Innovations                                                                    

Signs of spring: songbirds and taxes

For taxpayers who still owe money on April 15, the weight might be lifted somewhat by the reassuring song of birds home from wintering in the tropics. But, while taxes are a certainty, songbirds are not. Depletion of nesting habitat, here and in the tropics, is threatening silent springs.

However, taxpayers have a way to help songbirds by checking line 15a of the Illinois income tax form, or line 5a of the state EZ tax form, to make a tax-deductible contribution to the Wildlife Preservation Fund. The fund has contributed $20,000 to research that aims to increase the number of songbirds in Illinois. The 15-month study is taking place in the Cache River watershed in southern Illinois, a major breeding habitat for migratory birds.

"The research will explore if a flood-plain restoration program to enlarge songbird habitat can benefit thrushes, warblers, flycatchers and other birds that migrate between North America and the tropics," says Conservation Department Director Brent Manning.

Songbirds nest in the middle of forests, but large-scale conversion of forested land to other uses has resulted in smaller, isolated woodlands. As a result, according to the department's avian ecologist Vernon Kleen, forest-dependent birds have been put at risk from such predators as raccoons, snakes and blue jays, which hunt along the edges of forests.

Once common across the state, the prairie white fringed orchid has all but been exterminated due to habitat destruction.

Research on songbirds is being conducted as well in the forests of the Mississippi Palisades in northwestern Illinois. Scott Robinson, a scientist with the department's natural heritage division, says the check-off funds he receives for research go to pay students and others who count the songbird nests. "It's about as effective a transfer of [taxpayer] funds as you can get," he says.

The information Robinson and others collect is entered into a database that catalogs the state's endangered and threatened plants and animals, exceptional natural communities and special geologic features. The Illinois Natural Heritage Database contains information on nearly 5,200 species of plants and animals in the state, 511 of which are listed as endangered or threatened.

Policy-makers then have scientific bases for making decisions that affect all species. Whether or not animals and plants native to Illinois survive, even flourish, depends upon how decision-makers use the information gathered.

The state's species database was developed by The Nature Conservancy and is part of its Biological and Conservation Data system, which catalogs more than 30,000 species in the Western Hemisphere in danger of losing the space war (as in condos or nests) with humans.

Illustrations by Olin Harris from photos courtesy of the Natural History Survey (above) and The Nature Conservancy

With a flute-like voice, the wood thrush is a songbird that still can
be found throughout the state. However, its numbers have
declined seriously in the last few years.

Electronic tax-paying: state has on-ramp The Illinois Department of Revenue has electronic service for those taxpayers who have a computer and a modem. The Electronic Express includes the Customer Service Bulletin Board and Tax Fax. The bulletin board offers a list of available services; answers to the most commonly asked questions; information about ordering forms, income and sales tax letter rulings, and regulations; and an e-mail address for Director Raymond T. Wagner Jr. and the department's general counsel. Tax Fax allows anyone with a fax machine or fax modem to call from a touch-tone telephone and order any of the department's most commonly requested forms. Taxpayers can reach either service of Electronic Express 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Call the bulletin board at 217-782-0774. Call, for forms via fax at 217-785-3400. Beverley Scobell

4/April 1995/Illinois Issues