2009 Collaborative Funding grants announced

9 Chapters in California will receive collaborative funding grants totalling over $26,000 from Audubon California for outreach, education, advocacy and habitat restoration projects. The grant recipients and their projects are:

• Altacal Audubon - Bird Banding and Conservation program for children
  
• Central Sierra - trail development and wildlife inventory on Groveland Community Services District
• La Purisima - PRIDE (proud residents investing in a diverse estuary) at the estuary of the Santa Ynez River
• Palos Verdes/South Bay - Volunteer Coordinator for AUDUBON YES! (Youth Environmental Service program)
• Peregrine - transportation for youth to Redwood Valley Outdoor Education Program
• Redbud - developing a Redbud Audubon membership brochure
• Sacramento - Audubon at Home Big Five workshops
• Sea & Sage - 4th Tuesday Conservation Lecture Series
• Yolo - 2008 Green Summit

Congratulations!

San Diego Audubon announces BIRD FESTIVAL

San Diego Audubon will host the 2009 SAN DIEGO BIRD FESTIVAL March 5 through 8, 2009 at the Marina Village Conference Center in Mission Bay. The chapter has added many new events and ris repeating the most popular events from previous years. David Sibley (right), author and illustrator of the Sibley Guide published by National Audubon is the keynote speaker and will lead a field trip or two!  For details go here

Audubon article published on Cattlemen's website

Sierra Foothills Conservation Chair Ed Pandolfini recently wrote an article on California's grasslands, grazing and the importance of ranching practices to our species of birds, emphasizing the common ground, literally, between Audubon and ranchers.  The article was published on the Cattleman's Association website. To read it, click here

San Bernardino Valley Audubon wins appeal!

A California state appeals court on Monday, October 26, 2008 upheld a lower court's ruling that San Bernardino County disregarded part of its general plan when it approved a Lake Arrowhead housing development without first requiring completion of an evacuation route. The California Fourth District Court of Appeal also went further than a lower court, ruling that a water supply was not properly identified for the proposed 57-home development south of Cumberland and Blue Ridge drives and that the environmental impact on the Southern Rubber Boa, a threatened species of snake found on the project site, was not properly evaluated.

The original suit was filed in San Bernardino Superior Court in December 2005 by the San Bernardino Valley Audubon Society, the Save Our Forest Association, Sierra Club and Center for Biological Diversity, against Hawarden Development and the county.

"We're very happy with the decision," said the local Audubon Society chapter President Drew Feldmann. "We went after this particular case because it was one of the first (development projects) after the big fire of 2003."The subdivision project, known as Blue Ridge Estates, was planned for a steep slope near Cedar Glen; an area hit hard by 2003's Old Fire.

Three California chapters win TOYOTA Innovation grants!

Golden Gate Audubon, Mendocino Coast Audubon and Napa/Solano Audubon will receive over $93,000 for projects on wetlands, shorebirds, and vineyards in Toyota Innovation grants announced October 21, 2008. The grants are part of a four or five year partnership between Audubon and Toyota called Together Green that will distribute $20 million to Audubon chapters, centers, and sanctuaries to engage non-Audubon partners and diverse audiences in volunteer and conservation efforts.
Golden Gate Audubon's project WETLANDS AND WILDLANDS will focus on the Bay Area, Mendocino Coast's program SAVE OUR SHOREBIRDS will focus on Snowy Plover and other shorebirds on the Northern California coast, and Napa/Solano will partner with local vineyards to restore and create new habitat for birds on their agricultural lands.
The next round of Toyota grants including Fellows grants, Volunteer Days grants, and Innovation grants will be announced in January by Audubon. For a description of recent volunteer and grant projects throughout the U.S. go here

Santa Barbara County approves wind farm with protections for birds

From Santa Barbara Audubon Conservation Chair Steve Ferry:

"On September 30 the Santa Barbara Planning Commission approved the Lompoc Wind Energy Project (LWEP).  The project includes 65 wind turbine generators (WTGs) producing about 1.5 MW each on 3000 acres of private grazing land about 5 miles south of Lompoc.                  

This milestone is the culmination of approximately two years of effort by Santa Barbara’s Environmental Defense Center (EDC), Santa Barbara Audubon Society (SBAS), La Purisima Audubon Society (LPAS), and Los Angeles Audubon Society (LAAS).  EDC and the three Audubon chapters made extensive comments on the Draft and Final Environmental Impact Reports and had numerous meetings with the County, the applicant, and their consultants.  As a result of those efforts, the Biological Resources section of the DEIR was completely re-written and significant protections to the environment were added. 

Just in the last week the County staff, at the urging of EDC and the Audubon chapters, inserted a requirement that parts of the project could be shut down if there were excessive bird mortalities.  This provision was a major goal of the environmental groups.  During the Planning Commission meeting EDC and Audubon advocated for strengthening of the shutdown provision, a longer period of bird mortality monitoring, offsite land easements, and additional protection for burrowing owls.  Our positions were supported by the Sierra Club, the Santa Barbara Community Action Network, and in part by the Community Environmental Council.  In the end, the Commission voted to extend the mortality monitoring and strengthen the shutdown provision. 

The approval of LWEP is a significant environmental achievement.  The project will produce enough clean energy to power about 50,000 homes.  The reduction of greenhouse gasses as a result of this project, if replicated across the country, will reduce global warming - a major threat to the survival of birds.  And the protections added to the project as a result of the efforts of EDC, SBAS, LPAS, and LAAS ensure that the environmental impacts of LWEP will be minimized. 

Special thanks for a long, sustained, and effective effort to those who worked on this project: Karen Kraus and Brian Trautwein of EDC, Steve Ferry of SBAS, Tam Taaffe and Paul Keller of LPAS, Garry George of LAAS, and Mark Holmgren.  Thanks also to Kris Burnell, former SBAS Science Chair, for her contributions."

 

 

Over 100 volunteers join Los Angeles Audubon for Toyota Together Green Volunteer Day event

Volunteers from Dorsey High School in South Central, Los Angeles Audubon, and Toyota joined forces on Saturday, September 20 to remove invasive non-native vegetation from the endangered Least Tern protected breeding colony on Venice Beach in Los Angeles in an Audubon California IBA. The terns are wintering in Central or South America, but will return to the colony in March or April to breed and raise their young. Removal of the invasive non-native plants allows more productive breeding areas for the birds. The effort was the first funded by a Volunteer Days grant from a Toyota/Audubon partnership that will deliver $20 million dollars to Audubon chapters, centers, sanctuaries and state office programs over the next four or five years. For more on Least Tern project go here. For more on Toyota Together Green grants go here.