SwainsonsHawk_Insecticide_Weber_MaryAnne_HoustonTX_2July2020_Reel4026.mp3

Mary Anne Weber [00:00:00] Well, I do remember in the '90s, Swainson's hawk became kind of the poster child for the dangers of insecticides.

Mary Anne Weber [00:00:13] And again, I think it was a wake-up call that we share our birds with cultures, countries, people all across the hemisphere.

Mary Anne Weber [00:00:25] And for what happened in the '90s down in South America and the massive poisoning, the deaths that occurred for these hawks, it really opened up this whole idea that what we do here and what happens there impacts on migratory birds. It was a big eye-opener.

Mary Anne Weber [00:00:48] And one of the things I remember learning, again, similar to DDT, okay, so we banned this poison that was poisoning the grasshoppers, etc. We banned it here in the U.S. And it is still widely used in other parts of the world, including Latin America.

Mary Anne Weber [00:01:06] And I remember sitting in a class or a lecture - when we were manufacturing these things, we would send these products south of the border with all the instructions in English. And we were sending these to countries where people applying them probably didn't speak or read English, and they were just kind of figuring out as they go.

Mary Anne Weber [00:01:26] And one thing that I stress, especially to the diverse audiences we have here in the Houston area, and so many people have a connection with countries, through their families, south of the border, whether it's Central America, Mexico, South America, is that not only do we need to be good stewards of our land and our birds, but it is impacting your family, your heritage.

Mary Anne Weber [00:01:52] If we can lessen the pesticides that these people are applying on the coffee farms, the banana farms, etc., it's going a long way to benefiting those people.

Mary Anne Weber [00:02:05] Also, they're not out there wearing hazmat suits when they're applying pesticides. They're probably using their hands. And I'm sure that's impacting families and their own health.

Mary Anne Weber [00:02:17] So to me, these birds, they are kind of the canary in the coal mine. But it's not just protecting the birds.

Mary Anne Weber [00:02:24] It's really having a long-term impact on protecting the earth, what's growing from the Earth, and the people, all of us that are tending, the gardeners, that are surviving on this one planet.

Mary Anne Weber [00:02:36] And those Swainsons, when that massive poisoning occurred, that was a real wake-up call.

Mary Anne Weber [00:02:43] And it became international. And I think to make a positive impact, it takes an international effort. It can't just be that my backyard has been certified as a wildlife habitat, and I can check that off my list and sleep well at night.

Mary Anne Weber [00:02:59] Because these birds move and we're all connected, it's an international effort to make the world a better place.

Speaker [00:03:08] But certainly Swainson's hawk, and what happened to them with that insecticide, was a big wake-up call and was beneficial in making some changes. I think we still have a long way to go.