Modern civilization has made drastic changes to the world — on land, sea and sky.
Birds have seen a particularly noticeable decline. Dr. Glen Hvenegaard of the University of Alberta's Augustana campus in Camrose, Alta. said that bird populations have declined 30 per cent in 50 years.
"Bird populations are in desperate times," he said. "Birds are important on their own, we don't need to justify them — they deserve to have a fair shake in our environment. But if we even ignore that part, birds provide humans with so many benefits. They provide ecosystem services through pollination and predation.
"They are a good indicator of a quality habitat and environment. They can even improve conditions for tourism and people moving into our city — if they know that it's a place that manages its environment well for birds, they may be inclined to move here or spend their tourism dollars here."
In an effort to help our feathered friends recover their numbers, Hvenegaard is leading the charge to nominate Camrose to be designated a bird-friendly city. Joining him are representatives from Camrose and District Fish and Game Association, the City of Camrose Environmental Sustainability Advisory Committee, Ducks Unlimited Canada, Battle River Watershed Alliance, the Metis Nation of Alberta and the Wildrose Outdoor Club.
Part of Nature Canada's conservation efforts, the designation is a relatively new award, existing since 2020. So far, only 30 municipalities have taken on the designation, which is assigned to three levels: entry, intermediate, and high. To date, only London, Ont. has achieved a high designation, which requires a score of 80 per cent or more in several categories: threat reduction, habitat protection, restoration and climate resilience, and community outreach or education. Hvenegaard said Camrose was in a good position to bid for an entry level designation, only requiring 50 per cent compliance. The designation is open to municipalities with populations of 30,000 or more.
In practice, Hvenegaard said the city's many parks, dog management, green space education, public outreach programs and annual summer bird festival all demonstrate the city's bird friendliness. So, his team was compiling a list of the city's avian assets to fill out the 52-page application for bird-friendly status.
One benefit of the designation, aside from a potential tourism boost, is leverage to access other funding streams to improve the city as a bird habitat.
"There are some activities you have to undertake to score above entry level," he said. "Things like bylaws around light pollution, building construction for bird friendly windows and bylaws around free-roaming cats.
"Those don't exist in Camrose at the moment, so we would have to make some changes there if we wanted a higher score."
Cats, building windows and vehicle collisions are the major cause of death for birds in cities.
Hvenegaard said there was interest in researching where in the city birds are colliding with buildings. Once urban planners have that data, they can target where bird-friendly windows need to be.
"Birds sometimes can't tell the difference between a clear pathway and a window," he said. "There's (transparent) coverings you can put on the glass that are fairly inexpensive."
In the interim, he's busy finalizing the nomination papers, which are due by Feb. 20 for the Winter 2025 application.
From there, it goes before a professional adjudication board for review before a final decision is made. Hvenegaard said the process would serve as a good report card for the city on its conservation efforts.
"We can use that as a benchmark for evaluating improvement over the next little while," he said. "It's been a delight to work with all these partners who have lots of background and skill, expertise and support.
"That's probably one of the good benefits of this process — it's been very collaborative.
