The water and brine shrimp in Lake Abert provide a critical feeding stopover for up to like ducks, geese and shorebirds each year on the Pacific Flyway as they journey between Alaska and Mexico.
The which came out in late September, would set out to study the hydrology of saline lakes in the Great Basin, including Lake Abert, and the migratory birds that depend on them. It would include a $5 million annual appropriation for six years.
鈥淭his is the first time, really, that I鈥檝e seen much attention paid to it and it鈥檚 desperately needed, especially in the face of climate change right now,鈥� says Susan Haig, a courtesy professor of wildlife ecology at Oregon State University who has worked on waterbirds conservation issues in Oregon and California for 25 years.
Like the nearby Klamath Basin, Haig says, Lake Abert is very low this year. That鈥檚 on top of a long-term warming trend that has reduced water flowing into Great Basin wetlands.
That can make an already salty lake so saline that the brine shrimp that birds feed on can鈥檛 even survive there.
鈥淚f we lose those wetlands, we are going to lose the flyway, the Pacific Flyway, which is a huge, huge loss to biodiversity and to this part of the world,鈥� Haig says.
The House legislation is a companion to an , proposed last April, that was sponsored by Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley and Senator Mitt Romney from Utah, home of the Great Salt Lake which is also shrinking fast.
