LAST SUMMER SOMEONE SAW A white-winged tern on the Humboldt County coast and reported the sighting to the Birdbox, a voice mailbox set up by the City of Arcata. Within hours a local wildlife biologist had posted a bird alert on the Internet, and the very next day people from as far away as Idaho were checking in at a local hotel in hopes of seeing this seabird, which is native to Japan and Central Asia and had never before been observed in the western United States south of Alaska. This was just the sort of chain reaction the City had hoped for when it established the Birdbox as part of its economic development strategy.
Like other cities in far northern California, Arcata is struggling to develop new revenue sources as the region makes its painful transition from an economy based on timber and fishing to one that is more diverse and sustainable. It has focused on nature tourism, and birdwatching in particular.
Nature tourism is the fastest-growing sector of the travel industry, and wildlife viewing is now one of the most popular outdoor activities, recent surveys show. More and more people long to get away from the din and hurry of urban life and to immerse themselves in wild, unspoiled scenery and natural quiet--though not necessarily beyond the comforts of good hotels and restaurants. The north coast has a lot to offer people with such desires. It has ancient redwood forests protected within national and state parks, wild rivers, rugged shores, and long solitary beaches. It has Humboldt Bay, with lots of recreation opportunities both on and off the water.
Arcata has all that within reach, but most especially it has birds. You dont even have to go beyond the city limits: more than 200 species have been sighted on Arcata Marsh alone. As a result, in 1995 the local Economic Development Council "decided to develop the microniche of avian ecotourism to attract visitors," said Rob Hewitt, a member of the Councils ecotourism subcommittee. "The decision was economic," explains Peter Kenyon, professor of business at Humboldt State University and also a member of that subcommittee.
Hewitt is a birder--"I'm an addict," he says cheerfully--and he knew birders to be a relatively affluent crowd of well-educated professionals who spend money where they land. They fly in, rent a car, stay in a local hotel, eat in local restaurants, buy books and other substantial souvenirs, then fly out again. They dont carouse much at night. Their idea of a good time is to get up before dawn and go stand in the mudflats waiting for the birds to wake up. They are also environmentally harmless.
Passionate birders are, in some respects, similar to passionate surfers: they organize their lives around their sport and will drop everything to pursue it when the moment is right. A judge may leave the bench, a professor his classroom to catch the waves or fly a thousand miles to see a rare bird. The bird may be gone by the time the birder arrives, but thats okay. Serendipity and the chase are part of the fun.
Hewitt saw that Arcata has the three essentials for attracting birdwatchers: birds, people who know birds and can identify them, and an efficient communications system. Following his recommendations, the City set up the Birdbox, bought ads in two national birding magazines, published a Guide to Birding in and around Arcata, and launched the annual Godwit Days Spring Migration Festival, celebrating the departure of Humboldt Bay godwits for their breeding grounds in Alaska. All this was done for one purpose: to increase revenues for the City and the community.
The festival, which features birding trips, workshops, and other activities, is held in the third week of April, at the end of the slow season for tourist-dependent business. This year, its second, it broke even with 100 people registered. "Now the challenge is to market it so as to get it to a significant scale," above 500 registrants, says Kenyon. The beauty of a bird festival, he added, is that people keep coming after its over. It helps to spread the word that Arcata is a great birding site.
But isn't Arcata a special case? It has a "green" reputation. It is home to Humboldt State University, with its strong environmental studies program, and last year became the first California city ever to elect a city council with a Green Party majority. More than two decades ago, it made a name for itself as a pioneer in wetland restoration when it declined to hook into Eurekas new wastewater treatment system, which discharges through an outfall pipe into the ocean, and instead built an innovative system of its own using treated wastewater to create a marsh. Constructed and expanded with the help of the Coastal Conservancy, that marsh is now a popular wildlife reserve, an outdoor classroom for local schools, a favorite place to walk and watch the sunset. People come from other states and other countries just to see it. Yes, Arcata is unique, but it is not alone in seeing the potential in nature tourism, and particularly in birding. In Texas in 1993, the report that a blue-footed booby had landed on a boat dock on Lake L.B. Johnson brought 5,414 people from 47 states and three other countries, according to John Herron of the Nongame and Urban Wildlife Program of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. That same year, at the direction of Governor Ann Richards, Texas became the first state to develop a comprehensive policy and program to promote nature tourism.
Richards appointed a task force, representing a broad range of interests, to look into economic opportunities in this growing sector of vacation travel. In its report, the task force declared that "the potential for nature tourism is immeasurable," thanks to the states great natural diversity and abundant wildlife. It found that tourism--not manufacturing, oil, gas, or agriculture--was likely to be the state's largest industry by the year 2000 and that the most significant growth in the nature tourism market has been not in hunting and fishing but in non-consumptive activities, including birdwatching, nature study and photography, backpacking, hiking, boating, camping, rafting, biking, climbing, and a variety of similar pursuits. Wildlife viewing topped the list in popularity.
Texas quickly moved to tap this growing market. It now has the Great Texas Coastal Birding Trail, a 500-mile highway trail with signed and numbered birding sites nominated by coastal communities. (Alabama and Georgia are following its example with similar trails.) Texas has published a guide to starting a nature tourism business, Making Nature Your Business, and it promotes local nature festivals, of which there are now seven. In 1995, 6,000 people gathered in Rockford to welcome the arrival of ruby-throated hummingbirds. "We had never marketed to people who like to do these things," said Madge Lindsay, outreach coordinator for the Nongame and Urban Wildlife Program.
The high-level attention given to nature tourism in Texas is the envy of California resource managers, who see the same potential in this state. Although California has no similar program, it is active in the National Watchable Wildlife Program, launched in 1988 to support nonconsumptive enjoyment of wildlife and give voice to this sector of outdoor recreation, which has grown as hunting and fishing have declined. The program grew from a Defenders of Wildlife project to publish an Oregon wildlife viewing guide in cooperation with the Oregon Department of Tourism, the U.S. Forest Service, and other agencies and organizations. More than 30 such statewide guides have since been published, most in cooperation with Falcon Press. Each describes sites where wildlife can be easily viewed, but with minimal impact. Each site is marked by a sign along the highway featuring the Watchable Wildlife binoculars icon.
In November 1996, the fifth national Watchable Wildlife Conference brought some 400 people to Huntington Beach. It was the largest conference so far, with participants from public agencies, nonprofit groups, and business.
The latest figures show that in 1996, more than $104 billion was spent in the U.S. on hunting, fishing, birdwatching, and other wildife-related recreation--about 60 percent more than in 1991, according to preliminary data from the National Survey of Fishing, Hunting, and Wildlife-Related Recreation, conducted for the Fish and Wildlife Service by the U.S. Census Bureau. The most recent National Survey on Recreation and Environment, sponsored by multiple agencies and the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association, showed that in 1994-95, 54 million people took part in birdwatching--a 157 percent increase over the 21 million counted in 1982-83.
It used to be that people thought of nature travel, or ecotravel, as something you only do abroad, usually in developing countries. But the concept has come home, and now invites a new way of thinking. The latest studies challenge the convention that economic development requires the sacrifice of natural values. Unspoiled nature, with wildlife, is coming to be appreciated as an economic asset. It constitutes capital that communities can use in building a sustainable economy and supporting their local way of life.
There are, of course, obstacles and competing claims. On California's central coast, a growing colony of elephant seals is a great attraction, but plans for a resort development may pose a problem. (See The Dangerously Attractive Elephant Seals) On the north coast some people blame spotted owls for the loss of jobs in the timber industry and would rather not see any more birdwatchers, while other people object to visitors who come in cars, for whatever purpose. Michael Sweeney, director of the Institute for Ecotourism at Humboldt State University, finds himself trying to explain "the difference between an ecoterrorist and a tourist." The cultivation of understanding takes time.
State and national parks have been in the nature tourism business from their beginnings, of course, but now they are short of funds. Redwood National Park Superintendent Andrew T. Ringgold points out that this important park lacks a visitor center designed for in-depth interpretation, such as other parks have, and that summer seminars have been canceled for lack of staff.
In Arcata, meanwhile, the white-winged tern did not stay for the weekend, so its draw was modest. But a rare rustic bunting, native to Siberia, took up residence for three months, and hundreds of out-of-town birders came flocking. The Birdbox gets a steady stream of calls from distant birders. New reports come in daily, as local observers check in from points throughout Californias northwest.
"June 30: Bar-tailed godwit still at Point St. George. At about 10:30 had him alone, right on the beach. . . . July 4: This morning on Humboldt Bay out from Manila as the tide was coming up I saw two black turnstones among the shorebirds, thousands of least terns, slowly increasing numbers of willets and godwits, good numbers of curlews, and occasional whimbrels. . . . Went to Del Norte County and was able to see bar-tailed godwit at Point St. George. . . . July 5, 8 p.m.: Bar-tailed godwit still at Point St. George. If you want directions, call me at. . . ."
Call 707-822-LOON (no, it's not a free call) and you find yourself daydreaming, even if you barely know a cormorant from a heron, much less a bar-tailed godwit from a black-tailed godwit. You start thinking about finding some binoculars, about heading north.