Hello,

I thought you might be interested in this new report by the fish and wildlife service on people who participate in birding. This new report shows that one of every five Americans watches birds, and in doing so, birdwatchers contributed $36 billion to the U.S. economy in 2006, the most recent year for which economic data are available. What’s neat about this report is that it also shows that Iowa ranked 5^th in participation rates. (See chart 7 page 7 of the report). The five top states with the greatest birding participation rates include Montana (40 percent), Maine (39 percent), Vermont (38 percent), Minnesota (33 percent) and Iowa (33 percent). My guess is it’s because of winter time bird-feeding.  Ed

Link to report: http://library.fws.gov/Pubs/birding_natsurvey06.pdf

Ed Thelen

Natural Lakes Investigations

Iowa Dept. of Natural Resources

122 252nd Ave Spirit Lake, IA 51360

712-336-1840 (phone)

712-336-0921 (fax)

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