Front Range air pollution

[Hugh Kingery]

The two weekend Denver Post issues had long articles about Colorado air pollution. Saturday's concentrated on how much we Coloradans drive and how that adds to air pollution. As birders, we value the environment and I think we need to support some positive actions to abate climate change.

Birders like lists; I had one idea: start an Air Quality List: divide the number of species seen by miles traveled.

    A trip to Bonny Res.: 300-mile round trip and 50 species seen results in 0.17 species/mile.

    Same trip, two people in the same car: 0.33 species/mile.

    Same trip with a stop at Flagler and another 25 species: 0.25 or one person or 0.5 for two.

A drive to Chatfield, 50 miles & 50 species, comes to 1.00 species/mile; Two people in same car, 2.00/mile.

Feeder counts would pose a problem for this QL List: our Goshawk Friday and its attendant (or really, non-attendant) dickey birds rates 10 species / no miles. 10.0 perhaps? Limit to 10 species at a feeder?

Obviously if we initiate something like this the protocol needs vetting by a bunch of hotshots.

Hugh Kingery