In the 1920s, the Eastern Bluebird population was in decline because of habitat loss. The beloved sky-blue bird was becoming rare until one man started a movement to set out thousands of nest boxes all across eastern North America.
This effort helped rescue the Eastern Bluebird and is a conservation success story, according to a news release from the University of Tennessee Arboretum Society.
With bluebirds considered to be rare, in 1926, retiree Thomas Musselman of Quincy, Illinois, took it on himself to build bluebird nestboxes and to speak to civil groups and schools about the need to build more. Musselman is credited with establishing the concept of a “bluebird trail.”…