More than 500,000 members of conservation groups like Friends of the Earth Europe and WWF have used an online consultation process, which ended in July, to express their concerns.
Sally Conyne, director of citizen science for the Audubon Society, said that only 5percentt of the participants in the 2001 backyard count were Audubon members and only 10percentt were members of conservation organizations.
Those fishermen, as well as biologists, members of conservation groups and longtime residents, say the Housatonic's water is clearer, its plants greener and its fish fatter than in decades.
"This is Albert, a member of our conservation board," Weiblen said.
After his retirement he became a founder member of the conservation charity Plantlife, which he served as vice-chairman.
"Silicon Valley only invests in places with big money [potential]," says Andrew Bosworth, vice president of ads and business platform for Facebook and a board member of land conservation group Peninsula Open Space Trust.
"My fear is that the food that we depend on, that is part of our cultural tradition, will die," said Linette Wilkins, a member of a conservation group in the valley.
Dan W. Reicher, a Stanford lecturer and research fellow and board member of the conservation group American Rivers, was an assistant secretary of energy in the Clinton administration and director of climate and energy initiatives at Google.
During the peak of migration, Ms. Creshkoff, a member of several conservation groups, usually patrols the World Trade Center and the Financial Center for dead or stunned birds, while Mrs. Payton hunts around the Financial Center buildings.
