Kim Adelson, Out-going BHAS President
Hi, everyone.
Although I am certainly not bowing out of BHAS – I’m on the slate to be Vice President next year and I’ll continue as Education Committee Chair – my term as President comes to an end on June 1st. And so, I wanted to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to all the wonderful folks who contribute to BHAS and keep it going strong.
We are an all-volunteer organization; we have no paid staff. Yet we still manage to accomplish extraordinary things on a regular basis. I said much of this at our Annual Dinner, but for those of you who weren’t there I think it’s worth repeating: we have much to be proud of!
Just this year alone, we have directly helped protect birds and their habitats in numerous ways. Our volunteers have fought more industrialization along Beaver Creek; worked to ensure that a wildlife corridor/highway underpass under I-5 will be created, connecting the animals of the Cascades and Olympic mountains; sought to safeguard Marbled Murrelets and other birds by negotiating with those in charge of the Skookumchuck Wind Energy Project to halt those turbines in the birds’ flight paths during prime breeding season; participated in developing the mouth of Kennedy Creek to improve bird and salmon habitat; managed water monitoring on a large swath of rare glacial outwash prairie; made recommendations to the Shoreline Master Program; helped protect stands of legacy forest in West Olympia; worked on mitigating proposed changes to the Wildland-Urban Interface Code so as to prevent extensive removal of residential trees; maintained and monitored large numbers of bluebird and Purple Martin boxes; and, of course, contributed to our understanding of changing bird populations by spearheading the Lewis County and Olympia Christmas Bird Counts.
We also work to “spread the love” of birds to others in our area. (People who are fascinated by birds and care about them are more likely to want to protect them than those who do not.) So, we tabled and gave bird walks at local environmental events (e.g. Prairie Appreciation Day, the Nisqually Watershed Festival); we maintained an email hotline to answer people’s bird-related questions; we donated 6 more Family Birding Backpacks to the Timberland Regional Library; we gave talks for other community groups who wanted to learn more about birds; we partnered with Capitol Land Trust, North Thurston Public Schools, and Puget Sound Estuarium to provide an all-day STEM experience for 350 3rd-graders at the Inspiring Kids Preserve on Henderson Inlet; we produced a short video about birds that fulfills statewide STEM requirements for kindergarteners; and we published an educational book (preK-3rd grade level) about birds in Spanish that has been donated to local public and school libraries. The video and book have been placed on the Washington Open Educational Resource Hub so that they are available to teachers across the state.
And, finally, we have nurtured and educated the members of our birding community. In the past year, we put on both an Annual Dinner and an Annual Picnic (both were whoppingly successful!); we regularly met for conversation and comradery at Birds and Brew and Birding With Breakfast; we sponsored 24 birdwatching outings; we held a monthly Speaker Series, which could be viewed live or at home on Zoom; we maintained a lively Book Club; we published a monthly newsletter (as you know, since you’re reading this!); we kept everyone in the loop by producing a frequently-updated Web page and by maintaining a social media presence.
Whew! If that seems like a lot, it is. And none of it could have been accomplished without the generous gift of our volunteers’ time. So, I’d like to say thanks to everyone who has brought brownies to a gathering or written a letter or showed up in the rain to lead a bird walk or cleaned out a nest box or served on the Board or on a Committee or did any of the other million tasks that needed to be done. All of us in the BHAS community have benefited from and been enriched by your efforts. And we’ve had a boatload of fun doing these things together!
I truly hope this list of activities inspires you to get more involved with BHAS: our group has something for everyone who cares about birds. There is room for those who have only a little spare time and for those who want to dive right in. We welcome and can use the help of expert birders and novices. Be you frail or robust, we have activities you can participate in. It’s a great way to meet like-minded, genial folk.
I feel privileged to be a part of such a wonderful organization, and I hope to see you all at one of our many bird-related events.
Kim Adelson
Photo credit: Cedar Waxwing Thank You, by Rachel Hudson.
