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Tag: Awards

Laura Fleming board member bio (72ppi 4x)

Friend to the Environment Award

Written by Elva Manquera on . Posted in Klamath Call Note, KBO Family, Press Room.

logo Wild Birds Unlimited (Web)The Klamath Bird Observatory family would like to congratulate Laura Fleming on her Friend to the Environment Award. Laura, owner of the Medford, Wild Birds Unlimited store received the prestigious Friend to the Environment Award in 2019 at the annual meeting of the Wild Birds Unlimited franchisees.  This award is presented to one of over three hundred store owners yearly to recognize those who exceed the mission to “bring people and nature together”.

Laura received the award in part due to her leadership role in supporting a wide variety of her community’s nature education activities and conservation organizations.  She does so by providing financial support, giving countless hours of volunteer time, promoting and supporting their events and programs, and serving as an officer or board member for a couple of these organizations.  Laura recently completed five years of service to the Klamath Bird Observatory as an officer and member of its Board of directors. Currently she is a member of the Board of Directors for the Rogue Valley Audubon Society.

Dr. John Alexander, the Executive Director of the Klamath Bird Observatory stated, “It’s hard to capture the extent of Laura’s leadership and impact.  Her quiet, yet focused leadership and her leading by example were incredibly influential and inspiring for our board members and staff.  Laura walks the talk.”

Laura attends numerous events throughout the area to promote her store and conservation. A few of these events include: the Rogue Valley Migratory Bird Day; the Klamath Basin’s Winter Wings Bird Festival; Rogue Valley Earth Day Celebration; Klamath Bird Observatory’s Wings and Wine Gala; the Bear Creek Salmon Festival; the Master Gardener Spring Fair; the Vaux’s Happening Fall Carnival and many others. She often “wears several hats” at these events. Promoting her store but also taking the opportunity to promote the Rogue Valley Audubon Society and the Klamath Bird Observatory.

Laura is frequently asked to give talks in her community for garden clubs; libraries; adult education classes; historical societies; retirement centers; rotary clubs; and more.  These talks primarily revolve around feeding and identifying birds throughout seasons, designing backyard habitats, nesting tips, attracting hummingbirds, and other topics.

Through educational events at Wild Birds Unlimited, Laura and her staff hold many free events at the store every month. These include: a monthly educational talk which usually hosts a local community expert. The store also hosts a monthly bird walk to various birding “hot spots” in the valley. Post bi-monthly Chickadee Chats which are informal discussions on what is happening in the avian world, generally focusing on a specific bird group.

During the presentation of the Friend to the Environment award, Laura also received recognition for helping to raise awareness of the local Vaux’s Swift population in partnership with Rogue Valley Audubon Society and Southern Oregon Land Conservancy; holding a fundraiser for Badger Run Wildlife Rehabilitation Center, and supporting and partnering with Siskiyou Audubon Society during their nest box building workshops and selling 100 of their pre-made nest boxes each spring.

Wild Birds Unlimited, located in Medford, OR is part of the original and largest franchise system of backyard bird feeding and nature specialty stores. There are more than 300 locations throughout the United States and Canada. They specialize in bringing people and nature together with their bird feeding and nature products, their expert advice, and educational events. Visit our Web site at www.wbu.com.

 

 

Big News for World Migratory Bird Day!

Written by KBO on . Posted in Klamath Call Note, Birds & Birding, Conservation, KBO Partners, KBO Science, Trips & Events.

World Migratory Bird Day (WMBD) in the Year of the Bird is May 12, 2018—a day to celebrate the amazing annual migrations of the birds who know no borders. The day is also for raising awareness of conservation challenges that these world travelers face and what we can do to help.

This WMBD (formerly known as International Migratory Bird Day) is a special one for Klamath Bird Observatory. We are part of a group being recognized for its collaborative achievements in migratory bird conservation. KBO will also be part of two local WMBD celebrations—Rogue Valley Bird Day in Ashland and the WMBD Birdwatching Field Trip at Shasta Valley Wildlife Area near Montague, California.

It has just been announced that the Western Hummingbird Partnership has been given the U.S. Forest Service’s 2018 Wings Across the Americas award. This is a prestigious award that recognizes outstanding achievements in the conservation of migratory birds—to be presented at a special World Migratory Bird Day ceremony in Washington, D.C. this Tuesday May 1st. KBO’s Executive Director Dr. John Alexander will join other members of the Western Hummingbird Partnership Advisory Group in receiving the award.

KBO will join many local partners for the City of Ashland Department of Parks and Recreation’s Rogue Valley Bird Day Saturday May 12th at North Mountain Park from 8 am to 1200 pm. KBO biologists will demonstrate mist netting and banding songbirds as a part of the festivities. We will also join A World Migratory Bird Day Birdwatching Field Trip at Shasta Valley Wildlife Area starting at 7:30 am. This event is sponsored by Klamath National Forest.

CLICK HERE to view the Rogue Valley Bird Day 2018 flyer.

CLICK HERE to view the Shasta Valley Birdwatching Field Trip 2018 flyer.

Join us for World Migratory Bird Day!

 

The Western Hummingbird Partnership addresses a critical need in hummingbird conservation—engaging researchers, educators, and governmental and non-governmental groups in collaborative science and education. Key partners include Klamath Bird Observatory, Environment for the Americas, Point Blue Conservation Science, University of Guadalajara, and U.S. Forest Service. Since 2006, the Partnership has contributed to projects in biosphere reserves, botanic gardens, and national forests and has provided funding in support of projects where western hummingbirds nest, stop during their migrations, and winter.

KBO’s Post-doctoral Fellow Awarded Young Professional Award

Written by Caitlyn Gillespie on . Posted in Klamath Call Note, Conservation, KBO Family, KBO Science, Press Room.

 

Photo of Jared Wolfe

Klamath Bird Observatory is proud to announce that Jared Wolfe, KBO’s Post-doctoral Fellow, was awarded the prestigious Cooper Ornithological Society’s 2015 Young Professional Award. The recognition was awarded to Jared based on his track record of producing meaningful science focused on the impacts of climate and habitat change on tropical and temperate birds. In addition to his science, Jared was recognized for his contributions to conservation and capacity building by co-founding the Louisiana Bird Observatory and teaching bird banding and statistical courses throughout Africa, and North, Central and South America. As the 2015 Young Professional Award recipient, Jared delivered a plenary address during the Cooper Ornithological Society’s and American Ornithologists Union’s 2015 meeting this past July. Jared’s plenary discussed his ongoing research into the ecological value of second growth and forest fragments for bird communities in Amazonian and Congolese forests where bird species within the same ecological guilds respond to habitat disturbance in similar ways irrespective of their evolutionary relatedness. In addition to his ongoing research in the tropics, Jared is currently working with KBO and the US Forest Service examining how bird communities on public lands in Oregon and California are responding to an increasingly volatile climate.

To read the full announcement click here.

KBO’s 2015 Bullock’s Rose Oriole Volunteer Award Goes to Sandy Jilton

Written by Caitlyn Gillespie on . Posted in Klamath Call Note, Birds & Birding, Conservation, KBO Family, Press Room.

*** NEWS RELEASE — FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ***

June 1, 2015

Contact: Marcella Rose Sciotto, admin@klamathbird.org, 541-201-0866

Klamath Bird Observatory is proud to announce that Sandy Jilton is the first recipient of our new
Bullock’s Rose Oriole Volunteer Award.

Sandy Jilton receiving award from KBO's Marcella Sciotto

This award has been established to recognize individuals who demonstrate outstanding service as volunteers helping Klamath Bird Observatory fulfill its mission to advance bird and habitat conservation through science, education, and partnerships. Sandy Jilton is being recognized as the recipient of the Bullock’s Rose Oriole for her efforts to help make the Klamath Bird Observatory’s 2nd annual Mountain Bird Festival a success.

The Mountain Bird Festival is a community education event designed to foster the stewardship ethic needed to ensure thriving landscapes for humans and wildlife. This Festival represents a significant volunteer effort with nearly 50 community members chipping in over 1,200 volunteer hours to help put the event on. These volunteers help Klamath Bird Observatory staff with field trips, registration, vendors, planning, and much more.

Klamath Bird Observatory recognizes Sandy Jilton with the first Bullock’s Rose Oriole Volunteer Award

for her volunteer work that was essential to the success of this year’s Festival. Sandy worked tirelessly

to coordinate our food and drink vendors. She spent hours to find the right vendors who best

represented our region’s food and beverage culture. She then worked with them to ensure their

participation benefitted their businesses while also helping us to meet the conservation oriented goals

of the Festival. In addition to this core aspect of her volunteer role, Sandy was always eager to help out

in any way that she could. Her endless enthusiasm, good cheer, and skillful execution made her a

delight to work with.

Over the past two years bird enthusiasts from all over the U.S. have flocked to Ashland, Oregon for

Klamath Bird Observatory’s award winning Mountain Bird Festival. The Festival is designed to raise funds

for bird conservation while celebrating the role citizens play in conservation as well as the glory of the

birds and wildlife of southern Oregon and northern California. The Festival offers more than 35 field

trips that explore portions of the Cascade and Siskiyou Mountains, as well as the Klamath Basin, Shasta

Valley, the Klamath River, the Rogue watershed, and birding hotspots in and around Ashland and

Medford. Each year, more than 120 participants, many of which traveling from out of the area, come to

see some of southern Oregon’s unique bird species, and to contribute to bird conservation. In addition

to these contributions, participants spend an estimated $70,000 on lodging, meals, entertainment, and

more, demonstrating that birding means business and that the Mountain Bird Festival offers significant

economic benefits to our region.

By name, Klamath Bird Observatory’s new Bullock’s Rose Oriole Volunteer Award honors Stephanie

Bullock, the Festival’s 1st Volunteer Coordinator, and Marcella Rose Sciotto, the Mountain Bird Festival

Coordinator, who has made this Festival a successful volunteer-driven event.

Click here to read Talent’s News & Review profile and article on Sandy and her accomplishments.

 

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Klamath Bird Observatory’s Conservation Model

Written by KBO on . Posted in Klamath Call Note, Conservation, KBO History, KBO Partners, KBO Science.

Klamath Bird Observatory’s collaborative conservation planning approach is fueled with results from partner-driven science programs. These science programs use birds as indicators of the healthy and resilient ecosystems on which we all depend. The science involves three coordinated aspects:

3 sceice tiers

  1. Long-term monitoring that provides information about broad-scaled changes in the condition of our world;
  2. More in-depth theoretical research about how natural and human influences affect our land, air, and water; and
  3. Applied ecology projects that directly address priority natural resource management challenges.

We bring results from our integrated science program to bear through an education and science delivery approach involving partner-driven engagement in conservation planning. With science, we are informing critical decisions being made today that will have lasting influences into the future.

Klamath Bird Observatory Science-based Conservation:
Local, Regional, and International

Klamath Bird Observatory’s award-winning conservation model is applied at local, regional, and international scales.

3 scales

  1. We developed our model locally in the ruggedly beautiful and wildlife-rich Klamath-Siskiyou Bioregion of northern California and southern Oregon where we maintain intensive science and conservation planning efforts.
  2. We now provide scientific resources and decision support across the Pacific Northwest region through the Avian Knowledge Northwest node of the Avian Knowledge Network.
  3. Our intensive professional education and international capacity building programs expand our influence into Mexico, Central and South America, and the Caribbean where we actively support partners who are applying our model through a network of locally driven programs aimed at protecting birds throughout their breeding, migration, and wintering ranges.

Klamath Bird Observatory Conservation Model Applied:
Restoration for Oak Woodland Birds and Their Habitats

Our work to advance oak woodland conservation provides a classic example of this model in action. Our science provides:

  1. A clear sign that oak woodland bird populations are in decline;
  2. Information about their habitat needs and the possible influence of climate change on their health and distribution; and
  3. Results that tell us what kind of management actions benefit these species.

Armed with this information we identify conservation priorities and projects to benefit oak related species in Canada, the United States, Mexico, and Central America. We offer specific guidance for broad-scaled restoration of oak habitats in the Pacific Northwest. In northern California and southern Oregon we are partnering to design, fund, and evaluate specific restoration projects on public and private lands, ensuring on-the-ground benefits to birds. Our leadership in the Klamath-Siskiyou Oak Network (KSON) cultivates partnerships that have resulted in over $6 million for on-the-ground restoration that is driven by our conservation planning approach. KSON oak conservation programs have been highlighted in the last two national State of the Birds reports and received the U.S. Department of Interior Partners in Conservation Award.

The Klamath Bird Observatory
Advancing bird and habitat conservation through
science, education, and partnerships