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Outdoors: Gibson urges people to become 'guardians of wildlife'

Tim Eisele
Special to The Capital Times  —  3/12/2008 5:39 am

Marge Gibson, of the Raptor Education Group, Inc., knows that an individual's actions can make a real difference both in preventing injuries to animals and in being conservation-minded.

"We have had so many cutbacks at the state and federal level, that many things now that the DNR does with non-game wildlife, such as trumpeter swans, are funded by donations," Gibson said. "Somehow people think the DNR has all this money but they don't, and unfortunately wildlife don't have lobbyists."

She added, "It really is up to us to understand how important wildlife is to our state, and to contact legislators and ask why we don't have enough support for these programs."

Gibson cites Missouri as a very progressive state. They passed a law years ago allowing a portion of the state sales tax to be used to fund conservation programs so that everybody in the state pays into the fund. More recently, Minnesota is considering something similar.

"We have so many people who come to Wisconsin to enjoy wildlife and this state is very important as a breeding area for birds," she said. "People don't like taxes but we need more funds for wildlife."

Gibson has seen all types of injured birds, but this past fall cared for young loons that were still on a lake when it became ice-covered and they did not have enough open water to take off. The public brought the loons in and she was able to nurse the loons to health. A corporation from Wausau then flew her and the loons down to the Gulf of Mexico where the young loons were released.

Gibson said hundreds of loons died during the past two years from botulism poisoning.

Gibson's facility was one of the first to alert people that West Nile Virus was in the state. The virus is a big issue for many species, and she said it mutates every year.

"We see a lot of red-shouldered hawks with West Nile, which is a threatened species, and every year bald eagles are affected," she said. "We actually have satellite transmitters on three of the rehabilitated eagles and monitor them after they were nursed back and released in the wild."

Gibson admits that it tugs at her heart when she works on loons with hooks in their mouth, or become tangled in discarded monofilament fishing line, or are sick and convulsing with lead poisoning.

"People don't realize how many times some of these things occur," she said. "I wish people could just be with me during a day. People can make a difference. They must care about wildlife and be willing to make changes."

"This is a bountiful state, and people must realize that they can make a difference," Gibson said. "We can no longer just take. It is up to us as residents to be guardians of wildlife."

-- Tim Eisele

Tim Eisele
Special to The Capital Times  —  3/12/2008 5:39 am