The last Presidents Day

(TheLegacyLetters.com) – I wasn’t around to see the end of the passenger pigeon. One day there were 3 billion. Over one third of the bird population of the planet. And within a lifespan, they were no more. The last passenger pigeon, Martha, died on Sept. 14, 1914, in the Cincinnati Zoo. Obscure conservationists and birders were sounding some sort of alarm but then who listens to them. We knew there were less of them – sort of. A few states enacted a few laws to stop the mass killing of the birds, but no one really enforced them. No one could ever imagine that you could wipe out 3 billion birds in the blink of a geological eye. But we did. Without even realizing we had done it until it actually happened. Related Stories The buffalo story was the same. From 1874 to 1884 was the great buffalo slaughter. They went from 30 million to 325 in less than 10 years. They covered the plains in herds so large they could only be counted in days – a literal sea of buffalo floating across the grasslands. Then one day we woke up and realized that they were almost gone. Only...