What is a Wildlife Reserve, Bird Sanctuary or Bird City?

While we were up in Wisconsin, one of the things we discussed among our family is what we could do with 'Grandpa's Farm'. While the farm exists in an area where many people are subdividing the farms into subdivisions and lots, Grandpa told us all that he would prefer not to sell because, "Once you sell it, its gone".

As part of the conversation about what other options exist, we recommended to become a "Bird Sanctuary". Today, after doing some research, I wanted to take a deeper dive into what is a "Bird Sanctuary", as well as some other options like "Wildlife Reserve" or Bird Reserve - plus a new designation I found - "Bird City".

Source: @ecoinstante in Wisconsin.

It turns out that a bird or wildlife sanctuary takes in birds from other places. This was outside the original idea to create a space where birds can live freely and people can come to see them. I was a bit surprised to find out, but the word I was using 'Santuary', generally describes a place with facilities, veterinarians and some intention to receive species (often exotic species) from people who no longer want to deal with them. Receiving injured birds, even local species, is something that Bird Sanctuaries also do.

Source: Reference.com

I took a quick look around the web and did find a lot of information about Sanctuaries, Bird and otherwise, like this very nice starter guide on How to Become an Animal Sanctuary. Suffice it to say, this goes a little farther than I had anticipated when I started using the word. But as my father always said, "Words mean things", and so out of respect for the things that Sanctuary means, I started looking for another word.

The next word I found was "Reserve", such as wildlife reserve, bird reserve or Nature Reserve. These are generally less regulated, operated by governments, organizations or private landowners, and have a wide range of reasons and benefits justifying their existence. We can see from the above linked Wikipedia article, that the broadest category, Nature Reserve, includes many things and is more flexible than the concept of Sanctuary.

When I originally proposed the idea, this is more of what I had in mind. The property is already a natural refuge for many species, including the very visible wild turkeys that we saw in the photo from @ecoinstante above. Based on conversations with the stakeholders across our family, an ideal plan of action would include the least amount of paperwork possible, while integrating voluntary steps internally to improve the quality and quantity of native birds (and other animals) living naturally within the grounds.

It seems like 'Reserve', whether Nature reserve or "Bird Reserve" is the right designation, and is a concept that we can start with and continue to develop over time. In my research this morning I also found the idea of a "Bird City" exists in Wisconsin, the requirements for applying are listed here. There are a lot of different ways to qualify, and it definitely seems like over time, this is a goal that we could easily achieve in 5 to 10 years.

From Nature Reserve to Bird City

Now that we have identified the right words, and we have even found a goal to work towards over time, I feel a lot more comfortable about working with the concept - including preparing a mission statement, putting a plan of action into place, and discussing the implications with family members.

The land under discussion is already, naturally, becoming a nature reserve. The maintenance of the property has been limited to upkeep of paths, some transplanting and pruning, and monitoring. The area where once there was an active tree farm has begun to transition naturally into a place where many wildlife species find comfortable to shelter and raise their young.

By making the determination to affirm this transition into Nature Reserve, recognizing what is happening and accepting it into the management plan, future efforts can be dedicated to assisting and improving the natural transition instead of fighting against it. While it is theoretically possible to resist the transition and return to an active tree farm, the reality we must accept is that there is very little energy left in the family unit to make the changes necessary for that to be the case.

It is my proposal that we recognize this reality and make the necessary determinations to expend any further available energy assisting this transition of land use into that of the very open and flexible designation of "Nature Reserve".

Next Steps

The next step for the family would be to approve this idea conceptually. I managed to get tentative agreement from a majority of members while I was in Wisconsin for even my poorly investigated "Bird Sanctuary" idea. After a bit of follow on research, mostly linked in this article, I can confidently say that our recommended course of action can be defined as a "Private Nature Reserve" and we can even aim towards one day registering as a "Bird City".

Further steps would include defining specific consequences and steps for our monitoring and land management, definition of areas of maintenance (where energy should be expended) and areas of observation (where energy should not be expended), as well as making determinations on how these ideas fit into the current maintenance plan of all sub-areas of the property and if any changes need to be made.

This is plenty of work already. In the future, when appropriate, we can look at the possibility of marking the paths, allowing Bird Watchers in, perhaps as "Members", or even opening up an event venue.

Freedom and Friendship