In celebration of giving Tuesday, the Rogue Valley The Messenger recognized KBO, along with other local non-profits, encouraging readers to donate to each of the organizations. KBO’s resilience is bolstered by the support we receive from our donors and we ask you to join Rogue Valley Messenger with your support for our continued efforts to protect birds. Also, as you plan you holiday shopping, consider giving a gift of bird conservation by purchasing KBO’s conservation stamp set for your bird loving family members and friends. Lastly, when holiday shopping remember to visit visiting Sunday Afternoons in Ashland and Wild Bird Unlimited in Medford — as KBO sponsors these two local stores are valued KBO supporters.
KBO FUNdraiser: Join us for an all-day RAPTOR-FINDING excursion to the picturesque Klamath Basin! KBO board members Dick Ashford and Amanda Alford will share their enthusiasm of, and knowledge about, “our” wintering raptors during this always-popular field trip. Dick will provide a short zoom introduction prior to the outing.
Join us this Thursday evening, for a sliding scale FUNdraising event. Shannon Rio, KBO Board President, is offering a Zoom presentation focused on acquainting people with birding on the Lower Klamath and Tule Lake National Wildlife refuges. Register now! Registration is open to an unlimited number of registrants. Cost — make a donation of your choice.
Join us for this special 2-part FUNdraising event focused on acquainting people with birding the Lower Klamath and Tule Lake National Wildlife refuges. Shannon Rio will offer a Zoom presentation on Thursday, November 11th and then lead a follow-up field trip Sunday, November 14th.
A popular free outreach publication authored by Klamath Bird Observatory and Lomakatsi Restoration Project that provides guidance for private landowners interested in implementing oak habitat restoration on their land, originally published in 2015 , has been re-printed with some minor updates and is available now. The document, entitled Restoring Oak Habitats in Southern Oregon and Northern California: A Guide for Private Landowners, emerged from a collaborative project involving a suite of private and public conservation partners, including the Bureau of Land Management (Medford District), US Fish and Wildlife Service’s Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program, Natural Resources Conservation Service, Klamath Basin Audubon Society, Oregon State University, American Bird Conservancy, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, the Understory Initiative, and Klamath Siskiyou Oak Network.
Rogue Forest Partners are working across public and private lands to reduce risks of unnaturally extreme wildfires, promote climate adaptation, and restore resilient landscapes in the Rogue Basin. Klamath Bird Observatory is working with Rogue Forest Partners to apply science using birds as ecological indicators to inform restoration planning and measure ecological response. The partnership aligns with Klamath Bird Observatory’s mission to advance bird conservation and specifically aligns with our work to halt and reverse the decline of western forest birds.
The North American Chapter of the International Association of Landscape Ecology has selected a paper by KBO Research Biologist Kate Halstead and colleagues, published in the journal Landscape Ecology, as the recipient of the 2021 Outstanding Paper in Landscape Ecology Award. The nominator for the award recognized the paper as outstanding for several reasons, one of which is the fact that it grapples with one of “the most salient and fundamental questions in landscape ecology and conservation science: the relative importance of habitat loss vs. fragmentation on species richness”. The work was carried out in the Rouge Basin watershed of the Klamath Mountains Ecoregion, and the nominator noted that the author’s “methodology is rigorous, innovative and powerful”. Click to learn more.
A recent article in BirdWatching Magazine by Oregonian Marina Richie features high-tech bird tracking projects, including KBO partnership projects that track Vesper Sparrows and Lewis’s Woodpeckers with Motus technology. Click to learn more.
SCIENCE BRIEF: Study of sagebrush bird communities yields valuable tools for setting habitat restoration objectives and measuring restoration effectiveness
Camas National Wildlife Refuge protects over 4300 hectares of land in the high desert of eastern Idaho. In parts of the Refuge, native sagebrush plant communities are being overtaken by non-native Crested Wheatgrass, an invasive species that is degrading the imperiled sagebrush-steppe ecosystems that span the North American Great Basin. In a recently published paper, a research team including KBO scientists demonstrates how Refuge data that identifies suites of indicators and the HABPOPS tool are used to meet conservation design objectives that have been prioritized for large-scale, multi-partner efforts to restore and protect sagebrush-steppe habitats in the United States.
The Bureau of Land Management is excited to announce that KBO has been selected to receive the BLM’s national Conservation Partner Award. KBO has partnered with the BLM Medford District for more than 20 years and has been instrumental in applying avian science to inform public lands management and conservation. Click to learn more about KBO’s award-winning work!
