Interview: A Louisiana Bird Expert Assesses Damage from the Oil Spill

For six weeks, Melanie Driscoll, director of bird conservation for the National Audubon Society’s Louisiana Coastal Initiative, has worked in the wetlands and on the barrier islands of the Gulf of Mexico, assessing threats to seabirds and their habitat and joining in the effort to find, and clean, oil-covered birds. In an interview with Yale Environment 360, Driscoll says that as terrible as images of seabirds drenched in oil are, the unseen effects of the spill are probably far greater, with birds perishing out of sight, far from shore, and pelicans and other species facing spill-related declines in the fish on which they feed. Driscoll says it’s too soon to tell what the lasting impact of the spill will be on the birds of the Gulf Coast. But she says that the spill has underlined the critical need to restore Louisiana’s beleaguered wetlands — steadily shrinking because of Mississippi River flood control projects and intrusions by the oil industry — and the abundant birdlife they harbor. “One of the reasons Audubon has always focused on birds is intrinsically for the birds,” says Driscoll. “But birds are also indicators of what we’re doing to our environment.”

Read the interview