BIRD CONSERVATION MINNESOTA UPDATE – MAY 2008

Bird Conservation Minnesota continues to grow. We welcome BCM new partners - The Minnesota Division of the Isaac Walton League; Lakes Area Birding Club; and the Purple Martin Working Group of Minnesota. If you know of others who have not yet become a partner in Bird Conservation Minnesota you can direct them to our website www.birdconservationminnesota.org or they can contact me at rwindingstad@audubon.org or 651-0739-9332.

Breeding Bird Atlas The Breeding Bird Atlas planning continues as the priority now for BCM. An atlas volunteer handbook and associated field forms have been drafted and will be tested by several members of the birding community from mid-May to Mid-June. Revisions will be made as necessary to those materials based on feed back from these volunteers. We are still expecting to hear about solidification of funding by the end of May so the Atlas field work can officially get underway and ready to go at the beginning of 2009.

International Migratory Bird Day (IMBD) 2008 is an ideal opportunity to celebrate birds and bird conservation. Officially scheduled for 10 May, events are taking place from Alaska and the Yukon to Central America and the Caribbean. While most events will take place on 10 May, associated programs, events, or festivals are actually being celebrated when it best suits particular localities and when the birding is best at each one. This year’s IMBD theme is “From Tundra to Tropics: Connecting Birds, Habitat, and People.” For more on IMBD, see: http://www.birdday.org/

Some good news - Farm Bill Resolution: From www.refugenet.org/birding/birding5.html Details are still pending, and although refinements on some policy issues are still being made, the optimistic expectation is that Congress can complete the bill by mid-May. House-Senate negotiators reached a tentative agreement on the long-awaited Farm Bill on Friday, 25 April. The provisional agreement on a new five-year Farm Bill was approached after another round of spending and tax cuts, and the establishment of new customs fees to meet budget rules and to win over Republicans’ support in the Senate. 
Conservation measures in the Farm Bill are deemed crucial to bird-and-wildlife protection. Native prairie, certainly one of this country’s most endangered ecosystems, is suffering a heavy loss, since incentives remain in place encouraging conversion to cropland. (e.g., more than half a million acres of native prairie were lost nationwide in 2007.) A proposed provision called Sodsaver is part of the new Farm Bill. It is aimed at discouraging this destruction by removing crop insurance eligibility and other subsidies.   

Now. the not so good news -- Minnesota River named 5 th most threatened river in the United States by American Rivers! Representatives from Clean Up the River Environment (CURE), Coalition for a Clean Minnesota River (CCMR), Friends of the Minnesota Valley and Minnesota River Board were part of a press conference on April 17 th to announce the Minnesota River being the 5 th most threatened river in the United States by American Rivers. L Let’s see what we can do to change that!

St. Johns Arboretum Spring Birding Day Saturday May 10 th from 5:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.; or 8:00a.m to 1:00 p.m. Meet in Room 269 in the Peter Engel Science Center (follow the signs). Spend a morning hiking through the woods with birders during peak migration. Small fee/pre-registration is required. http://www.csbsju.edu/arboretum/arb_highlights/spring/spring_birding.htm

My Minnesota Minute Video Contest ( April 22nd thru May 31 st) hosted by the Bell Museum of Natural History asks you to join them in celebrating 150 years of Minnesota history by taking a look at Minnesota's natural places and asking how to protect and restore these special places for the next 150 years. This contest accompanies the Bell Museum's Minnesota Minute television campaign which can be seen on TV beginning in May or at www.minnesotaminute.org. Tell them how the natural world around you is changing. Grab a camera and start shooting and upload your finished video to YouTube (tag it with "My Minnesota Minute"). Submissions will be gathered there and featured on the Bell Museum website. Prizes offered. For guidelines, visit www.bellmuseum.org/blog

Kick off party for the 2008 Great River Energy Mississippi River Challenge . Thursday, May 22, 6:00-8:30 p.m. Summit Brewing Company Rathskellar, Saint Paul. Join the celebration to kick off the training and pledge-raising season in preparation for the 2008 Mississippi River Challenge. For more information about the Kick Off, or the actual challenge set for July 26 th & 27 th itself, go to http://www.fmr.org/participate/events/challenge_kickoff-2008-05-22 or http://www.mississippiriverchallenge.org (sign up) respectively!

Arcola Mills Birding Event May 24 th, You are invited to the 5th Annual Mini-Fundraiser Birding Event, at Arcola Mills, an historic saw mill site, on the St. Croix River, 5.5 miles North of Stillwater. Come. Bring a friend - any time between 6:30 AM & 11:30 AM on Saturday, May 24th. Throughout the morning, birding leaders will take small groups on bird walks on the 50 acre property. This event also is a monitoring event for this portion of an Audubon Important Bird Area.  http://www.arcolamills.org/happenings.shtml

Voyageurs National Park Spring Trail Rendezvous May 30 th to June 1 st, 2008. This spring the goal is to monitor all 60 miles of the Park’s trail system and identify maintenance needs so Park Staff can more quickly clear and improve the trail system for summer visitors.  Groups of 2 to 4 will hike sections of the Park’s trails on Friday, May 30, and Saturday, May 31 and map locations of fallen trees and over-grown brush that need to be cleared, plus a celebration dinner on Saturday. Contact Voyageurs National Park Association at vnpa@voyageurs.org or (612) 333-5424 with questions and to register by May 20. 

Sixth Annual Minnesota MartinFest , June 28 th at 5095 173rd Street North, Hugo
8:00 - 5:00 - Mark your calendar for this event. Note: The newly formed Purple Martin Working Group of Minnesota multi-partner team conservationists are working together to bring back a healthy population of Purple Martins in Minnesota. Breeding Bird Surveys show that Purple Martin populations have decreased by almost 80% over the last 40 years. The goal of the group is to reverse the decline, and encourage the recovery of martin populations through public education, research, habitat preservation, and colony site rehabilitations. New members are always welcome. Contact Kelly Applegate, Wildlife Biologist for Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe DNR at (320) 532-7747 or email at madisonscout@gmail.com.

Northern Goshawk Monitoring Program – 2009 The MN DNR and Hawk Ridge are teaming up to begin a citizen science component to monitor breeding activity in Northern Goshawk territories in northern Minnesota, primarily on the Chippewa National Forest, Superior National Forest, and in St. Louis County.  Volunteers are needed to choose one or more territories to monitor in 2009, with the possibility of continuing the monitoring in following years.  Surveys entail searching the territory for the presence of goshawks, examining goshawk nests for signs of activity, and broadcasting goshawk calls to elicit a response.  If you are interested in receiving more information about this volunteer opportunity, please contact Debbie Waters at dwaters@hawkridge.org.  

BTW – Congratulations to Co-Chairs Harvey Nelson and Bill Henke for putting together such a great program for the Wetlands and Waterfowl Weekend - Waterfowl Symposium last month!!