Birders at Santa Ana NWR in Texas. (Image: Kim Check)
In the middle February, I participated in a city-partners meeting for FlyingWILD. This is a program of the Council for Environmental Education (CEE) that introduces middle-school students (age 11 to 14) to bird conservation through standards-based classroom activities and stewardship projects. The meeting was held in McAllen, Texas, and about two dozen of the 40 city partners were in attendance.
The partners from these localities were engaged, the discussion lively, the ideas very creative. I was fortunate to teach the participants about some of the best ways to lead an “instructive bird walk,” a field trip that goes beyond the mere identification of bird species and explores lessons for each species or family of bird encountered. I led an afternoon “practice-run” for instructors. Each type of bird (species or family) was linked to an easy-to-take-home conservation message, and some had real management consequences.
The great thing about our “instructive bird walk” was that we held it at two places: Qunita Mazatlan (the World Birding Center site in McAllen) and nearby Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge. Most of our field time was spent at Santa Ana NWR.
We were welcomed to Santa Ana by Jennifer Owen-White, the new refuge manager. Not only did she tell us about Santa Ana’s unique features, she described “The Big Six” wildlife-dependent public uses at refuges, with a special emphasis on environmental education and interpretation. The group was duly impressed.
I had four impressions on our “field trip for families” practice run:
- The participants were introduced to some of the avian specialties of the Lower Rio Grande Valley, including Altamira Oriole, Green Jay, Olive Sparrow, and Long-billed Thrasher, birds found nowhere else in the U.S.
- The birds were connected to the valley thorn-scrub and thorn-forest habitat, the habitat needs, and the role of responsible refuge management.
- Virtually all the participants indicated that they wished to return to the NWR on their own at a later date. (In fact, some returned the very next morning.)
- The visit illustrated the potential that refuges have to engender an environmental (in this case, bird-based) education and interpretation opportunity.
Real connections can be made with parts of the recently released Vision Document, especially with chapter 4 Human-Nature, and the section on “School Participation and the Future of Environmental Education”: http://americaswildlife.org/vision/human-nature/education/
As the Refuge System seeks a vision for the future, some additional related questions arise: How much would it take to increase the efforts to ramp up family-based NWR field trips, short field trips of an instructive – but fun – nature? How many Friends groups could help? How many other locally-based NGOs and related projects (like FlyingWILD city partners) might be involved? In the effort to reach youngsters, how many entire families could be engaged? With birds as the “hook,” how can other species, habitats, issues, and responsibilities be reached?
I think the possibilities are huge. But so is our need to move quickly.
Paul Baicich, Great Birding Projects
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On the Chincoteauge National Wildlife Refuge in Virginia we try to increase the quality of the bird walks by utilizing live birds in the hand that are captured during a reasearch project. The bird banding expert schedules his data collection times to coordinate with the bird walks so that a few of the birds being banded and recorded can also be utilized a specimens to illustrate environmental topics to the participants during their bird walk. The birds utilized for this purpose are held for only a few moments for this purpose and then released immediately. The participants in the walks seem to be very appreciative of this experience and we have found the responses of children are particularly impressive.
Great Ideas, Paul!
I think Friends groups do and will continue to embrace this approach. What’s needed is preparation time so that the leader is knowledgeable and can introduce these elements.
One aspect that has been particularly successful at Assabet River National WIldlife Refuge is to weave in the local history of the refuge, from Native American and colonial times through the WWII ammunition storage story. The cultural resource aspects of the story of each refuge fosters a strong local connection and is a valuable interpretive opportunity.