Randall Davey Audubon Center Newsletter   Fall 2006

A MESSAGE FROM THE DIRECTOR OF BIRD CONSERVATION AND PUBLIC POLICY
FROM THE DIRECTOR’S NEST
CENTER AND GROUNDS WORK
THE NATURE STORE: HOT ITEMS!
WELCOME OUR NEWEST STAFF MEMBERS!
SUSTAINING OUR FUTURE
CENTER INTERNS
VOLUNTEER SPOTLIGHT
FUN AND ATTRACTIVE GIFTS TO BENEFIT AUDUBON NEW MEXICO
A SUMMER OUTDOORS
BEST OF SANTA FE AWARD
ACEQUIA IMPROVEMENTS
TIERRA SIN FRONTERAS

A MESSAGE FROM THE DIRECTOR OF BIRD CONSERVATION AND PUBLIC POLICY
Betsy Daub, Director of Bird Conservation and Public Policy, Randall Davey Audubon Center and Audubon New Mexico
I owe my interest in bird watching and conservation to my sister. When we were kids, it was she who noticed that shiny black bird perched at the top of the palo verde tree in our Arizona desert home. And it was she who decided “we” needed to know what it was, and that “we” needed a field guide. Her curiosity and insistence that it was shared introduced me to an accessible world of nature, to a way of understanding it, and to the phainopepla, a shiny black bird with a name like music.

Take away the bossy sibling undertones, and Audubon is making the same connections between people and nature. Human lives are enriched, human desires for preservation are greater when nature becomes personal. And so, each day at the Randall Davey Audubon Center and through Audubon’s work across the state, school-aged children and the natural world are brought together in a real life experience that is often transforming for the child, and hopefully transforming for human stewardship of nature.

My work with Audubon’s Important Bird Area Program is a continuation of that effort to protect birds and their habitats, and to make them meaningful to people. Birders and nature lovers are well aware that New Mexico is home to spectacular birding places and incredible and often rare species. But, that doesn’t automatically translate into conservation practices that ensure the long-term well being of those sites or birds. More people need to know where those critical habitats are, more people need to know the need for preserving them, more people need to know what special birds they harbor. To me, many of New Mexico’s birds read like poetry: Dusky Flycatcher, Whiskered Screech Owl, Grace’s Warbler, Montezuma Quail. But to far too many members of the public and decision-makers, they are simply names on a list, names without any connection to their own lives.

Audubon’s Important Bird Area effort is a wonderful opportunity to combine Audubon’s expertise in environmental education and its strong reputation in science and conservation. Already, over 60 Important Bird Area (IBA) sites in New Mexico have been identified, and additional nominations are being accepted. This is a chance for scientists, bird enthusiasts, communities and public agencies to work together to recognize the most critical of habitats. But this is just Step One. Once sites have met the criteria for identification as IBAs, conservation and education initiatives can begin. Some sites may need citizen science monitoring of birds. Others may be well suited to environmental education efforts for adults and children. Private lands may be conserved through public-private partnerships, such as easements and through landowner education. By working in partnership with public land agencies, Audubon can advocate for improved habitat management practices. All of this brings more and more people, decision-makers, landowners, potential and current bird-lovers, closer to the natural world and more involved in its future. It is my hope that the Lucifer Hummingbird or the Pygmy Nuthatch won’t just be intriguing bird names on a list, but poetry in motion, seen by many, many New Mexicans who know our futures are linked.

Please contact Betsy Daub (bdaub@audubon.org.) at the Audubon New Mexico office for ways to participate in the Important Bird Area Program.

FROM THE DIRECTOR’S NEST
David Henderson, executive Director
Over the years I have felt at times like a broken record, reiterating the tremendous contribution Audubon New Mexico and the Randall Davey Audubon Center have made in educating and informing New Mexicans about the wildlife and habitat values that make New Mexico enchanting and our ability to protect those values. We have matured to a point where I feel reassured in moving along, making room for the two new, wonderful additions to our staff, Eva Rambo, Center Manager and Betsy Daub, Director of Conservation and Public Policy. As I look for new opportunities to influence environmental change and education, so will these two very capable women.

We are just now emerging from what can be interpreted as one, if not our most successful, summer program. Eileen Everett and Stacy Urich deserve almost all the credit, though I will reserve some of the credit for our two outstanding interns, Natalie Martino and Ryan Bolton, and the gaggle of teen counselors we hire that added such life and energy to our camp. Again this summer we were fully enrolled, and while learning about the world they live in and will inherit, all the campers showed they were having a great time.

Now with the monsoons continuing and the streets getting a bit quieter with kids heading back to school, we look forward to what fall will provide. Our school program, generously supported by the City of Santa Fe, will again be fully subscribed. Our focus, as in previous years, will be on schools that may not have the resources to provide environmental education.

What child wouldn’t enjoy a field trip to the Center to experience the wonders of nature first hand?

With the arrival of Betsy Daub, who I knew when she was doing conservation work in Minnesota for Audubon, we have a seasoned professional who sees the opportunities we have through Audubon to further integrate our education and conservation message throughout the state. She’ll be busy, but I know she will love it.

It’s been wonderful working for an organization that looks forward and is optimistic about what we can do to make a difference. Here at the Center, we know we have a tremendous opportunity and obligation to prepare the next generation to be the best stewards of this planet that they can possibly be, and to provide them with some tools to do just that.

What a team, what a place and what a wonderful opportunity I have been given. I am glad I could share it with all of you.

CENTER AND GROUNDS WORK
135 acres, including hiking trails, gardens, and green lawns – that’s a lot of grounds keeping! And, the July and August rains have kept us busier than ever for the past couple of months. Our fabulous maintenance staff and volunteers have helped keep our Center in tip-top shape this season. A special thanks to Luke Romero and Rice Lummis, our maintenance staff, for their work in our gardens, on the acequia, and in our buildings, among other things.

Also, a special thanks to Jeff Ciriello and Ayrne Chacon, grounds and trail maintenance volunteers, and to the Santa Fe Master Gardeners Association for their ongoing work in the wildlife garden. Additionally, we conducted several trail maintenance days, drawing volunteers from St. John’s College, the Girl Scouts, Santa Fe Prep, and a visiting group of high school students from Kirkwood, Missouri. And, of course, if you know our Executive Director, you know that he can’t help but to keep our beautiful lawn looking green – it’s an addiction. Thanks to David and to our summer intern, Ryan Bolton, for maintaining, conservatively, our green grass!

THE NATURE STORE: HOT ITEMS!
When was the last time you saw children playing outside? According to Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder, increasing the opportunity for unstructured play in nature may help counteract what he coins “Nature-deficit Disorder” in children. In this important and inspirational book, Louv portrays the impact of dwindling natural experiences and increased sensory-poor activities on the lives of our children. “Nature-deficit disorder” says Louv “describes the human costs of alienation from nature, among them: diminished use of the senses, attention difficulties, and higher rates of physical and emotional illnesses.” The synopsis reads:
In his groundbreaking work about the staggering divide between children and the outdoors, journalist and child advocate Richard Louv directly links the absence of nature in the lives of today’s wired generation to some of the most disturbing childhood trends: the rise in obesity, attention disorders, and depression. This is the first book to bring together a body of research indicating that direct exposure to nature is essential for healthy childhood development and for the physical and emotional health of children and adults. More than just raising an alarm, Louv offers practical solutions to heal the broken bond.

This book has been a huge inspiration for all Audubon staff , and we hope that it will inspire you as well. Please visit our Nature Store to pick up your copy of this important book! Algonquin Books. March 2006. Paperback: $13.95, 335 pages.

WELCOME OUR NEWEST STAFF MEMBERS!
Eva Rambo, Randall Davey Audubon Center Manager
Eva Rambo began in April as the manager of the Randall Davey Audubon Center. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Anthropology with a focus on primate studies from DePauw University. Eva has studied, volunteered, and traveled throughout Central America and Cuba, returning most often to Costa Rica. She most recently worked for another Santa Fe nonprofit in the human services sector as the Finance Director, and is pleased to be able to meld her management experience with her love of nature and the outdoors. Eva speaks fluent Spanish and loves the challenge of endurance sports, and her interests include ecology and the philosophy of sustainability. She hopes to be able to increase the reach of the Randall Davey Audubon Center and its conservation message to a more diverse, wide-spread audience.

Betsy Daub, Director of Bird Conservation and Public Policy
We are very pleased to announce that Betsy Daub has joined our Audubon New Mexico team as Director of Bird Conservation and Public Policy. She comes to us following six years of conservation work with Audubon Minnesota and more recently as Rare Species Project Manager with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. A native of Arizona, Betsy tells us that she is excited to be returning to the Southwest. She holds an undergraduate degree in Zoology and German from Connecticut College and a Master's in Science in Resource Ecology and Management from the University of Michigan.

In addition to her conservation and policy efforts, including management of our Important Bird Areas program, Betsy will serve as New Mexico's All-Bird Coordinator, working with various agencies and organizations to keep New Mexico the bird-friendliest state. We are most grateful to two family foundations, the New Mexico Audubon Council, the Central New Mexico Audubon Society, and the New Mexico Department of Game & Fish for significant initial support of our new Conservation position.

SUSTAINING OUR FUTURE
Eva Rambo, Randall Davey Audubon Center Manager
I’m a sucker for a fuzzy pet. As a child, I was always bringing home stray cats and dogs. At highest count, my family included seven cats and four dogs all at one time. This often brought to the forefront (more so for my parents at the time, I’m sure) the question of carrying capacity; how did we all survive together under one roof and keep our pets from having too much of an environmental impact on us, our home, and our neighborhood? Well, the simple answer to that question is my poor mother, but that’s another story…

As I grew, so did my connection with animals and with nature, and I found myself mesmerized by the world of nonhuman primates, enthralled by the similarities we share with them. I was fascinated with evolution, long-term change that can be affected by so many factors, and with the resulting divergence and extinction of species. I began to think about what choices we as humans could consciously make to reduce our ecological footprints, diminishing the impact of man-made evolution. Traveling though Costa Rica and Central America, I learned for the first time about a philosophy called “sustainability”, and became interested in ways to create opportunities for local people to earn a living and to sustain the environment at the same time. I have been inspired over the years by the mutually beneficial relationships I have seen communities create with their environments, and I’m constantly encouraged by the growing grassroots movements for sustainability in our own communities.

Carrying capacity and sustainability are now important concepts that I consider on a daily basis: How many more pets can I fit into my own home now, along with a little one running around? How many more staff members can we fit into our office space at the Randall Davey Audubon Center? What is the compromise between keeping a green lawn at the Center and conserving water?

How do we balance a growing city with the need to protect unstructured, natural spaces and community? They’re all difficult questions to contend with, but learning to see the world we live in through a bigger lens and evaluating the social, economic, and environmental impacts of our actions can help decrease this degree of difficulty, and assist us in developing creative solutions. For example, we at RDAC have discussed ways to improve and increase our water-saving capacities, such as expanding our drip irrigation systems, taking better advantage of our acequia rights, and increasing our water storage capacity, among other things. Another thought is how best we may reach a more diverse audience and atrisk youth, opening up many doors for collaboration with other youth-oriented organizations in our community and simultaneously creating opportunities for more people to experience nature in a meaningful way and reap the benefits of that exposure.

In reviewing our sustainability, we are looking at our own operations, but also evaluating our interactions with and impact on our community and our stakeholders, which may open up avenues to creative and collaborative relationships that we never dreamed of. Daily, we are working to find ways to reduce our ecological footprint, and to collaborate with others to reduce our need for resources, creating a larger movement. In doing so, we hope to nurture a community that respects the benefits of nature and the inquisitiveness that it promotes in kids, who, though they may not consciously know scientific terms like “carrying capacity”, “evolution”, or “sustainability”, will use their experiences in nature to develop an understanding of and respect for these concepts as adults, the next stewards of our planet. We challenge you to do the same.

SUSTAINABILITY CHALLENGE!
It is estimated that an average student’s lunch generates 6 ounces of trash per day. Thus, each student generates 67 pounds of waste per school year. That would mean that lunches from students at Santa Fe Public Schools would produce 920,580 pounds of trash per school year. Annually, this would translate into 22,000,000 pounds of trash generated by lunches from students in New Mexico Public Schools! How can you help reduce this ecological impact?

CENTER INTERNS
How could we make it through our busy Summer without the help of our incredible interns?! This Summer, we were blessed with two outstanding interns, Ryan Bolton and Natalie Martino.

Ryan received his MS in Family and Consumer Sciences and Environment and Natural Resources from the University of Wyoming in the spring of 2006. His thesis focused on the effects of natural gas development on the stress physiology of wildlife. Originally from Wyoming, Ryan's interests include natural science education, wildlife research, and athletic endeavors of many facets.During the rest of the year, Ryan is the physical, health, and outdoor coordinator at the Journey's School of the Teton Science Schools in Jackson Wyoming.

Natalie came to us with a variety of teaching experiences ranging from farming with at-risk youth on urban gardens and CSA farms, to working with a community tree nursery in the deserts of west Africa. For the past three years, she has worked as a public middle school science teacher in Santa Fe. After receiving her master's degree in science education from UNM in 2005, Natalie has been exploring ways to incorporate environmental education into the public school system.

While here, Ryan and Natalie worked on a variety of projects and were a tremendous help with Summer Camp and with the general operations of the Center. Thank you, Ryan and Natalie, for your exceptional work this Summer!

And a big welcome to our Fall interns, Ali Abbors and Siobhan Corish!
Ali recently completed a year-long AmeriCorps internship with the Marin Conservation Corps’(MCC) Youth in Environmental Service program in Marin County, CA. Through MCC, she worked with public schools and several small, local nonprofits enabling her to communicate a variety of environmental issues to diverse populations throughout the county. She also served an AmeriCorps term as a Student Conservation Association Ranger Intern at Navajo National Monument in Arizona. Ali has a BA in Cultural Anthropology from Occidental College in Los Angeles, and her interests include the French language, music, art, and outdoors activities.

Siobhan comes to us with a background in science research. She has a BS in Geological and Environmental Sciences from Stanford University, and an MS in Geophysics from the University of California in Santa Barbara. For the past two years, she has worked as a Graduate Research Assistant at Los Alamos National Laboratory investigating advancements in nonlinear dynamic rupture inversion procedures. She is interested in learning more about Environmental Education, and is excited about working with a wide variety of groups here at RDAC.

VOLUNTEER SPOTLIGHT
Jim Garvin is comparatively one of our newer volunteers here at the Randall Davey Audubon Center, but he has given a stellar performance! He currently staffs the nature store two shifts per week, and during the period that RDAC was without a store manager, Jim stepped up to the plate and has ensured the accuracy of the inventory system, made sure that needed inventory was ordered and in stock, and took a lot of pride in managing these tasks. Thank you, Jim, for all your hard work and dedication! It is truly appreciated.

FUN AND ATTRACTIVE GIFTS TO BENEFIT AUDUBON NEW MEXICO
Sculptor and advocate for wildlife preservation, Mark Yale Harris, has generously offered to donate one half of the proceeds of sales of his sculpture, “No Worries” to Audubon New Mexico! “No Worries” is a sculpture of a whimsical bear, originally carved from translucent Italian Alabaster, then cast in bronze using the lost wax process. Mark Yale Harris is represented in Santa Fe at Crossroads Contemporary, Canyon Road at Paseo de Peralta. During times of drought when life for New Mexico’s bears is stressful, think about them every day with this sculpture in your home and help Audubon New Mexico in its conservation efforts on behalf of bears, birds, other wildlife and their habitats. This is a limited time offer and we hope you’ll take advantage it soon. The cost is $950.

Also benefiting Audubon New Mexico is a beautiful Pendleton blanket offered through Dewey Trading Company, whose mission it is to authenticate the history, culture and beauty of the American West. The John James Audubon blanket is included in the Signature Collection, designed by artists dedicated to history, education and environmental preservation. It was produced in conjunction with the Randall Davey Audubon Center, capturing the artistry of this well known 18th century painter and advocate, whose name lives on through the important work of the National Audubon Society. The cost of each blanket is $225, with only a limited number available on a first come – first served basis.

For more information, to see these items, or to make a purchase please contact Kim Straus at the Randall Davey Audubon Center at 505-983-4609.

A SUMMER OUTDOORS
Eileen Everett, Education Manager, Randall Davey Audubon Center and Audubon New Mexico
Question: How can we keep 22 children excited for six hours a day all summer long?
Answer: Get them OUTSIDE!
When you mix young children, teen counselors, Audubon educators, eight weeks of summer camp, and the great outdoors; one is bound to come away with some interesting stories. Whether we were searching for snakes, digging in the archaeology pit, using binoculars to seek out birds, hiking into Bear Canyon to build shelters, all of us enjoyed being outside! Inspiration for this year’s camp was drawn from the notion that children are spending too much time indoors. When was the last time you saw children outside building a fort or playing baseball in a field?

One of our first themes for this summer was time travel. To jump start the process of going back in time and seeing dinosaurs and archaeopteryx, we gathered recycled materials and built time machines. These time machines were constructed mostly from cardboard boxes and groups of campers surprised us all by incorporating control panels, special roof systems, windows, and even solar panels into their intricate time machines. For the safety of all, campers sent their stuffed animals back in time first, before we all ventured through time ourselves!

Nature has inspired countless poets, painters, and writers throughout time. During one afternoon, we all ventured on the trail and discussed the importance of storytelling on the trail. In a beautiful setting along the Santa Fe River, we shared our creativity through the telling of wildlife legends. One budding writer, told the story “Why Bald Eagles Look Bald”:
“Once there was a famous and wise man named Benjamin Franklin. He was admired by all animals, though he didn’t know it. All eagles had brown bodies. The eagle especially admired him – one particular eagle (whose name was Nelson) really admired him. He imitated Ben so much that one day he decided to become ‘bald.’ And from this day on bald eagles have been ‘bald.’ (Ben Franklin protested against the bald eagle being America’s symbol and Nelson was ashamed.)”

One of the conflicts we face as a conservation organization is the balance between using resources and sustainability. Traditionally, on Friday afternoons, we end camp by enjoying an hour of water fun through the use of a small water slide. To encourage the conservation of one of our most important resources, water, we challenged the campers to save water for Friday afternoons. In our first week of implementing this idea, we told the campers that the water slide used approximately 120 gallons of water per Friday afternoon usage. The 5-7 year old group of campers set a goal to conserve 250 gallons of water. The children had to come up with their own ideas of how to conserve water which ranged from turning off the water while brushing your teeth to placing a bucket in the shower to catch the water while it warms up. During this first week, the campers exceeded their goal of 250 gallons, and reached 490 gallons!

We all agreed that it was not hard to save that much water and imagined the impact if we continued the simple changes in behavior year round! The next week of camp, the 7-9 year olds were challenged to save more than 490 gallons of water, and saved a total of 790 gallons over five days. The final week of this experiment, the 9-11 year olds saved over 1,395 gallons.

If they all kept up these simple actions to conserve water, these small groups of campers could easily conserve approximately 200,000 gallons of water per year. Children are truly amazing when it comes to simple, but effective solutions to conserving our precious resources, and our campers’ efforts were inspiring! We hope you’ll think of this story and repeat it the next time someone says to you that one person can’t make a difference.

BEST OF SANTA FE AWARD
What does it mean to receive a Best of Santa Fe award from The Reporter? It means that you’ve achieved a degree of excellence that only the wonderful Reporter readers could recognize. Our staff and volunteers work hard to keep the grounds of the Randall Davey Audubon Center looking spectacular, and our location and views speak for themselves. This is why people enjoy holding their outdoor events here, the majority of which are weddings. The Center is a lovely setting for a wedding or union ceremony, and we are proud to receive The Reporter’s Best of Santa Fe award for the second year in a row!

For more information on holding your next event at the Randall Davey Audubon Center, please call Eva Rambo at 505-983-4609, x27, or email erambo@audubon.org.

ACEQUIA IMPROVEMENTS
Richard Ellenburg, Canyon Neighborhood Association
Randall Davey irrigated his orchard and fields using the Acequia del Llano which runs from Nichols dam to Canyon Road, and has been in use since the 1800’s. This is the acequia you cross at the top of the stairs leading to the Randall Davey Audubon Center (RDAC) trails.With the aid of a federal state program and a grant secured by Representative Peter Wirth, a pipe system is being planned to transport water from Nichols dam to the RDAC boundary. This will increase the amount of water that reaches the RDAC fields, reducing evapotranspiration and annual maintenance of the acequia. The improvement project will be a great help in allowing RDAC to recuperate water drawn from the acequia to traditional levels. This, in turn, will help RDAC meet the condition in the gift of the Randall Davey property to maintain the orchards and lawn as it will allow the Center a larger supply of water from which to draw.

Additionally, it enables RDAC to remain true to the historical roots of the property and the Center, an important part of the Randall Davey Audubon Center’s identity.

TIERRA SIN FRONTERAS
The Randall Davey Audubon Center is teaming up with a local Spanish-language newspaper, El Semanario, to create an exciting supplement about wildlife and conservation that will reach a Spanish speaking audience. Plans are still in the works, but we anticipate the start of this program will be January 2007. We are very excited about this opportunity to reach a more diverse audience, and we’ll share more with you as we progress. If you’d like more information on how to sponsor the Tierra Sin Fronteras project, please contact Eva at 983-4609, x27, or email erambo@audubon.org.

10/14/06