SBAS is actively working on many projects related to our three main focus areas: education, conservation, and science. This column is 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
- Providing SBAS Zoom outreach programs at local retirement
communities. (Contact Dotti Pak to set up.) - Presenting Eyes in the Sky raptor ambassadors to schools
and other groups. (Contact Hannah Atkinson.) - Presenting monthly Evening Programs via Zoom.
- Sharing new SBAS video Why are Birds Important? at Santa
Barbara Earth Day festival and beyond.
https://santabarbaraaudubon.org/videos/
- Complete school year teaching of Meet Your Wild Neighbor
curriculum at 12 local 1st-3rd grade classrooms. - Evaluate our new “pandemic style” 2021 Winter Bird Count 4
Kids event and brainstorm 2022 event. - Reintroduce in-person raptor outreach at Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History.
- Continue work with UCSB Goleta Coast Audubon.
Conservation
- Meeting with agency decision-makers, providing public comments, and authoring local conservation letters to promote bird, habitat, and biodiversity protections. (e.g., work
plan for the City of Goleta’s Public Works Department, Baron
Ranch Master Plan, letters of support for other environmental
nonprofits). - Using science to inform decision making for bird protections and habitat for Goleta creeks and watersheds and City of Santa Barbara Community Wildfire Protection Plan.
- Running the Breeding Bird Study (BBS) for its 6th year;
gather, edit, and curate the 9300 BBS records & continue
promoting breeding data as a tool to inform land management
and resource planning.
- Build advocacy to protect local open spaces, wetlands, bird habitats, and ecosystems.
- 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 support for saving San Marcos Foothills.
Science
- Working together with Goleta Coast Audubon to conduct
the 12th year of Nest Box monitoring of breeding Tree Swallows and Western Bluebirds at Lake Los Carneros (LLC). - Processing aquatic invertebrate data for Coal Oil Point Reserve and North Campus Open Space to provide quantitative data in support of understanding and evaluating ecosystem health.
- Collect breeding data for Tree Swallows and Western Bluebirds at 22 Nest Boxes at LLC.
- Research proposed off-shore wind turbine energy projects off the coast of Santa Barbara County.
