As part of the Obama Administration’s ambitious youth initiative to inspire millions of young adults to play, learn, serve, and work in the great outdoors and the President’s 21st Century Conservation Service Corps Initiative, Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell today announced $6.7 million in grants to support conservation employment and mentoring opportunities at 43 projects on public lands across the country. The 21st Century Conservation Service Corps is a national collaborative effort to put America’s youth and returning veterans to work protecting, restoring, and enhancing America’s great outdoors.

With funding from the Bureau of Land Management, US Fish and Wildlife Service, National Park service, and US Forest Service, Klamath Bird Observatory (KBO) will build on a long-standing partnership with the agencies to expand its internship program and improve outreach to underserved communities, including Native American, Hispanic, and other underserved youth.  The combination of KBO’s established long-term monitoring program and an intensive training curriculum foster the integration of youth engagement and professional training.  Program expansion will create four six-month internship positions.

KBO Interns are provided with a robust opportunity to gain a realistic appreciation of what a field biologist position entails as part of their training and practical experience.  The internship program establishes a working atmosphere of respect and collaboration with intern engagement with staff and Board members, a series of day‐long extracurricular seminars, and KBO social events. Interns also learn how the data they collect are applied to address conservation priorities at regional, continental, and hemispheric scales. Klamath Bird Observatory’s project will be operated out of long-term field residences in the Upper Klamath Basin, OR, and will include activities at 10 monitoring sites in southern Oregon and northern California, and at KBO’s headquarters in Ashland, OR.

This project is being funded through the America’s Great Outdoors: Developing the Next Generation of Conservationists, a competitive grant matching program launched in conjunction with the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. Through the America’s Great Outdoors program, a total of $1.9 million in federal funds is being granted to 43 projects country-wide, and is being leveraged into the $6.7 million to support youth across the country.

Klamath Bird Observatory programs and partnerships exemplify public-private partnerships and meaningful educational and employment opportunities, and focus on public lands conservation which is at the core of the America’s Great Outdoors: Developing the Next Generation of Conservationists program.

“We have a shared responsibility to protect and promote public lands that belong to all Americans so our children and their children can enjoy them for generations to come.  The 21st Century Conservation Service Corps is built through strong public-private partnerships that not only provide employment opportunities to young adults but also provide powerful connections to nature that will last a lifetime,” said Interior Secretary Sally Jewell.

“The partnerships associated with developing the next generation of conservationists offer an opportunity to connect our young people to the great outdoors,” said USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack. “This program engages young people from diverse backgrounds, including underserved populations, and equips them with the knowledge and critical job skills they need to pursue careers in conservation and land management.”

“NFWF is proud to support this initiative in partnership with the Departments of Interior and Agriculture to provide hundreds of young people with the opportunity to get real world, boots in the mud experience with conservation jobs,” said Jeff Trandahl, Executive Director and CEO, NFWF. “Providing these additional resources is a huge win for youth, conservation, and the future of America’s great outdoors.”

Klamath Bird Observatory is a scientific non-profit organization that achieves bird conservation in the Pacific Northwest and throughout the migratory ranges of the birds of our region. KBO developed an award-winning conservation model in the ruggedly beautiful and wildlife-rich Klamath-Siskiyou Bioregion of southern Oregon and northern California, and KBO now applies this model more broadly to care for our shared birds throughout their annual cycles. Emphasizing high caliber science and the role of birds as indicators of the health of the land, we specialize in cost-effective bird monitoring and research projects that improve natural resource management. Also, recognizing that conservation occurs across many fronts, we nurture a conservation ethic in our communities through our outreach and educational programs. We owe our success to committed donors, volunteers, staff, and conservation partners who demonstrate that each of us can contribute to a legacy of abundant bird populations and healthy land, air, and water.

Click here to access a PDF of this press release.

  Fine art can be a powerful force for bird conservation. This notion will come to life at the upcoming Mountain Bird Festival through a Fine Art Auction featuring the impressive talent of our region’s artists. There will be 14 art submissions for auction, and bids can be placed on Friday May 30th from 5:00 – 9:00pm and on Saturday May 31st from 5:00 – 6:45pm at the festival’s headquarters: ScienceWorks Hands-On Museum (1500 E Main St, Ashland).

Bids can be placed by individuals who are registered for the festival, or by individuals who purchase a Federal Migratory Bird Hunting and Conservation Stamp and a Mountain Bird Conservation Science Stamp ($15 each, $30 in total) at the door to gain entry to the evening festivities, including art auction, no-host bar, and Saturday keynote presentations and music. Funds generated from stamp sales will directly support bird and habitat conservation.

To the right and below, we share a sample of the fine art that will be on display at the first-ever Mountain Bird Festival. The Mountain Bird Festival is a community conservation event hosted by Klamath Bird Observatory, in partnership with the City of Ashland, Ashland Chamber of Commerce, and ScienceWorks Hands-On Museum.

   

  Klamath Bird Observatory, with funding from the City of Ashland and the Kinsman Foundation, and overwhelming support from a community of sponsors and volunteers, is gearing up to host our first Mountain Bird Festival.  Bird enthusiasts are signing up and so far the majority of registrants will be coming from outside the region to attend this unique celebration in Ashland, Oregon from May 30th to June 1st. We are hosting this festival within a  context of conservation.

Klamath Bird Observatory is currently serving on a national team of scientists and communications specialists working to produce annual State of the Birds reports. The reports link bird conservation to the fundamentals of sustainability. They recognize that bird populations, like the famous canary in the coal mine, serve as bellwethers of the health of whole ecosystems, and thus our economic and social well-being.

As the State of the Birds Team works on the upcoming report, which will provide an update on bird population trends in our country since the initial report five years ago, we reflect on the centennial commemoration of the Passenger Pigeon. Once North America’s most abundant bird, the Passenger Pigeon was driven to extinction 100 years ago. A lesson that emerges from this travesty is that we must use proactive approaches to natural resource management and excellent applied science to avoid such unnecessary losses in the future.

While the State of the Birds reports highlight many inspiring conservation success stories, such as the recovery of the Peregrine Falcon, and the effective management of migratory birds through the North American Waterfowl Management Plan, they also outline some alarming trends. For example, declines of western forest birds appear to be sharpening, a reflection of the forest management challenges facing local communities, economies, and ecosystems in the Pacific Northwest.

So, by placing a birding festival within a conservation context, we are balancing troubling news about declining bird populations with the optimism that science-based conservation can work. The Mountain Bird Festival celebrates how citizens and science can reverse bird population declines through strategic habitat conservation, an engaged citizenry, and stewardship for resilient ecosystems. During the festival, field trip goers will be exploring the Klamath Siskiyou Bioregion, an area renowned for its high diversity of western forest migratory birds. This is also an area where opportunities abound for improved conservation of these species.

By signing up for the Mountain Bird Festival, every registrant will be purchasing a Federal Migratory Bird Hunting and Conservation Stamp and thereby directly contributing to habitat protection within the National Wildlife Refuge System. Additionally with registration, every festival attendee will be purchasing a Mountain Bird Conservation Science Stamp, with proceeds supporting Klamath Bird Observatory’s scientific programs that are driving western forest bird conservation in the Klamath Siskiyou Bioregion and throughout the Pacific Northwest.

We hope you attend our inaugural Mountain Bird Festival and help us write a new conservation success story starring citizens, science, and mountain birds.

Klamath Bird Observatory receives award in recognition of the conservation significance of its Mountain Bird Festival being held in Ashland, Oregon, May 30 through June 1, 2014.  This inaugural Mountain Bird Festival combines a celebration of the Klamath-Siskiyou Region’s spectacular mountain birds with the stewardship ethic needed to ensure thriving landscapes for humans and wildlife.

An anonymous donor granted this award recognizing the festival’s central theme – citizens elevating conservation.  Every Mountain Bird Festival attendee advances bird conservation in multiple ways; they contribute to habitat protection, they participate as citizen scientists, and they support scientific programs aimed at achieving sustainable natural resources management.  “Receiving this award as we prepare to host our first conservation-focused festival adds to our momentum and gives us encouragement that we’re on the right trajectory,” said John Alexander, Klamath Bird Observatory’s Executive Director.

The Mountain Bird Festival’s conservation impacts are far-reaching.  First, each festival attendee receives a Federal Migratory Bird Hunting and Conservation Stamp (a.k.a. the Duck Stamp) purchased with a portion of their registration fee. The Federal Duck Stamp Program is considered one of the most successful conservation programs ever; proceeds from stamp sales are used to purchase or lease wetland habitat for protection within the National Wildlife Refuge System.  More than 6 million acres of strategic wetland habitat have been preserved through this program over the last 80 years.

Second, all bird sightings made during Mountain Bird Festival field trips will be entered into eBird, a real-time, online checklist program that is the fastest growing biological database in the world.  The birding community – simply by uploading bird abundance and distribution data into this program – is contributing to an unprecedented understanding of the dynamic health of the natural world; such information allows scientists to identify conservation priorities and better use limited conservation funds.  eBird Festivals, such as the Mountain Bird Festival, are accelerating this valuable citizen science trend.

Third, festival attendees also receive a new and attractive Mountain Bird Conservation Science Stamp, modeled after the Duck Stamp and designed by local artist Gary Bloomfield.  Each festival attendee purchases this stamp though their registration fee and proceeds support Klamath Bird Observatory’s scientific programs that inform management for healthy lands, airs, and waters in the Klamath-Siskiyou Region of southern Oregon and northern California.

The Mountain Bird Festival is a unique community conservation event that celebrates the globally outstanding Klamath Siskiyou Region, recognized for its abundance of different habitats and species.  The festival offers two days of field trips that will search for mountain bird specialties, such as White-headed Woodpecker, Mountain Quail, Calliope Hummingbird, and Great Gray Owl.  The festival also features a fine art auction, live music, local foods and beverages, cocktail parties, and stimulating evening presentations.

Klamath Bird Observatory is hosting the 2014 Mountain Bird Festival in partnership with the City of Ashland, the Ashland Chamber of Commerce, ScienceWorks Hands-On Museum, and many other organizations.

Click here to visit the Mountain Bird Festival website to learn about festival events and to register.

Click here to access a PDF of this Press Release.

Birding festivals are growing in popularity across the world, and, increasingly, these community events are becoming “eBird Festivals.” eBird is a real-time, online checklist program that has revolutionized the way that the birding community reports and accesses information about birds. eBird festivals use the eBird program to track the many birds seen on the field trips offered during these events that celebrate birds and birding.  eBird Festivals also provide outreach, promoting the use of eBird by helping festival attendees set up their own eBird accounts and providing information about the powerful data entry and exploration tools offered by eBird.  By integrating eBird within festival activities these eBird Festivals are building on a significant opportunity for the birding community to contribute to the science that drives conservation worldwide.

Two of the first birding festivals to adopt eBirding as part of their annual celebrations were the Winter Wings Festival, held in February in Klamath Falls, Oregon, and the Godwit Days Spring Migration Bird Festival held in April in Arcata, California.  These festivals first adopted eBirding as an integral part of their activities in 2008 in collaboration with Klamath Bird Observatory, who at that time created the regional eBird portal, Klamath-Siskiyou eBird. This portal celebrates the globally outstanding biodiversity of the Klamath-Siskiyou Bioregion of southern Oregon and northern California, and  provides stories on the extensive conservation science efforts that have been developed in the region through the Klamath Bird Monitoring Network. This eBird Portal will soon be transformed into eBird Northwest, which will serve a broader geographical area while also acting as the citizen science application of Avian Knowledge Northwest. Avian Knowledge Northwest is a regional node of the Avian Knowledge Network that provides information from comprehensive datasets on birds and the environment for scientists, natural resource managers, and other individuals interested in conservation and science in the northwestern United States.

Between 2008 and 2013, the Winter Wings Festival in southwest Oregon logged 309 checklists documenting 195 species into the regional Klamath-Siskiyou eBird portal.  During this same time period, the Godwit Days Festival in northwest California logged 449 checklists documenting 283 species. A new eBird Festival, the Mountain Bird Festival, will be hosted by Klamath Bird Observatory and held for the first time this spring in Ashland, Oregon. These festivals are nurturing citizen-driven conservation by promoting eBird among their festival attendees and by helping each attendee contribute to one of the largest and fastest growing biological data resources in existence, eBird.

eBird was launched in 2002 by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and National Audubon Society.

Science Symposium Open to Public

The National Fish and Wildlife Forensic Laboratory is hosting an all-day Elements of Science Conference in Ashland on Wednesday February 12th, 2014. The conference will emphasize “cool” science, as characterized by novel, surprising, or innovative results, techniques, or ideas. This event represents an opportunity for the local scientific community, and the science-interested public, to come together to share ideas, engage in discussion, and pursue common interests. Klamath Bird Observatory biologists will give two of the presentations (see descriptions below). Click here to see the full schedule of the day’s programs. Location: National Fish and Wildlife Forensic Laboratory, 1490 E. Main St. in Ashland Date: Wednesday February 12th Time: 9:00am to 4:30pm Registration: Pre-registration is required, but it is also free! Contact Tabitha Viner (Tabitha_Viner@fws.gov) to register.

The Search for the Conservation Meme (10:00am – 10:25am)

Brandon M. Breen, Klamath Bird Observatory

In his 1976 book The Selfish Gene, Richard Dawkins coined the term “meme” to illustrate how evolutionary principles could help us understand cultural change in human societies. Each cultural idea, or “meme,” experiences increases or decreases in its expression in a human culture based, at least in part, on its merit or fitness. From a conservation perspective, the question arises, Does there exist a conservation meme with the potential for widespread expression in Western culture? This talk will be an exploration of how evolutionary principles can help us understand the prospects for a culture of conservation in the 21st century.

Avian Knowledge Northwest: An Online Science Delivery Tool (10:45am – 11:10am)

John D. Alexander, Jaime L. Stephens, Brandon M. Breen, Klamath Bird Observatory

Avian Knowledge Northwest, a regional node of the Avian Knowledge Network, provides information on birds and the environment for professionals engaged in natural resource management in the Pacific Northwest.  The data center is designed to advance bird and habitat conservation through the efficient delivery of information, specifically to (1) bring in and archive data, (2) ensure the multitude of datasets are discoverable and readily available, (3) combine datasets for broad-scale analyses, such as future species abundance under climate change scenarios, and (4) build a community of data providers and users who collaboratively identify information needs to address conservation challenges.  Avian Knowledge Northwest is integrated with eBird Northwest, an application that encourages contributions from a growing citizen science community.

Christmas Bird Count Shows Northward Movement of Birds

Earlier this week, KBO Board President Harry Fuller discussed Ashland’s annual Christmas Bird Count with the Ashland Daily Tidings newspaper. The full article can be found by clicking this link to the newspaper’s website. Eight bird species detected by birdwatchers on past Ashland Christmas Bird Counts were not present in the Ashland area 50 years ago, but they are detected here now as their ranges have pushed northwards. The fourth annual Ashland Christmas Bird Count will be held in two days on January 4th, 2014. Last year 118 species were counted, the highest total so far. Medford this year had 119. Every year so far the American Robin has been the most numerous species, followed by European Starlings and Dark-eyed Juncos.

The Ferruginous Hawk

By Harry Fuller, Klamath Bird Observatory Board President

The first scientific specimen of the Ferruginous Hawk was shot by Ferdinand Deppe near Monterey, California in 1834. The first scientific description, based on that specimen, was written by Martin Heinrich Lichtenstein in 1838 in Berlin.

American naturalists, including John James Audubon, remained ignorant of the species for another decade until specimens were collected by Edward Kern, the artist on Colonel Fremont’s expedition to California in 1846. Kern observed, as it happened, that the Ferruginous was very good eating. When John Cassin published his lone volume of Illustrations of the Birds of California, Texas, Oregon, British and Russian American (1856) his book contained the first colored illustration of the Ferruginous Hawk. It was known at that time as “Ferruginous Buzzard.” Cassin wrote, “Since Mr. Kern, the only American naturalist who has noticed this bird is Dr. Heermann, who has met with it during both of his visits to California…” Then he quotes from Heermann’s journal: “During a previous visit to California, I had seen this species in the valley of the Sacramento river, and had considered it as rare in that section…but during the recent survey…in the southern part of the state, I found it very abundant, and on one occasion saw five or six individuals in view at the same moment, in the mountains, about sixty miles east of San Diego… “As large tracts of that country inhabited by this bird are often entirely without trees, it alights on the ground or on some slightly elevated tuft of grass or stone, where it sits patiently for hours watching for its prey….” Even as late as 1874 Elliott Coues wrote about the dispute over whether the Ferruginous Buzzard was truly a separate species. There were some who thought it was a form of the Rough-legged Hawk. Both have insulating feathers along their legs. In Birds of the Northwest, A Handbook, Coues declares the Ferruginous to be a separate species and later decades have proven him correct. Coues wrote, “According to me observations…the Ferruginous Buzzards have no partiality for watery places, thus differing from the eastern Rough-legs. About Fort Whipple [Arizona] the birds mostly resorted to the open plains and the grassy glades intervening between patches of pinewoods… “This hawk is known as the ‘California Squirrel Hawk’ in some localities…the name is gained from their feeding extensively, in California upon ‘ground squirrels’….” The Ferruginous Hawk is one of the many species that can be seen during Klamath Bird Observatory’s Mountain Bird Festival, to be held May 30th – June 1st in Ashland, Oregon in 2014.

Christmas Bird Count Season

By Harry Fuller, Klamath Bird Observatory Board President The oldest and most venerable citizen science effort on earth is the annual Christmas Bird Count (CBC). It began back in 1900 with a handful of counters across a few states. The CBC was initially seen as a way to counter what was then a major holiday tradition: everyone who got a new gun for Christmas went out the next day to see how many birds they could shoot. Now there are more birds seen and counted than slaughtered during the Christmas season. And the extensive data base built up over the decades is useful for tracking changes in bird populations and effects of climate change and habitat alteration. You can click here to explore the CBC data online. This is the 114th annual CBC and counts now take place in many countries across the globe. The National Audubon Society organizes the CBC and handles the database. Here are the dates for upcoming Christmas Bird Counts in the Rogue Valley in southern Oregon: Medford, Dec. 14 Ashland, Jan. 4 The Ashland count will be followed by a count dinner at Alex’s Restaurant. We are seeking volunteers for the Rogue Valley counts. You don’t have to be an expert, just enthusiastic. As always, a good time will be had by all. Let me know if you would like to be part of the Ashland or Medford counts (atowhee AT gmail.com). The Cedar Waxwing is a regular species on our Christmas Counts, but the number varies widely. Some years there will be hundreds in the area, the next year perhaps only a handful. They wander around in fall and winter in search of good berry and fruit supplies. Crops from native and exotic plants may be radically different from one year to the next. Waxwings may find fruit on western juniper, chokecherry, crabapple, blackberry, holly, dogwood, grape vines, mistletoe, madrone, manzanita, huckleberry, and feral plum. In winter they may also eat buds on early budding trees like alder.

Saving Birds with Coffee: The View from Nicaragua’s Highlands

By Scott Weidensaul, Author and Naturalist

This article first appeared on the American Bird Conservancy Blog.

Migratory birds—which must overcome so many natural challenges as they journey from one end of the globe to another—are having a much harder time overcoming the obstacles that humans have added to the mix: habitat loss, environmental contaminants, climate change, and a lot more.

But we humans can be helpful, too. I saw vivid proof of that last January in the highlands of northern Nicaragua, where declining migrants such as Wood Thrushes spend the nonbreeding season. For years, this area has been a stronghold for farmers growing quality shade coffee. Not coincidentally, it’s also known as a paradise for birds. An Island of Fertile Green

Everywhere we looked, we saw migrants: Philadelphia, Warbling, and Yellow-throated vireos; Tennessee, Chestnut-sided, Wilson’s, and Yellow warblers rolling through the understory in constant, flickering motion; Western Kingbirds and Western Wood-Pewees hawking insects in the treetops; Summer Tanagers and Rose-breasted Grosbeaks mixing with resident species like Black-headed Saltators and Clay-colored Robins. Flocks of Baltimore Orioles descended on blossoming trees and plucked the brilliant yellow flowers, dropping showers of blooms as they drank the rich pockets of nectar they’d revealed.

Later, in the village of San Juan del Río Coco, I met with members of a cooperative of more than 400 small coffee producers who raise more than 2.5 million pounds of shade coffee every year. These producers raise coffee the way it’s been farmed for centuries there, below the canopy of intact, functioning forests that provide critical habitat for scores of migratory bird species. When these shade coffee farmers prosper, the outlook for migratory birds gets brighter, too.

Seen from space, though, the hills around San Juan del Río Coco are an island of fertile green surrounded by hundreds of square kilometers of land already converted to sun coffee, pasture, and grain fields.

Increasingly, small shade coffee farms have been destroyed to make way for sun-tolerant coffee—an industrialized, chemical-dependent system that renders what had been prime bird habitat into the ecological equivalent of a parking lot. By some estimates, more than 40 percent of the shade coffee farms in Latin America have already been lost to satiate the demand for cheap coffee. Drink the Right Coffee Americans drink one-third of the world’s supply of coffee and are the driving force behind the shift from traditional, shade-grown coffee to habitat-destroying sun coffee. The decisions we make at the supermarket or specialty shop have profound effects on birds. Sun coffee may be cheaper to purchase, but in truth, there is no such thing as “cheap coffee.” Throughout the tropics, inexpensive sun-grown varieties exact an enormous toll on biodiversity, not to mention rural families and small cooperatives steamrollered by large agribusinesses. Fortunately, there is a surprisingly easy solution: Drink the right coffee. Scientists at the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center (SMBC) created the Bird Friendly program to certify the very highest-quality shade coffee farms—the ones that provide the greatest benefit to migratory birds. By certifying this exceptional coffee, the SMBC program elevates its grade, so it then commands a premium price in the marketplace. This increased value creates a powerful incentive for farmers to keep shade coffee farms intact. While there are other shade certification programs, Bird Friendly is widely regarded as the gold standard. It requires USDA organic certification, and to qualify, farmers must meet a rigorous list of requirements, from canopy height and native tree diversity to pollution controls when the coffee is milled. The result? Coffee that safeguards habitat for the birds we care about, while providing an opportunity for farmers to receive a higher price for their crop—and which, because it ripens slowly in the shade, tastes far richer and more complex in your cup. That’s the way it happens in the shade forest oasis that surrounds the Nicaraguan village of San Juan del Río Coco. Please, do what you can to protect this oasis and many more like it—for the bugs, fruit, and nectar these healthy forests still produce, and for the way of life that supports both rural families and migratory birds. All you have to do is choose Bird Friendly coffee. It may be the easiest and tastiest way to help migratory birds. Editor’s Note: Klamath Bird Observatory proudly drinks Bird Friendly coffee in our offices. Ask your local coffee shops, supermarkets, and food co-ops for shade grown Bird Friendly coffee. Scott Weidensaul is the author of more than two dozen books on natural history, including Living on the Wind and Of a Feather, as well as his newest, The First Frontier. He is also an active field researcher, specializing in the migration of owls and hummingbirds. Weidensaul lives in Pennsylvania.