Current Projects and Goals is regularly published about once a quarter. Its purpose is to communicate to our membership about important issues that the board of directors and committee members are involved with.
Projects and Goals March 2024
From the desk of
Katherine Emery, Executive Director
Through our Education Committee and our Conservation/Science Committee, Santa Barbara Audubon Society (SBAS) is actively working on many projects. This update provides an overview of selected current projects, goals, and opportunities for member engagement.
Dear SBAS Friends, Members, and Supporters,
Hope this finds you well and that you are having a happy and healthy start to 2024. SBAS is bustling with fresh energy. We work determinedly to protect area birdlife and habitat and connect people with birds through education, conservation, and science.
We continue to have informative, fun, and free bird walks, field trips, and evening programs, such as the recent owl presentation “What an Owl Knows: The New Science of the World’s Most Enigmatic Birds” by Jennifer Ackerman. We thank the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History for partnership in hosting this and other events. We welcome two new staff members, Sarah Clement, who is helping with administrative work, and Hilary Peattie, an additional teacher for our popular and growing Meet Your Wild Neighbor (MYWN) three-week educational program in local elementary schools. This spring, we are expanding MYWN to reach 16 classrooms, incorporate more bird sounds and music, and integrate a bird walk around school campuses to teach children about the birds sharing their school grounds with them. Thank you, generous donors and grantors, for making this SBAS educational outreach possible.
Year after year, the SBAS Winter Bird Count for Kids thrives. Thank you to the team for making the 10th year a success: City of Goleta, SBAS volunteers, high school students, and bird-loving and nature-seeking families. One parent, Wim van Dam, wrote: “Thank you to the organizers of the Winter Bird Count for Kids at Lake Los Carneros. It brought back great memories of child-friendly bird walks that I enjoyed myself many decades ago. Despite the rain the birds were cooperative, with the best ones being a Summer Tanager near Stow House and a Violet-green Swallow over the lake.”
Thank you, also, to Christmas Bird Count leadership for masterly orchestrating another vibrant event, and to members for braving the rain, donning boots, and collecting meaningful data. On a side note, while the total count was lower than expected (likely due to the storm and lack of a boat survey), I feel like I’m hearing and seeing more birds than ever in our post-rain, very green yard.
Gratitude to the Conservation/ Science Committee for their time and expertise working to increase conservation-focused management of open spaces, riparian zones, and other important bird habitats, and advance habitat protection initiatives, such as advocating for educational signage plans for critical birding areas and advancing research and community science (e.g., the Breeding Bird Study).
We welcome new members to our Board. Please contact SBAS President Janice Levasheff if you’re interested in learning more about our open positions on the Board.
Thank you, all, for protecting birds and their habitats.
Katherine Emery, Executive Director
Santa Barbara Audubon Society
Projects and Goals December 2023
From the desk of
Katherine Emery, Executive Director
Through our Education and Conservation/Science committees, Santa Barbara Audubon Society (SBAS) is actively working on many initiatives. This update provides an overview of selected current projects, goals, and opportunities for member engagement.
Dear SBAS Friends, Members, and Supporters,
SBAS protects area birdlife and habitat and connects people with birds through education, conservation, and science. This fall, the SBAS Board and staff came together at the beautiful Leading from Within Convening Space to review our 2020-2025 Strategic Plan. It was uplifting to have so many knowledgeable and passionate SBAS leaders in one room share what excites them most about SBAS and prioritize actionable goals for the upcoming year, such as onboarding a Development Chair and Membership Chair to fill two very important seats on our Board. Please contact President Janice Levasheff if you’re interested in one of these Chair positions.
Our educational outreach continued to soar. We created a new SBAS Feather Box exhibit to share at local schools, public events, and the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History (SBMNH), and made plans to expand our Meet Your Wild Neighbor program to more kindergarten through grade three classrooms in the new year. We were honored to collaborate with three local partners—SBMNH, Santa Barbara Botanic Garden, and UCSB Bren School of Environmental Science and Management—to present “Bird Conservation around the World and in Our Own Backyards: From Awe to Action” by Lynn Scarlett. At the end of the program, a particular moment captured the evening’s optimism. Lynn was surrounded by a group of UCSB students listening intently to her words and one young woman remarked, “I want to be like her.”
Our bird walks and field trips resumed in full force: popular, educational, and inclusive of novice and expert birders. Thank you to Peter Thompson, Rob Lindsay, Jeff Hanson, Peggy Kearns, Nick Lethaby and Guy Tingos for their knowledge and time leading these trips. Our Conservation/Science Committee remained steadfast in its commitment to protect local birdlife.
In our 60th anniversary El Tecolote issue, we looked at our past, present, and future. While we mourned the loss of a few longtime SBAS members, we were inspired to forge ahead in our conservation efforts. Gib Lentz wrote, “…It is heartening to see the number of people who fondly remember Joan and have benefited by her enthusiasm and knowledge. Now, it is up to you and the Audubon Society to carry on her work. Thank you, again.”
Along those lines, we continue to highlight accomplishments of our young student birders. Recently, Lucy London, our high school SBAS Student Representative and a shining light in the birding community, gave her gift of art to SBAS with the design of a beautiful new Winter Bird Count for Kids T-shirt. We invite you to help bring kids into nature to learn about birds at our 10th annual WBC for Kids event on January 20, 2024. Learn more at SantaBarbaraAudubon.org.
With gratitude to our friends, members, volunteers, and grantors, thank you for all that you do to protect birds and their habitats.
Wishing you peace.
Katherine Emery, Executive Director
Santa Barbara Audubon Society
Projects and Goals September 2023
From the desk of
Katherine Emery, Executive Director
Through our Education and Conservation/Science committees, Santa Barbara Audubon Society (SBAS) is actively working on many initiatives. This update provides an overview of selected current projects, goals, and opportunities for member engagement.
Dear SBAS Friends, Members, and Supporters,
SBAS protects area birdlife and habitat and connects people with birds through education, conservation, and science. Throughout the summer, our Eyes in the Sky (EITS) program provided educational live raptor presentations at local camps, Santa Barbara County Parks (such as Cachuma Lake), other public venues, and the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. This fall, we’ll introduce to local schools a new SBAS Feather Box interactive exhibit with feather specimens and replica bones, and refresh and grow our Meet Your Wild Neighbor curriculum to meet increasing demand for our quality educational outreach.
Ongoing conservation and community science initiatives included work by Don Schroeder and his team monitoring Western Bluebirds and Tree Swallows through the Next Box Project at Lake Los Carneros in Goleta. Thank you to Don Schroeder, Steve Senesac, and SBAS and UCSB volunteers for the care and logistics that make this Nest Box Project possible.
Our Conservation/Science committee proactively worked with the City of Goleta using Santa Barbara County Breeding Bird Study data to help inform management decisions at Ellwood Mesa/Sperling Preserve Open Space in Goleta. The purpose of the Nesting Bird Management Plan is to help avoid impacts to nesting birds (such as White-tailed Kites) in this important natural area.
Protecting birds and their habitats is truly a community collaboration and we thank you, SBAS members, and our community partners for supporting these efforts.
As we begin the 2023-2024 fiscal year – marking our 60th year as a local, volunteer-driven, environmental nonprofit – we welcome you to share your passion for birds, invite a friend, attend a fun bird walk, and use your voice to protect local birdlife. Learn more at SantaBarbaraAudubon.org.
Katherine Emery, Executive Director
Santa Barbara Audubon Society
Projects and Goals June 2023
From the desk of
Katherine Emery, Executive Director
Through our Education and Conservation/Science committees, Santa Barbara Audubon Society (SBAS) is actively working on many initiatives. This update provides an overview of selected current projects, goals, and opportunities for member engagement (the project list is not all-inclusive).
SBAS protects area birdlife and habitat and connects people with birds through education, conservation and science. It’s been a whopping year! SBAS Eyes in the Sky (EITS), the key wildlife education program of SBAS since 2000 and the only federally licensed raptor education program in the county, brought our signature Meet Your Wild Neighbor curriculum to 14 classes across Santa Barbara and Goleta school districts (42 sessions). SBAS also provided live raptor visits to many other local classrooms and senior centers and bird presentations at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History daily (except Tuesdays). Thank you, SBMNH, for this partnership! We’re now introducing our new Peregrine Falcon, Ace, to the public. We revamped the bird aviaries with beautiful natural branches and enrichment, and we have a new outreach table, featuring a hands-on exhibit with feather specimens and replica bones. This summer, we’ll continue to strengthen and expand the MYWN curriculum to prepare for the coming academic year.
We also celebrated many growing partnerships this year. SBAS was delighted to partner with the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden for “Family Bird Fest,” the Wildling Museum of Art and Nature for “Bird’s Eye View: Four Perspectives,” and the Cheadle Center for Biodiversity & Ecological Restoration and UCSB affiliates for the “Bringing Back our Wetlands” film screening. Collaborating with other nonprofits, we are stronger at protecting birds and their habitats.
We invite bird enthusiasts to get involved and join us at future programs, bird walks, and field trips. Learn more at SantaBarbaraAudubon.org/join-sbas.
The SBAS Board has three volunteer opportunities for organized people who like birds and outreach.
- Education Chair or Co-chair to help with outreach activities
- Development Chair or Co-chair
- Membership Chair or Co-chair
Contact Janice Levasheff for more information on volunteering: email hidden; JavaScript is required.
Thank you for your support of SBAS.
