticism that lie at the root of so many environmental issues.
Do I like hang gliding in national parks? Not really, but it doesn鈥檛 get my hair on fire either.
Am I concerned about the possibility we could lose a truly unique and utterly irreplaceable bird species? Darn right.
Are the issues connected? Of course not.
Black swifts have real problems that really, really matter. Don鈥檛 use them as rhetorical cannon-fodder in an unrelated and much less important debate; they deserve better.
Kevin Van Tighem
Former superintendent of Banff National Park
