A personal message from Ms.
Warren...
Birds, which have been the primary
subject of my painting these many years, are disappearing worldwide.
Some of my clients in England have reported a sharp reduction in the population
of songbirds there. The "Dawn Chorus" is not what it used
to be. My earliest memories are of the blackbirds, chaffinches and
other species that would greet an English morning.
The thought of no longer hearing
that chorus saddens me beyond words, but that risk is real. Here
on Vancouver Island, where I have lived since I was nine, several endangered
and threatened species of birds are still to be found - the Western Screech
Owl and the Goshawk, for example.
This is due not to direct pollution,
nor intentional human predation of flora and fauna, but to the conversion
of habitat for profit. It really is the habitat that is at risk.
When I visited the Sooke Hills
recently, I was struck by their serenity. The silence was punctuated
only by the sounds of a flock of crossbills, the tapping of a hairy woodpecker
and the tinkling of golden-crowned kinglets high in the forest canopy.
(Chainsaws and bulldozers do not sooth the soul in the same way!)
Scientists may claim that they
can clone lost species from laboratory samples, but that will not bring
them back from extinction, because without their natural habitat as well,
they cannot live.
It may not be too late. The bottom
line is: we need to preserve their habitat in order to preserve our own.
The two are one.
The following is a poem I wrote
for the Spotted Owls. It is called "Here In Peace" and
speaks from the owls' point of view:
Thank you for supporting
critical habitat preservation efforts. Please continue to contribute and
share your vision, your creativity and your belief.
"Here in Peace"
We ask nothing
Only to live here
In the green stillness
Far from sounds
Of metal and man:
Before he existed
We knew the aeons;
Down from the dawn age
We raised our chicks,
Hunted and were content.
Now men claim all:
Clamouring, breeding
And building strange nests
Side by side
Without thought or respect.
We ask them
To leave us in peace
As part of the living earth:
They were chosen
To guard and cherish
All the rest of us
Who dwell in its lands and oceans.