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
- Continuing to provide programs at local retirement
communities. (Contact Dotti Pak to set up.) - Presenting Eyes in the Sky raptor ambassadors in person at Cachuma Lake, El Capitan State Beach and Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History.
- Preparing fall monthly Evening Programs.
- Sharing 3rd fun new SBAS video How to Start Birding.
https://santabarbaraaudubon.org/videos/
- Teach updated SBAS Meet Your Wild Neighbor curriculum in local classrooms over 2021-2022 school year. (Reached 12 lower elementary classrooms last year!)
- Provide bird and habitat lessons to older students. (6 upper elementary and high school classrooms visited last year!)
- Further outreach to local retirement communities and the Santa Barbara Braille Institute. (Provided 5 events last year!)
- Organize 2022 Winter Bird Count 4 Kids event.
- Continue working with Goleta Coast Audubon chapter to bring young people into active participation on behalf of birds.
Conservation
- Meeting with agency decision-makers, providing public comments, and authoring local conservation letters to promote bird, habitat, and biodiversity protections. (e.g., Heritage Ridge project, Goleta LED Street Lighting Plan, letters of support for other environmental nonprofits)
- Using science to advocate for bird and habitat protections for Goleta creeks and watersheds and City of Santa Barbara Community Wildfire Protection Plan.
- Extending reach of information and photos about the 10,300 records in the Breeding Bird Study.
- Monitoring SB County’s only population of Purple Martins.
- 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.
- 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.
- Research proposed wind turbine energy projects offshore of the Central Coast.
- Remind home owners and agencies that tree-trimming should occur during months ending in the letter “R” to avoid nesting season. Trim in September, October, November and December.
- Collect and analyze 2021 breeding data for Tree Swallows and Western Bluebirds at 22 Nest Boxes at LLC.
- Complete transfer of invertebrate data program to UCSB Cheadle Center for Biodiversity and Ecological Restoration, and analysis of 2019 data.
