Declining Marbled Murrelet Population Highlights Urgency to Protect US Forests

Nesting high in the canopy of towering redwoods, the marbled murrelet is one of the most elusive wildlife species in North America. According to The New York Times, researchers are using artificial intelligence to help locate the threatened seabird, whose numbers have sharply declined in California, Oregon, and Washington.

The murrelet is unique: it is the only seabird that nests in the forests of the lower 48 states, laying a single egg on the wide, mossy branches of old-growth redwoods.

Parents fly miles inland to brood their chick, then return daily to the ocean for fish. Yet logging, collapsing fish populations, nest predators, oil spills, and wildfires fueled by Climate change have all taken a heavy toll.

In some areas, populations have been cut in half within just two decades. Scientists warn that continued habitat destruction could devastate the bird further.

Proposed rollbacks to the Endangered Species Act that would weaken protections for critical habitat add to the risk, even as courts have upheld rulings that logging in old-growth forests would harm murrelets. Conservationists stress that preserving the bird’s forest home is inseparable from saving the species itself.

Redwoods once blanketed the Pacific Coast, but about 95 percent of these ancient trees have already been lost to clearcutting. That loss reverberates across the entire ecosystem, stripping away the giant branches the birds need for nesting and destabilizing forest resilience. Scientists say it will take centuries for second-growth trees to provide suitable habitat again.

Climate change is compounding the pressure. Once rare, large wildfires now rip through the redwoods as hotter, drier conditions prevail. Entire groves critical to the murrelet’s survival have burned, and changing ocean temperatures have disrupted the supply of anchovies and sardines that sustain them.

Protecting the marbled murrelet isn’t just about one bird—it’s about safeguarding forests, oceans, and the health of our shared planet. Supporting groups that defend old-growth forests and choosing plant-based lifestyles that reduce logging and overfishing pressures can help ensure this mysterious seabird doesn’t vanish.

Every choice we make for the environment is a step toward giving murrelets—and countless other animals—a fighting chance.

This article by Nicholas Vincent was first published by One Green Planet on 25 September 2025. Lead Image Credit: John Yunker/Shutterstock.