SBAS is actively working on many projects related to our three main focus areas: conservation and science, recently combined into a single committee, and education. This column will be updated regularly with an overview of selected current projects and goals (project list is not all-inclusive). The goals summarize what each SBAS committee is working toward with occasional opportunities for member involvement.
From the desk of Katherine Emery, Executive Director
Current Projects
Goals
Education
- Providing SBAS outreach at local retirement communities. (Contact Dotti Pak to set up.)
- Presenting Eyes in the Sky raptor ambassadors to local schools. (Contact Hannah Atkinson to set up.)
- Preparing fall monthly Evening Programs via Zoom. Recorded programs are available here. https://santabarbaraaudubon.org/additional-resources/videos/.
- Sharing new SBAS Tree Swallow nest box video. https://santabarbaraaudubon.org/learning-resources/
- Teach newly tailored Meet Your Wild Neighbor curriculum to local kindergarten through 3rd grade classrooms.
- Bring birds and habitat lessons to older students.
- Provide 2022 Winter Bird Count 4 Kids event.
- Continue collaboration with Goleta Coast Audubon (UCSB Campus Chapter).
Conservation/Science
- Meeting with agency decision-makers, providing public comments, and authoring conservation letters to promote bird, habitat, and biodiversity protections.
- Using science to advocate for bird and habitat protections for Goleta creeks and watersheds and proposed wind turbine energy projects offshore of the Central Coast.
- Increasing Breeding Bird Study records.
- Collaborating with UCSB Cheadle Center for Biodiversity and Ecological Restoration to process aquatic invertebrate data for Coal Oil Point Reserve and North Campus Open Space to understand and evaluate ecosystem health.
- Continue to build advocacy to protect local open spaces, wetlands, bird habitats, and ecosystems. (e.g., protecting White-tailed Kites and the health of open spaces they rely on).
- Outreach to key departments within the City of Goleta, City of Santa Barbara, and SB County to advocate for bird and bird habitat protections.
- Continue reminding home owners and agencies that tree-trimming should occur during months ending in “BER” to avoid nesting season. Trim in September, October, November and December.
- Continue to monitor SB County’s only population of Purple Martins.
- Continue to work with Goleta Coast Audubon to analyze the 12th year of Nest Box monitoring data of breeding Tree Swallows and Western Bluebirds at Lake Los Carneros (LLC).
