SBAS is actively working on many projects related to our three main focus areas: education, conservation, and science. This column will be updated regularly with an overview of selected current projects and goals (project list is not all-inclusive). Likewise, the goals summarize what each SBAS committee is working towards with occasional opportunities for member involvement.
From the desk of Katherine Emery, Executive Director
Current Projects
Goals
Education
- Using 1st and 3rd grade teacher feedback about Meet Your Wild Neighbor (MYWN) to fine-tune program.
- Supporting new UCSB Goleta Coast Audubon.
- Strategizing COVID-19 “socially distant” bird walks, programs, and Eyes in the Sky (EITS) outreach.
- Clarify who SBAS is and what we’re doing to the general SB public; highlight SBAS actions in 5 local newspapers (March-May 2020).
- Explore online outreach to elementary & high school students for 2020-21 school year.
- Continue reaching out to EITS volunteers, members, and local nonprofit leaders to strengthen SBAS community during this time of uncertainty.
Conservation
- Signing local conservation letters and providing public comments to promote bird & biodiversity protections.
- Using science to inform decision making for bird protections and their habitat for Goleta creeks and watersheds and Wildfires Protection Plans.
- Protecting Goleta open spaces (including Lake Los Carneros (LLC) & Ellwood) by providing guidance to Goleta City Council, Commissioners and Parks Staff.
- Communicate to the greater SB public the impacts of the Strauss wind energy project on birdlife, including Condors.
- Build advocacy to protect local open spaces, wetlands, bird habitats, and ecosystems.
- Collaborate with Goleta Parks and Open Space Manager to preserve birdlife and habitat at regional open spaces (LLC & Ellwood).
Science
- Providing Nest Box habitat for cavity-dwelling birds at LLC and opportunities for people to understand Tree Swallows and Western Bluebirds more deeply.
- Encouraging broad agency use of Santa Barbara County Breeding Bird Study records as a tool to inform land management and resource planning.
- Collect breeding data for Tree Swallows and Western Bluebirds at 22 Nest Boxes at LLC.
- Resume snowy plover monitoring, water quality and invertebrate research at North Campus Open Space & Coal Oil Point Reserve.
- Get White-tailed Kite nesting data from Winchester, Ellwood, More Mesa, & San Marcos Foothills.
