Audubon New Mexico Newsletter Fall 2008

Budding Environmentalists
Clear Choices for the Environment
In Honor of David Henderson
Whitfield Wildlife Conservation Area 100 Acres of New Mexico Heaven
Audubon New Mexico Welcomes New Board Member
RDAC Welcomes New Center Manager Linda Newberry
Another Master Gardeners’ Masterpiece

Budding Environmentalists by John Sena for the Santa Fe New Mexican 8/7/08
Weston Winkler pressed his 7-year-old hands into a small puddle of gray muck, carefully shaping the slimy mess into something that resembled a square. As part of the Randall Davey Audubon Center’s summer camp program, Weston and a group of about 20 campers were learning about paper recycling by doing a bit of it themselves.

Water drained from the goo through wire mesh, leaving behind pulp that used to be office paper. Camp staff had shredded paper and turned it to pulp by adding water and thrashing it in a blender. Weston, with the help of Benton Lehman, an 8-year-old camper who’d shaped some of his own pulp, carried the mesh over to a table covered with pieces of felt.

Carefully, they flipped the mesh over and pressed the pulp dry with sponges. Today, they’ll return to find their handmade paper sheets ready.

The Audubon Center hosts a series of camps throughout the summer and has done so to varying degrees for about 20 years. This week, kids ages 7 through 9 participated in the second annual No Waste Camp Challenge. They’ve spent the week learning about the environment, water conservation and recycling, with lessons on energy and composting scheduled for today and tomorrow.

“This year our objective was to bring kids together and learn about what we as individuals and families can do” for the environment, said Dana Vackar Strang, education manager at the center. And by spreading the message to kids, camps usually reach parents too, Strang said, because kids go home and talk about the things they learned.

Throughout the week, campers performed activities aimed at teaching things like what types of plastics, paper or cardboard are recyclable in Santa Fe. On Wednesday, for example, they had a recycle relay race in which teams sorted through a pile of items, decided whether they were recyclable and put them in a plastic recycling bin. The team with the most items won. It was a simple exercise, but afterward, kids knew that  only plastic marked with a 1 or 2 can be recycled in Santa Fe. The same was true for corrugated cardboard versus chipboard.

“It’s great,” Weston said. “Because it’s good to learn all this stuff and recycle.”

The No Waste Camp is the last session of the center’s summer programs. Each session is open to 22 students and is offered on a first-come-first-served basis. The camps are broken up by age group and range in price from $225 per week for members of the Audubon Center to $250 per week for nonmembers. For more information about camps, call 983-4609.

Clear Choices for the Environment by Karyn Stockdale
I’ve chosen to focus my letter to you on Election 2008 because of its enormous importance for New Mexico’s environment. In addition to the upcoming Presidential election, we have races in four of New Mexico’s five congressional seats – as well as local and state races – making this a critical year for voters to express their concern for the environment.

New Mexico’s fast-paced growth which generates tremendous development pressure must be balanced with protections to important bird habitats and the natural resources that make our state enchanting. New Mexico’s population is the sixth fastest growing in the United States – more than doubling since 1960 to two million residents.

If we want to protect the environment, we need to get more New Mexicans to vote. Polling results in recent years have shown that New Mexicans overwhelmingly support protecting our land, water, wildlife and air. Conservation funding continues to fall short, despite New Mexicans wanting strong environmental, resource and public health protections.

The problem is that too few New Mexicans vote. In most elections, fewer than half of all registered voters actually vote and approximately a third of all eligible New Mexicans don’t register to vote at all (based on estimates of almost 1.4 million eligible voters). Of those who do vote, too few vote for the environment.

So what can Audubon do to get more New Mexicans to vote, and to vote for the environment? A lot. While as a 501(c)(3) charitable organization, we may not support or oppose candidates for public office, Audubon New Mexico and Audubon chapters can remind our members to vote, encourage voter registration, spread the word about important environmental issues, and provide factual information about candidates’ environmental records. Individual members can also help with voter registration and get out the vote efforts.

Building an environmental electorate is something we can all do. As New Mexico continues to grow, we need to vote with the environment in mind and continue our collaborative good work to conserve and protect birds, wildlife, and their habitats for all of us.

In Honor of David Henderson
Many heartfelt thanks to all of you who have been so generous in honoring Audubon New Mexico’s first executive director, David Henderson. David retired in 2007 with an impressive career of conservation accomplishments. The David Jay Henderson Conservation and Education Endowment at Audubon New Mexico has been established to honor David’s 25 years of service to Audubon. The endowment fund is now just over $215,000. To continue his remarkable legacy, the endowment provides invaluable funding long into the future for New Mexico bird conservation programs and initiatives that link our education programs with conservation, habitat restoration, and advocacy for wildlife. Thanks to all of you for ensuring David’s legacy lives on and Audubon’s conservation and education work continues to thrive in New Mexico – as always, none of it would be possible without supporters like you.

Whitfield Wildlife Conservation Area 100 Acres of New Mexico Heaven by Meredith Jeffreys
In the arid reaches of the high desert, the water of the Rio Grande is a prized commodity, not only for the people who inhabit the area, but also for wildlife and hundreds of resident and migratory bird species. It is for this reason that the Whitfield Wildlife Conservation Area, a donated property of Rio Grande Bosque on the outskirts of Belen, is being developed by the Valencia County Soil & Water Conservation District, in partnership with New Mexico Department of Game & Fish and the Natural Resources Conservation Service, to create a new wetland and refuge for the benefit of birds, other wildlife, and the general public.

With the Monzano Mountains’ blue silhouette to the east and the Rio Grande to the West, the 100-acre conservation area is a land of aging cottonwoods, lush wetlands, and acres of green open meadows. A site plan for the conservation area has been designed to further beautify the land and promote the viability of wildlife. The plans include seven riverside acres to be maintained as open meadows, a one-acre recovery pond for endangered species, five acres for crops like corn and milo to provide food to migratory birds, and one for native grassland. The prairie dog town in the center of the property will be protected, and the pond there further developed as an education pond for schoolchildren. All 100 acres have access to irrigation, so what is not developed will be flooded and maintained as a wetland. Land improvements such as these promise increased nesting and foraging sights for the Rio Grande’s diverse bird species and other wildlife.

Development of the Whitfield Wildlife Conservation Area (WWCA) will not only improve the area’s bird habitat, but will also contribute to efforts throughout the state to protect the Rio Grande watershed from urban development and environmental degradation. Named a Wild and Scenic River, an American Heritage River designated by the Environmental Protection Agency, and one of America’s Ten Most Endangered Rivers—supporting 513 bird species, including 73 bird species of concern, and an estimated 70 percent of New Mexico’s population—the Rio Grande and existing refuges in the area could use the WWCA’s added support.

The WWCA’s mission of conservation incorporates a strong belief in education. Therefore, the property will include facilities to accommodate the public’s exploration of and education about this rich riparian ecosystem. The four acres near the entrance will soon feature green design visitor and education centers.

A maintenance facility will comprise a quarter-acre, to eventually be shared by barracks for researchers and interns.

The WWCA will be accessible to pedestrians only, who can enjoy a network of established trails that will be complete with interpretive signage for on-trail learning.

WWCA’s educational programs will engage New Mexico’s broader conservation community, partnering with Audubon New Mexico, for instance, to deliver our Birds for a Purpose program. The WWCA also intends to host speaking series and art exhibitions to further broaden the scope of education from environmental to cultural.

Audubon New Mexico applauds the Whitfield Wildlife Conservation Area’s mission, as it complements and further completes the work of nature centers around the state. When it is all said and done, the WWCA will serve as haven for the Rio Grande, for birds and other wildlife, for birders and nature enthusiasts, and for those who love their land of enchantment.

Audubon New Mexico Welcomes New Board Member by Meredith Jeffreys
Audubon New Mexico welcomes Mr. Charlie Sanchez as a new member of our Board of Directors. “I knew I wanted to join a national organization that shared my values, which Audubon does. I believe Audubon’s vision of the future fits in with what New Mexico needs, and I’m honored to be a part of it,” Mr. Sanchez says of his recent appointment.

Having worked at the local, state, and regional levels for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service for nearly 30 years before his retirement, Mr. Sanchez has diverse experience in fisheries and ecosystem management, with a special emphasis on energy development and impacts to wildlife resources. He has additionally been involved in special assignments both nationally and internationally that include serving as a DOI Representative on the Regional Response Team for Oil and Hazardous Substance Spills, and as U.S.-Mexico Coordinator for NAFTA -related environmental impacts to natural resources. Mr. Sanchez’s last assignment with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was to serve as Associate Regional Director for international affairs, research and ecosystems. He now serves as Chairman for the Valencia County Soil & Water Conservation District and Commissioner At large for the New Mexico Soil and Water Commission, a position appointed by Governor Bill Richardson.

As a veteran of environmental work and a multigenerational farmer with a Hispanic New Mexican heritage that extends 400 years, Mr. Sanchez understands New Mexico’s environmental challenges, is inspired by its beauty, and identifies with the culture and values of his fellow citizens. “You don’t retire to play checkers. You retire and give back what you can. I see my work with Audubon as an opportunity to explore my concerns as a native New Mexican, protecting habitats and the wildlife community for the enjoyment of generations to come,” says Mr. Sanchez.

RDAC Welcomes New Center Manager Linda Newberry
Hello and warm greetings to all our Audubon community of friends. In May I joined the dynamic staff at the RDAC as Center Manager, after most recently working for Audubon in southwest Colorado. While there I served as the Southwest Regional Director for Audubon Colorado, working on the rich and diverse 2,300-acre Hershey Four Mile Ranch north of Pagosa Springs. We offered school programs for 3-5th graders, started a growing new Audubon chapter (Weminuche Audubon), inventoried wildlife and habitats for an Important Bird Area for the ranch and provided education and outreach for various community programs. Before my husband and I bought our small horse ranch near Durango we spent 20 years on the west coast (northern California, northern Oregon and Port Townsend, WA ). There I used my degree in art to learn about, interpret and teach others about the natural environment, in order to protect those amazing, special places that still exist. My work has ranged from starting and running environmental education centers, designing interpretive trails and signage, teaching in the northern forests, wetlands and beaches, inventorying marbled murrelets and other threatened bird species on the coast, and starting and working for several land trusts. I was also privileged to work for a small Washington Indian tribe for almost 10 years on river restoration as a part of a long-term community-based effort to restore endangered salmon stocks.

As most of you know, we have many challenges at the RDAC . Everywhere we look we see things that need to be repaired and restored, and postponed maintenance issues to be addressed. Though the work is daunting, I am so excited and challenged by this opportunity to work with our talented staff to take on these problems, and to move our Center to the forefront of Audubon centers across the country. We have such an incredible array of possibilities to offer to our visitors: a beautiful landscape surrounded by protected open space, the historic Randall Davey House and legacy, art and furniture collection, a great education center, staff and programs, many dedicated volunteers and interesting birds. Being located in the offices of Audubon New Mexico gives us the opportunity to link our conservation programs to those happening around the state and country, as well as to work with the local Sangre de Cristo Chapter.

This is an exciting time, and we are all dedicated to bringing about the changes that will allow us to become a GREAT education center and wildlife sanctuary. I personally invite you all to participate. We will need your help as new volunteers doing various tasks, as donors to help us accomplish our goals, or to provide specialized expertise as we move forward. Won’t you call me and join us in this adventure? I look forward to it.

Another Master Gardeners’ Masterpiece
The Santa Fe Master Gardeners and interns had a great summer working in the Randall Davey Audubon garden. Plantings loved all the rain we had, and weeds were easier to pull! After selecting native plants with Audubon Intern Meredith Jeffreys, Master Gardener volunteers planted a tree and several shrubs and perennials up the hillside before entering the garden. They also weeded and found many native shrubs already there, just covered by weeds.

Day Camp classes visited the garden weekly to learn from the Master Gardeners. The children gained firsthand knowledge about wildlife gardening, pollination, and composting, which enhances their classroom learning during camp.

Audubon continues to be a very popular Master Gardener Project, with over 40 volunteers helping out over this summer. Joy Mandelbaum continues as the Project Leader.

“We certainly enjoy the support of the new staff at Audubon, and working with them toward common goals for the Randall Davey Audubon Center. Already we are thinking of what we want to plant next year!” says Joy.

Staff, volunteers, and visitors at RDAC look forward to it too, appreciate the hard work the gardener’s donate to the Center, and enjoy the serenity provided by the beautiful garden.