Audubon Advisory
July-August, 2010
Vol 2010 Issue 7

Senate Delays Action on Climate and Clean Energy Bill Senator Majority Leader Harry Reid announced on Thursday that efforts to move a clean energy and climate bill are on hold. The abrupt about-face is both disappointing and appalling as the nation grapples with the worst environmental disaster on record, borne in part from our addiction to oil, and much of the nation sizzles in unrelenting heat. The failure to act means that America will continue to send $1 billion a day overseas to buy oil, China will continue to race ahead in creating the jobs of the future, and pollution will continue to increase at home. Now is the time to voice your outrage! We won't give up till we have legislation that addresses our need for clean, renewable energy and provisions to curb greenhouse gas pollution. Let your senators know that the time for meaningful energy reform is now and that your tolerance for obstruction and inaction is at an end. You can reach your senators at www.senate.gov or 202-224-3121.   Miss Olivia Goes to Washington Last week a remarkable young lady, 11 year old Olivia Bouler, and her family arrived in D.C. to voice their concerns to their representatives in Congress about the Gulf Oil Spill and to show their support for the new alternative energy bill that is before the Senate. Olivia first gained national attention after contacting Audubon with an offer to give her bird drawings to those who donated to the oil spill recovery efforts. The response has been incredible, over 28,000 people signed up for her Facebook fan page: Save the Gulf: Olivia’s Bird Illustrations, which has in turn inspired more than $160,000 in donations to fund volunteer efforts to clean beaches, help locate and rehabilitate oiled birds and other wildlife. Her story was quickly picked up by the media and has appeared in the Mobile Press Register, The Guardian (UK), BBC radio, AOL News, Newsday, Italian news, Larry King Show, CBS Evening News, and MSNBC. Olivia’s work is now featured as an AOL Artist. Hopeful to meet with at least their local representatives, Olivia and her family found themselves visiting with a long list of key policy makers in D.C. including Department of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, Congressman Steve Israel (D-NY), Congressman Elliot Engel (D-NY), Congressman Henry Waxman (D-CA), Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), President Obama’s Energy and Climate Change Policy Director, Carol Browner, and even shook hands with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who knew of Olivia’s project and praised her for her efforts. Audubon in grateful to Olivia and the whole Bouler family for their tireless efforts on behalf of conservation and wildlife everywhere.   Everglades Wetlands and Wildlife Get a Boost Audubon applauds the U. S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) announcement at a press conference in Kissimmee on this week that it will dedicate funds to help restore a substantial tract of privately-owned wetlands north of Lake Okeechobee. The largest undertaking in the history of the Wetlands Reserve Program, USDA will provide funding for agricultural landowners to store water and restore wetlands on their properties. One of the greatest challenges to restoring Lake Okeechobee’s health, preventing harmful estuary discharges, storing enough water for droughts, and cleaning water of pollutants is finding enough appropriate places to store valuable rain water. This project funds such storage capacity in the area of the Fisheating Creek tributary, truly a monumental effort. The effort is huge in scale, restoring or upgrading more than 26,000 acres of wetlands at the cost of $89 million. “This is a pioneering approach to achieving ecological benefits in a cost effective way, without displacing agricultural interests,” said Charles Lee, Audubon of Florida Director of Advocacy. “By restoring these wetlands with the assistance of USDA, we create healthy habitat and stimulate abundant wildlife populations even when public conservation land acquisition is not an option.” Fisheating Creek is the last free-flowing tributary to Lake Okeechobee—and home to some of the most pristine habitats in central Florida. The Wetlands Reserve Program will help enhance and protect the region and serve to connect lands in a wildlife corridor between inland natural areas and coastal natural areas, including conservation lands in Babcock Ranch. “Redirecting government agency efforts to restore the hydrology and water quality of the Northern Everglades has long been one of our goals,” Lee said. “Cooperative projects with landowners and the acquisition of easements is more cost effective, and more likely to receive broad public support, than conventional efforts to manage water through large engineered public works projects in this area.”   Audubon Volunteers Strong Audubon's volunteer response continues to help support oiled bird rescue and rehabilitation and our volunteers at the Volunteer Response Center in Moss Point, MS are diligently calling through the list of more than 30,000 volunteers. The coastal bird survey, with it's start in Mississippi, has trained over 120 volunteers to monitor their section of coast every few weeks. This baseline data is important for our short and long term efforts at recovery. It has now expanded to Alabama and plans are afoot to bring it to volunteers in Louisiana, Florida, and Texas. Three one-hour webcasts with spill updates, training and Q&A have featured some of Audubon top bird scientists and our volunteer response staff. This ongoing feature is available to everyone so look for announcements in the Advisory or through our oil spill updates. If you missed our first three webcasts, you can catch the archived versions. You'll need to register for each archive presentation you wish to see. Look for our next webcast in early September. Our third webcast, July 21, focused on a snapshot of our coastal bird training and how to use eBird.org to record your observations, followed by questions and answers. Our second webcast, June 23, featured updates on our progress in the Gulf, though the work goes on, with questions and answers. Our first webcast, May 21, attempted to convey our early impressions of the emerging catastrophe and answer questions. Audubon continues to look for outlets for the many people who want to volunteer for Gulf cleanup. We've asked folks to do their own bird surveys and report obvservations at www.ebird.org. Other suggestions include making your backyard bird friendly, helping to protect and restore habitat in your community, birding hotspots and Important Bird Areas, and conserving energy when and where you can. These are things that will help birds survive, particularly those using the Mississippi River and Central Flyways. Long-term restoration will need lots of hands and Audubon will be in the Gulf, working to bring it back, long after the headlines fade. Thanks to the outpouring of volunteer support, we know we'll have the help we need.   July/August Mystery Bird Congratulations to Janet R., of Boca Raton, FL, whose entry was randomly chosen from the 150 entries that correctly identified last month's Wood Stork, at right. (We realized after publication that it could also be a White Pelican, so we included those answers in the drawing, as well.) Good luck with this month's challenge (below), inspired by one of the exhibits that caught Olivia's attention when she toured the National Zoo on her trip to DC. No hint this month, since we are showing the entire bird—get out those bird guides! We will need the complete common name, i.e. "Downy Woodpecker," not just "Woodpecker." The winner will receive a plush Audubon singing bird and will be chosen at random from all entries received that correctly identify the species (NAS employees can play but not win). One entry per person please! Please email us your entry, being sure the words "Mystery Bird" appear in the subject line. Deadline for entering is Sunday, August 29. Photo credits: Wood Stork-USFWS, Mystery Bird-Kevin Bercaw/Wikimedia Commons