Thanks to our BEN Bulletin
sponsor:
The Bird Education Network
(BEN) was created following the February 2007 National
Gathering, hosted by CEE. BEN is a CEE initiative that seeks
to connect and support a network of bird education
professionals.
The building and strengthening of
such a network must overcome seemingly unconnected outcomes in
bird education and conservation. This can be accomplished when
the efforts are seen as hopeful, creative, and, most
importantly, cumulative.
A BEN Committee has been
established to provide advice and guidance for this important
initiative, to advance "bird conservation through
education."
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 Birding for the Blind: An Exploration
By Michelle Donlan, Patuxent
Research Refuge (USFWS)
For the past two springs,
the Patuxent Research Refuge in Maryland has hosted an
innovative "Birding for the Blind" event, a program
designed to share enthusiasm and appreciation of nature
with visually impaired people (VIPs), their families,
and friends. This approach was pioneered by Steve
Bouffard, former Refuge Manager at Minidoka National
Wildlife Refuge in Idaho.
Participants
were introduced to nature and birding through hands-on
activities and exploration of outdoor habitats. They
learned how to identify birds by sound, an activity that
can be done in any outdoor setting. The Refuge was very
fortunate to have the help of birding experts from their
own neighborhood, the USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research
Center. Chan Robbins and Barbara Dowell were especially
helpful. (The two of them brought birding to life by
identifying several bird species by ear and by creating
vivid pictures in the participants'
minds.)
A tram tour allowed participants to
travel through different habitats of the Refuge to get a
real-life opportunity to hear different bird species.
After the tram tour, Refuge staff and volunteers led
participants through different education stations
highlighting bird species found on the Refuge; one
station included live Wood Duck chicks which could be
touched and handled.
In preparation for
the public program, the Refuge staff developed several
additional partnerships. They included the Maryland
State Library for the Blind & Physically Handicapped
and the Maryland School for the Blind located in
Baltimore. A professional physical therapist also
visited Patuxent beforehand to give staff essential
pointers on working with the blind.
Also,
the situation included exposing the participants
beforehand to four to six common bird calls likely to be
heard during the tram ride, and it included
encouragement to listen to further recordings for up to
two weeks prior to the event.
The whole
experience was rewarding for the Refuge staff and
volunteers as well as the participants. It reveals a
novel way to "bring birds to diverse audiences." In
retrospect, perhaps this is another great reason to call
the pastime "birding" and not "bird watching." The
"watching" element is certainly only one facet of the
interest and hobby.
Photo:
participants at the Patuxent Research Refuge. Ed
Grimes/USFWS-Volunteer. |
 Birds and Shade-Grown Coffee: The Educational
Opportunity Part I
by April Diane
Haight and Paul J.
Baicich
The draft National Bird
Education Strategy has called for "an informed
bird-compatible coffee consumer movement (not unlike the
efforts behind the awareness that appeared over 100
years ago over the feather-trade) that links bird
educators, coffee businesses, birders, and general
conservationists for a sustainable coffee
sector." The coffee issue - and the
potential - is simply huge, for at least a few good
reasons:
- After oil, coffee is the second most valuable
commodity exported by developing countries.
- The U.S. is the largest consumer of coffee in the
world.
- Some 56 percent of adults in the United
States drink at least one cup of coffee each
day.
There may be no better opportunity to educate about
birds - and about the economies of coffee-growing areas
in our hemisphere - than the subject of shade-grown
coffee.
The issue is not the best
for younger children, but high-schoolers and college
students are a different story. More importantly, the
parents of younger children and other working adults are
the ones buying the coffee and potentially making the
difference.
Shade-grown coffee receives its
name because the coffee bushes are grown under a canopy
of trees. In the past several decades coffee farmers in
Latin America and the Caribbean have converted coffee
farms from traditional shade-oriented production to sun
coffee (no canopy cover) to increase production. Sun
coffee's row-crop bushes require high levels of
pesticides and fertilizer. The switch to sun coffee has
resulted in a serious decline in bird species numbers
and diversity.
On the other hand, areas of
shade-grown coffee have been shown to contain most of
the rainforest species biodiversity while maintaining
economic opportunities for people living in these
regions.
The land practices on these coffee
farms greatly impact our bird enjoyment. It is estimated
that between 60 and 80 percent of "our" forest birds
winter in Latin America or the Caribbean. So, for your
bird-viewing enjoyment, switch to bird compatible coffee
and take the opportunity to educate others on the
subject.
In the next issue of the BEN
Bulletin, we will have more on coffee, including some
sources. | | |
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