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
- Providing socially distant education & outreach programs to serve community during COVID
- Teaching online Meet Your Wild Neighbor curriculum at 12 local 1st-3rd grade classrooms.
- Bringing Eyes in the Sky raptor ambassadors to local schools and other groups via Zoom for 15-60 min. presentations. (Contact Hannah)
- Presenting monthly Evening Programs via Zoom.
- Schedule new SBAS Zoom outreach program at local retirement communities. (Please contact Hannah or Dotti to set this up.)
- Circulate new SBAS Learning Resources and Additional Resources:
https://santabarbaraaudubon.org/learning-resources/ - 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., Manzana Wind Power Project Condor Incidental Take Permit, City of Goleta LEDs, and Baron Ranch Master Plan.)
- 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.
- Build advocacy to protect local open spaces, wetlands, bird habitats, and ecosystems.
- Collaborate with Goleta Parks & Open Space Manager, SB County Flood Control staff, and others to preserve birdlife and habitat at regional open spaces and stream corridors.
- Run the Breeding Bird Study (BBS) project 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.
Science
- Exploring community science outreach about Nest Box monitoring of breeding Tree Swallows and Western Bluebirds at Lake Los Carneros (LLC).
- Processing aquatic invertebrate data for COPR and North Campus Open Space to provide quantitative data in support of understanding and evaluating ecosystem health..
- Working on Kite Watch, the community-based program of gathering White-tailed Kite breeding data.
- Plan 2021 Nest Box monitoring & related outreach.
- Strategize adapted Winter Bird Count For Kids community science event at LLC.
- Devise COVID-safe ways of encouraging community members to gather White-tailed Kite breeding information for the season that began in January and goes till September. (Contact Mark Holmgren.)
