4 coastal chapters win Snowy Plover Art grants

Ventura Audubon, Los Angeles Audubon, San Diego Audubon and Redwood Region Audubon will each receive around $4,000 to hold a Western Snowy Plover art contest for young children in their community, and to make signs to protect Plovers from the winning entries. Western Snowy Plover coastal populations are threatened and protected.
The grant program is modeled after the success of the program conducted by Mendocino Coast Audubon that resulted in a published children's book as well as signs.
The funding is provided as part of the Audubon/Toyota Pennies for the Planet program of Together Green with additional funding from a family foundation, and was dreamed up by Audubon California's Science, Seabird and IBA team.

2010 California State Parks grants announced

Audubon California has announced that Morro Coast Audubon and Redwood Region Audubon will receive grants totalling $10,000 in the 2010 California State Parks grant funding program for chapters.

The program was inaugurated in 2009 following the sale by Audubon of the McVicar property in Clear Lake to California State Parks. The funds received from the sale were placed in an Audubon California endowment for annual grant funding for partnership projects between California chapters of Audubon and California State Parks staff to restore habitat, monitor populations of birds, or reach out to a new conservation constituency in California State Parks, with preference for projects in Important Bird Areas or that help a species of bird that is at risk. The inaudugural grant was awarded to Sequoia Audubon for a partnership project with Ano Nuevo State Park to restore habitat on Cascade Creek to benefit riparian species especially Common Yellowthroat.

Morro Coast Audubon will partner with Morro Bay State Park in monitoring succession of habitat from field to coastal sage scrub by monitoring the species of birds that migrate to the habitat using a MAPS monitoring program. The chapter will receive $2500 and will match with $2500 in chapter funds to launch the project.

Redwood Region Audubon will receive $7500 to partner with Humboldt Bay State Park to restore potential breeding habitat for Western Snowy Plover, and attempt to attract to the birds to the habitat.

The next request for proposals for the next round of California State Parks grants will be issued in late spring 2010, and will be posted on the Grant Opportunities page of the Chapter Network site here

2010 Collaborative Funding grants announced

This year Audubon California had a record $51,239.65 in funding requests for outreach, education, and habitat restoration and monitoring, with $ 177,105.91 in secured or possible matching funds. We got proposals from 11 chapters, or 23% of the chapters in California.

The bad news is that due to the recession the budget approved by National Audubon Board for fiscal year 2009-2010 contains a reduction in Collaborative funding of 50% for this round. This October surprise caused us to rethink the projects and our selections, and delayed our announcement until December.

In consideration of the reduction in funding, our Selection Committee, in line with prior recommendations from Audubon California Board Chapter Committee, added some additional criteria in our selection process. We decided to eliminate chapters that have received Toyota Together Green, foundation, state agency, or previous Collaborative grant funding for the same project, or chapters whose projects were good candidates for foundation, state or federal funding such as Prop 84 or the MigratoryBird Partnership, and focus on chapters that are smaller, don’t usually apply or might not have other potential sources of funding, and that are willing to match the grant with their own funds.

This added criteria caused us to reluctantly eliminate some remarkable projects that we wholeheartedly support such as Pasadena Audubon’s trail signage in a new City of Pasadena park, Mendocino Coast and Morro Coast’s wonderful programs on Western Snowy Plovers, La Purisima’s engagement of the community at the Santa Ynez River estuary, San Diego Audubon and Los Angeles Audubon’s world class Education programs, the three chapter partnership between Fresno, San Joaquin and Stanilaus Audubon to create a birding trail map of the San Joaquin River, and Santa Barbara’s Eyes-in-the-Sky raptor education program, all of which are more than deserving of funding.

With only $ 13,000 to award, Audubon California has selected the following projects to receive Collaborative Funding grants for 2010:

Buena Vista Audubon $ 2,000 (with a match of $2,670 in chapter funds) for an outreach program aimed at three local colleges to engage a new conservation constituency.

Sierra Foothills Audubon $5,000 (with a match of $4,919.50 from chapter funds) to restore riparian habitat for the benefit of Yellow-breasted Chat and Yellow Warbler on the Traylor Ranch Sanctuary and Nature Preserve in the Sierra Foothills Important Bird Area, and to provide an education program for youth from Placer Nature Center

Wintu Audubon $ 3,000 for construction of artificial burrows for Burrowing Owl in Shasta County to help an at risk species.

Yolo Audubon $ 3,000 (with a match of chapter funds from Yolo, Sacramento, and San Joaquin Audubon) to help plan and present a symposium in 2011 on conservation concerns surrounding the Delta vision process with focus on species and habitat at risk in an Important Bird Area.

Congratulations to these four chapters and their leaders.

Next round of Collaborative Funding grants will be announced in Spring, 2010 on the Chapter Network Site. Go here.

Golden Gate, Santa Clara Valley Audubons answer article on Altamont

The following was published in the East Bay Express on October 27 in response to an article by Robert Gammon. The original article is here.

Climate Change Threatens Birds

While well-intended, Robert Gammon's article suffers from the author's preconceptions about the controversy in the Altamont Pass and a lack of research. For one, Mr. Gammon's article relies on data from 2007 and prematurely concludes that wind turbines in the Altamont Pass are "shredding raptors at an increasing rate." Yet, as Dr. Smallwood of Alameda County's Scientific Review Committee explained later in the second to last paragraph of the article, everyone involved is waiting for the most recent mortality estimates to be released. Until the most recent mortality estimates are released, it is premature to conclude whether the wind companies' mortality reduction measures have worked.

Mr. Gammon's article fails to provide any context for wind energy or avian mortality in the Altamont or the complexity of the controversy. According to the National Audubon Society, climate change is expected to result in the loss of 25-33 percent of all species on earth, including many species of birds. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change anticipates that climate change will be the most significant driver in the loss of global biodiversity by the end of this century. In 2008, Governor Schwarzenegger issued a widely-lauded executive order to mandate that California get 33 percent of its power from renewable energy resources by 2020. Wind power is necessary to reach this goal and to minimizing impacts of climate change. Unfortunately, some degree of avian mortality appears inevitable wherever wind farms are developed.

Notably, Mr. Gammon's article fails to include interviews with representatives of the California Energy Commission, the California Department of Fish & Game, or the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service — the agencies tasked with regulating energy development and wildlife resources in California. For decades, none of these agencies acted to reduce avian mortality in the Altamont.

Mike Boyd and Shawn Smallwood are right about many things. Too many birds continue to be killed in the Altamont unnecessarily. The settlement — to which CARE is a signatory — is a consensus document; and, we believe that the wind companies have not always met their obligations. We demanded that companies remove additional high-risk turbines after they missed some early deadlines. While we are concerned that the wind companies have not been adequately held accountable for the continued killing of birds in the Altamont, we all must wait for the most recent monitoring team report so that the Scientific Review Committee can determine whether measures implemented have been effective in reducing avian mortality in the Altamont.

We find it unfortunate that Mr. Boyd, or any observer, would consider Golden Gate Audubon (or any Audubon chapter) to be more "pro-wind" than "pro-bird." Our staff and volunteers dedicate every day to making the Bay Area a safer place for birds and other wildlife. Rather than offer cheap shots at those trying to solve these problems, we encourage everyone who cares about birds and other wildlife to get involved and help us solve this apparently intractable question: how do we develop new, renewable energy resources quickly and on a large scale in ways that protect current wildlife populations?

There are no easy answers, but we urge the East Bay Express' readers to help solve these problems by joining the stakeholder groups and public information meetings about wind power in the Altamont (and elsewhere) and by contacting their state legislators, the California Energy Commission, the Department of Fish & Game, and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to enforce environmental laws and implement policies that protect birds and other wildlife as California develops renewable energy projects. Only with input from the public and the full involvement of state and federal agencies will we even begin to develop new energy resources wisely.

Mark Welther, Executive Director, Golden Gate Audubon

Bob Power, Executive Director, Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society

Wintu Audubon leads wind energy mitigation effort in Shasta

Wintu Audubon led efforts to mitigate for significant impacts on Bald Eagle and Sandhill Crane at the first wind energy project in Shasta County. Construction on the 42 turbine site begins in October, 2009. Energy developer Babcock & Brown agreed to fund research on Bald Eagle and to mitigate for habitat loss for Sandhill Crane at a ratio of 4 to 1. California Department of Fish & Game is purchasing wetlands to add to a reserve for Sandhills nearby. The efforts at Wintu were led by Conservation Chair Claudia Yerion-Lyons.

Mendocino CoastAudubon offers community service to beach violators

Mendocino Coast member Becky Bowen reported at a recent Northern California Council meeting that the chapter has launched a workshop program for California State Parks and California State Department of Fish & Game rangers on beach violations as part of their SAVE OUR SHOREBIRDS program. Not only did citations for walking dogs off leash, vehicles and horses on beach and other violations increase 100% but Mendocino Coast offered to provide community service to convicted violators in the form of hours of shorebird monitoring. There's a win win.

Mendocino Coast Audubon watches Blue Whale

At a NorCAL Council Meeting, Mendocino Coast reported on a Blue Whale that got beached on their coastline recently. Seems that the krill and other nutrients are very abundant and close to shore bringing the largest mammal on the planet within sight of the shore. MCA reported that the dead whale is a research opportunity for local students at Humboldt University.