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Audubon Washington
Audubon
Washington E-Newswire Archives
Audubon Washington E-Newswire
October 2005 Volume 1 Number 2
Judge agrees logging
plan is unwise
SEATTLE—King County Superior Court
has agreed with Audubon Washington and other conservation
groups that the state's current logging plan for public forests
in Western Washington failed to consider potentially destructive
impacts on salmon streams and older forests. Judge Sharon
Armstrong ruled Sept. 27 that the Board of Natural Resources
and Commissioner of Public Lands Doug Sutherland violated
the law by boosting timber cuts in ways that allowed the majority
of the logging to be done by clear-cutting and to take place
in environmentally sensitive areas that protect water quality
and provide important wildlife habitat.
“The Board has the duty to balance
harvest and habitat for people and wildlife,” said Nina
Carter, Executive Director of Audubon Washington. “Now
board members can craft a responsible plan to invest in our
future while protecting our communities.”
Read full story here
(45 kb).
2 big gifts boost Seward
Park Audubon Center
SEATTLE—Two recent contributions
nudged the Seward
Park Audubon Center closer to reality: The Paul G. Allen
Family Foundation awarded Audubon Washington a $150,000 challenge
grant, and an anonymous donor contributed $75,000 toward the
center’s education program. This brings the Explore
and Soar capital campaign total so far to just over $1.7
million; the goal is $3 million to renovate Seward Park’s
historic 1927 Annex building and begin operations. The Seward
Park Audubon Center will provide a safe place for at-risk
youth and their families to connect with nature in Southeast
Seattle. After-school programs and school field trips will
allow children to learn about and deal with issues important
to their lives including environmental health, sustainability
of local resources, and how individual actions can build healthy
communities. Deepest thanks to the Allen Foundation and our
anonymous donor for their generosity!
Chapters gather at Tahoma’s fall
ACOW
FEDERAL WAY—The Dumas Bay Convention
Center drew leaders from 22 of the state’s 26 Audubon
chapters for the bi-annual Audubon Council of Washington (ACOW)
meeting Oct. 7-9, hosted by Tahoma Audubon. Statewide conservation
and education committees met Friday afternoon (stories below),
field trips were held Saturday morning, with lively, interactive
workshops in the afternoon on fundraising, finding and retaining
volunteers, political action, branding and marketing chapters,
and conservation-based planning. Sunday morning featured presentations
by chapters on activities and accomplishments since the spring
ACOW, and reports by Audubon Washington Executive Director
Nina Carter, and Charlie Kahle, board member of Seattle Audubon,
Audubon Washington, and National Audubon.
Seward Park Audubon Center seeks initial
director
Audubon Washington is accepting applications
for its initial director of the planned Seward Park Audubon
Center in southeast Seattle. Audubon and the City of Seattle
Department of Parks and Recreation are partnering on a state-of-the-art
nature center in Seward Park, a 277-acre peninsula that curves
into Lake Washington, with beautiful views of Mt. Rainier,
and more than 100 acres of old-growth forest, with nesting
bald eagles, other wildlife.
The director must be a skilled fundraiser,
environmental educator, entrepreneur, manager, strategic planner,
and program builder. He or she must be able to mobilize the
local community and campaign volunteers to complete the capital
campaign for the center, and work with a partnership of public
and private groups to create and administer a flagship Audubon
Center in the heart of Seattle. Application deadline is 5:00
p.m. Dec. 2. Read full job description here.
WSACC supports
100-year conservation agenda
FEDERAL WAY—During the fall chapter
leadership conference Oct. 7-9, the Washington State Audubon
Conservation Committee (WSACC) voted to support the Cascade
Agenda, a century-long action plan to achieve land conservation
in the state’s Central Cascades region. WSACC also focused
on how Auduboners can: 1) help repel the attack by U.S. House
Republicans on the Endangered Species Act, 2) influence regional
Forest Service Management Plans, 3) encourage state funding
of the final three maps and signage for the Great Washington
State Birding Trail, 4) assist in updating local Critical
Areas Ordinances, and 5) support local chapters working to
protect Wenas Creek and stop the proposed cross-base highway.
Next WSACC meeting: Saturday, Dec. 3 in Olympia.
Dungeness Audubon
Center now hosts 8th graders
SEQUIM—With the addition of this
fall’s 8th grade program on “Living in the Shadow”
– the “rainshadow”, that is – local
students can now come to the Dungeness River Audubon Center
for outdoor science education during each of their three middle
school years. Indoor curriculum started the first week of
the month, with field trips to Railroad Bridge Park and the
center Oct. 18, 20, and 21. These classes – long popular
with 6th and 7th grade students and teachers – explore
the resources that make the Dungeness watershed so special.
The sessions examine the rainshadow, plants, animals, soil,
water, and open space, as well as the ways in which these
resources have enabled humans survive and thrive in the Dungeness
Valley for over 10,000 years. More information available from
center Education Coordinator Powell
Jones.
Chapter education chairs
learn “how to”
FEDERAL WAY—At April’s ACOW
in Ellensburg, the State Education Committee met for the third
time and its members, chapter education chairs, said with
one voice, “We want to know more!” More about
what programs are working, what other chapters are doing,
what resources are available for environmental education (EE),
and what’s happening at the state level. So Jean MacGregor,
Audubon Washington board of stewards' education chair; Chuck
Lennox, regional steward, and Audubon Centers and Education
Director Candy Castellanos responded at this fall’s
session, discussing the state’s budget
request (41 kb .doc) for EE curriculum and ways to use
volunteers to expand chapter education programs. Then Vashon-Maury
Island Audubon Society members Sue Trevathan and Carol French
presented a detailed look at one of the star Audubon education
programs in Washington state: their successful and popular
15-year-old EE program for 4th graders. Next spring’s
ACOW will feature a full-day training for chapter education
chairs. Contact Candy
for more information.
Gatherings celebrate Audubon centennial
Nearly two hundred members, supporters,
and prospective donors joined Audubon Washington for three
events in September to celebrate the National Audubon Society’s
one-hundredth birthday.
Seattle Audubon and Tahoma Audubon co-hosted
the first occasion with the state office: a private reception
and showing of Killer Hats: Birds on the Brink,
a moving and insightful exhibit at the Washington State History
Museum that explores the power of fashion, the power of protest,
and the origin of environmental protection laws. The exhibit
continues through Dec. 11th. Don’t miss it!
In addition, Audubon Washington held two
special presentations featuring Pulitzer-prize winning writer
Mark Obmascik, author of The Big Year: A Tale of Man, Nature,
and Fowl Obsession, to benefit the statewide science,
policy, and education programs.
Workplaces
make giving easy
Fall means more than yellow leaves: it’s
also the time for workplace giving campaigns, making it easy
to donate to your favorite non-profit through payroll pledges.
Audubon Washington belongs to Earth
Share of Washington, a group that promotes livable communities
and a healthy planet by partnering with businesses statewide.
Employees in corporate and government workplaces – including
Boeing, Microsoft, REI, City of Seattle, King County, and
state government – pledge dollars and time to the important
work of Earth Share’s 66 organizations. Like United
Way, Earth Share allows donors the option of making one gift
to be shared among all groups or designating a pledge to one
or more organizations. Check with your payroll office to see
whether you can donate to Audubon Washington and other Earth-friendly
groups through your workplace. Then fill out that easy pledge
form. If your workplace isn’t yet a member of Earth
Share, encourage it to join today.
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