Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, March 27, 1995                   TAG: 9503270011
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MILDRED WILLIS
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

SILENT SPRING? NOT QUITE, BUT SONGBIRDS DON'T COME 'ROUND

As spring approaches, I notice the absence of the usual songbirds in my neighborhood. During this season in past years, there used to be the warbling and flurry of pairs of crimson cardinals, doves, jays, finches, wrens, catbirds, starlings and grackles searching for nest sites and food. Migrating chickadees, orioles, grosbeaks and other migrant birds paused here during their distant flights. Each day was filled with a chorus of their songs and chirps; today, they're seldom heard.

However, this spring the neighborhood is visited by other birds who are more vociferous and better survivors than the songbirds. Our few remaining trees are the roosting places of numerous crows - appropriately named, a murder of crows. The charming, warbling scales of the brightly colored songbirds are replaced by the raspy cawing, grunting and crackling call of the black-feathered lumbering crows.

Like the canary in the coal mine, the number of crows in our area is a warning of trouble - an interference in the balance of nature. For the past 25 years, the trees, shrubs and woods in this Bird Sanctuary neighborhood were the domain and refuge of birds and other small animals. Much of this growth has been cut down and cleared away to allow space for developing businesses and homes. The survivor crow has moved in; the songbirds have been displaced. This Bird Sanctuary no longer exists. It has been cut down, and the birds' food destroyed.

We're now surrounded by proud owners of green, dandelion-free, manicured, golf-course-like lawns. Chemical spraying has diminished, wiped out and contaminated insects and weeds, which is the food source for birds and small animals. Even the bumblebee, essential for propagation of foods, flowers and honey, has been decimated by chemical spraying. But the grass is green.

In 1962, biologist Rachel Carson's controversial but prophetic book ``Silent Spring'' was published. She warned that continued use of chemical pesticides by man would destroy all life forms whose survival depended on insects, grubs and plants as a food source. This would not only upset the balance in nature, but bring strange illnesses to people as well. The chemical industry attached her book and described her criticism as exaggerated. Carson died in 1964, two years after her book was published. Thirty-three years later, we're only now beginning to accept and understand her concerns. We now recognize the damage that has been done to our environment and to ourselves through chemical spraying.

Will it be another 33 years before we realize that, in addition to chemical spraying, cutting down woods, trees, shrubs and forests will continue to decimate and damage the domain of songbirds, small animals and ourselves? Unfortunately, we're upsetting the balance of nature, and contributing to the elimination of many aspects and areas of our environment that enrich our lives on earth.

The demand for a changing countryside will require more clearing of shrubs and bushes that protect small animals. Then they must asphalt more roads and more highways, which increases the potential for flooding. These roads and highways must accommodate more automobiles (the exhaust of which adds to polluting the air we breathe, causing respiratory illnesses). This increase in automobiles, at least two to a household or one for each adult in the United States, will be used by more people - an ever-increasing population who may or may not be concerned with our environment and planet. And who may or may not be willing to simplify their lifestyle to save the Earth.

We're faced with many challenges. How do we re-evaluate our relationship to our environment and all that naturally exists around us? How can we acknowledge that we aren't owners but caretakers of everything around us, our environment? What kind of world do we want to leave to our children and future generations? Can we learn to coexist with Mother Nature? Can we learn to respect and revere the world around us? Do we dare, or are we even willing, to simplify our lives for the sake of the future of life on Earth?

Mildred Willis, of Roanoke, was director of the Natural Resources Committee for the local League of Women Voters.