oct 2013 president's report--dy edits · 2019. 12. 14. · 2 | audubon president’s report |...

PRESIDENT’S REPORT TO THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

OCTOBER 2013

167% Unrestricted Fundraising growth over last year

4M Views of Audubon and explore.org live bird cameras

Osprey/Kurt Wecker

2 | Audubon President’s Report | October 2013

The foundation for them all is our strategic plan—supercharged with new data. Audubon has taken giant leaps forward in utilizing and leveraging data across all areas of the network to drive decision making and make informed choices when it comes to tough conservation decisions. We do all of this in support of our passion for birds. As you’ll see in Minneapolis, more, better data has become a common denominator across the National Audubon Society. • Data visualization for chapters/partners. Our partnership with Redlands, California-

based Esri is putting the most powerful mapping and data visualization tools into the hands of conservation leaders across the network and around the world. It’s unprec-edented in American conservation. You’ll see a presentation on this at the meeting.

• Data for marketing/membership. While we’ve addressed a lot of I.T. related issues, enough smoke has cleared to show us that we still don’t know nearly enough about our members and friends. We’ll be sharing with M&M an overview of a big new study about the value of membership retention.

• Data for policy action. Through a study we are doing in conjunction with Yale and a first-time $100,000 grant from the Skoll Foundation, we will be able to learn from our mem-bers about what moves them from information to action; information we will share with the entire conservation community.

• Science data. By far the biggest and most important piece of the equation is Gary Lang-ham’s science data. As you are aware, we will be releasing a groundbreaking new study on the effects of climate change on birds—you’ll hear more about that in Minneapolis, too—and that is going to be a game changer.

This is a moment of convergence and great opportunity—and this Audubon is capable of seizing it. This Audubon is working across the flyways and across old boundaries, creating interdisciplinary teams to leverage change on an exponential scale. And, this Audubon is the first major American NGO with the opportunity to leverage big data across a national net-work. That network makes all the difference. We have chapters in every state and interna-tional partners across the hemisphere. And they all share the same focus and goals.By putting cutting-edge technology at the heart of Audubon’s future we are leveling the play-ing field and converting passion and potential into true and lasting change for our planet and our future.

David YarnoldPresident and CEONational Audubon Society

EXECUTIVE SUMMARYFor the past 18 months, you’ve heard about several key initiatives: our climate science; mobilizing our network for advocacy; growing our membership. All of those threads come together at this meeting. It’s a turning point. What you will see in Minneapolis is a unique conflu-ence of opportunity and expertise that will be driving some of our most ambitious conservation efforts in decades.

Audubon President’s Report | October 2013 | 3

SHARING OUR SEAS & SHORESClimate Change Brings Hard Year for PuffinsOver the past 40 years, Maine puffin populations have rebounded under the stewardship of Audubon’s Project Puffin. However, in 2012 Audubon scientists discovered several alarming trends that demonstrated how a warming climate could negatively affect puffins:

• The warmest sea surface temperatures in the Gulf of Maine in 150 years meant super-size butterfish, a warm-water species, replaced herring in meals for puffin chicks. Due to an early plankton bloom last year, butterfish were even larger than normal—causing many puffin chicks to starve because they could not swallow the butterfish.

• Warmer-than-usual coastal waters and extreme storms resulted in hundreds of dead razorbills and several dozen dead puffins found on the shores of Cape Cod this past spring.

• At least 20% of the burrows at Maine’s largest puffin colonies were unoccu-pied, suggesting many birds died at sea or were not in good nesting condition.

The bad news continued in 2013. This summer, puffins laid eggs two weeks later than usual, likely due to their poor condition following the extreme weather, and only half of the eggs hatched. Most puffin parents were able to find herring and hake, but few stayed long enough to raise their chicks to fledging age.

Dr. Steve Kress predicts the poor nesting success experienced in 2012 and 2013 could repeat if sea temperatures continue to rise.

Marsh Management Brings Positive Results for Secretive Marshbirds Louisiana’s vast estuaries account for 40% of U.S. wetlands, but represent 80% of U.S. wetland loss. Audubon Louisiana is working with the Paul J. Rainey Audubon Sanctuary and surrounding Rainey Conservation Alliance to protect these vital wetlands. The alliance, a partnership between Audubon and landown-ers including McIlhenny Enterprises, Vermillion Corporation, and Sagrera Lands, is responsible for management of almost 180,000 acres of coastal marshes.

Since 2007, the alliance has completed more than $3.5 million in on-the-ground restoration work to reduce land loss and improve marsh quality in the southern-most U.S. stop for Mississippi Flyway migratory birds. Audubon scientists are conducting breeding season surveys on secretive marshbirds—various rails, other gallinaceous birds, bitterns, and sparrows—and in May, Audubon Louisiana initi-ated color-banding of nestling Green Herons in order to better understand how marsh management influences nest success and between-season return rates.

National SupportDEVELOPMENT Dan Lufkin to Accept Audubon MedalDan Lufkin, a leader who has made a transformational difference at Audubon for more than four decades, has agreed to accept the Audubon Medal in 2014. Lufkin achieved many firsts in the world of Wall Street, and was also the first Commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection for the State of Connecticut. We are deeply grateful for Dan’s acceptance and look forward to honoring his legacy, remembering his wife Cynthia, and celebrating the future of conservation. Pat Noonan, Audubon Trustee Emeritus and co-founder of The Conservation Fund and American Farmland Trust, will receive the Dan W. Lufkin Prize for Environmental Leadership. Please join us on January 27, 2014, at the Plaza Hotel in New York City.

$4 Million Fundraising Goal Achieved for FY13The national fundraising team, with leadership and support from David Yarnold and Board members, achieved its unrestricted/core programs financial goal, raising $4 million in FY13—a substantial increase over FY12’s total of $1.5 million. The stakes rise again in FY14 with a $5 million goal.

The USFWS awarded $253,467 to Audubon Connecticut to educate private forest landowners on best management prac-tices to improve the biological richness of Connecticut forests for birds.

Atlantic Puffin/John Huba


Early Support Secured for Climate CampaignAudubon has received a $100,000 grant from the Skoll Global Threats Fund to test our network’s reaction to climate change messaging related to our ground-breaking birds-and-climate model. This financial support is augmented by a partnership with the Analyst Institute, a group on the forefront of evaluating audience response to messaging. We have also been invited to submit a $50,000 proposal to the Hewlett Foundation, which will be unrestricted but represents the foundation’s interest in our climate work. We hope these will be the first of many investments in our efforts to reduce greenhouse gasses and protect resilient habitats to secure a better future for birds and people. Special thanks to Susan Bell and Terry Root for convening key potential funders on the West Coast and for support in developing our messaging and plans.

Flyways Share the Shore with Beach-nesting Birds—and Each OtherAudubon deployed bird monitors from coast to coast this summer to protect shorebirds like plovers and terns during peak vacation season. Audubon state offices, Centers, and Chapters worked to educate beachgoers about how to have fun in the sun while sharing the shore.

• Audubon Florida raised awareness with a media campaign, earning place-ment in dozens of print, web, and radio outlets;

• Be a Good Egg programs in New York, New Jersey, and North Carolina promoted responsible beach recreation through an educational pledge;

• Audubon Connecticut launched a WildLife Guards program to engage high school students as beach monitors;

• Pascagoula River Audubon Center in Mississippi completed a revision of the Mississippi Coastal Birding Trail—an interactive web-based trail system that includes more than 40 sites with bird stewards;

• Audubon California received a grant from the California Coastal Commission to bring Audubon Adventures’ shorebird curriculum in English and Spanish to 10 urban schools in Los Angeles and San Diego; and

• Audubon’s national policy team worked with Audubon North Carolina to defeat a bill that would have allowed off-road vehicles to be driven over key nesting habitat for endangered Piping Plovers—the latest success in a more than three-year fight to protect nesting birds on Cape Hatteras National Seashore.

Panama Bay Conservation Continues Audubon’s International Alliances Program continues to fight to protect the Bay of Panama. Since the Bay regained its protected status in April, Audubon has published a legal reference manual on laws and regulations pertaining to the bay, expanded our school program to more than 900 students, launched an educational website, hired Panama Audubon’s first shorebird biologist, and trained 60 local volunteers in shorebird monitoring.

Thanks in part to the Richardson Bay Audubon Center and Sanctuary, California bird lovers can spot Elegant Terns and Black Oystercatchers on Aramburu Island forthefirsttime.Aramburu Island was created in the 1960s out of dredge spoils in the San Francisco Bay; Audubon and partners are transforming it into a bird and marine mammal habitat.

Least Tern/Nancy Elwood


SAVING IMPORTANT BIRD AREAS

Pennsylvania Hits the Brakes on Racetrack in Favor of Conservation In May, after ten years of negotiations and legal battles, Audubon Pennsylvania and partners acquired 384 acres of open ridge-top land along a major raptor and songbird migration path in the Kittatinny Ridge IBA. The property was under extreme threat of development with a planned auto raceway, hotel, and restau-rant that would have destroyed the pristine woodland habitat and introduced significant noise, light, and water pollution. The property will now be managed for birds and other wildlife by the Pennsylvania Game Commission. Audubon Pennsylvania contributed $100,000 towards the land purchase in the final days of the deal, ensuring birds like the Golden-winged Warbler, American Woodcock, and Louisiana Waterthrush will be protected on the property in perpetuity.

CONTENT New Content Division To Increase Impact Audubon’s Content Division was restructured in September. Breaking down artificial distinctions between “content” and “engagement,” this integrated team will work across growing digital channels (web, targeted online newsletters, social media), as well as Audubon magazine, to reach new audiences and multiply our impact. The new Content Division is built around six departments, Messaging, Creative Services, Assigned Content, Digital, Integrated Marketing, and Operations, each serving a core content/communication function. The heads of each department will report to Mark Jannot, the VP of Content, and will comprise the Content Leadership Team, with shared responsibility to develop and implement strategy. New positions include a Digital Director and Associate Editor, and a cross-platform Executive Editor to lead the Assigned Content team, as well as a new Photography Director, a Cross-Platform Production Designer, a Science & Visualizations Editor, and a Network Content Editor, whose job will be to identify and elevate great content from throughout the network.

American Woodcock/Tom Benson, Flickr Creative Commons

More than 8,400 people signed up inthefirstyearofHummingbirds at Home—Audubon’s newest citizen science initiative. And more than 21,000 observations have been recorded.


Mapping Technology Available to Entire Audubon NetworkAudubon’s partnership with Esri, initiated in 2010, continues to expand. In March of this year, Esri—impressed with the growth and innovative architecture of the Audubon GIS platform—increased its in-kind donation to include the larg-est ArcGISonline user group on its platform, worth six million dollars, and also awarded Audubon a Special Achievement Award in GIS.

Maps backed by authoritative data make powerful cases for conservation when working with funders, governmental organizations, and potential part-ners. With Esri’s latest donation, all Audubon staff and Chapters can now use this innovative GIS technology to make maps, build predictive models, and answer complex questions using statistical tools—making it easier than ever for Audubon to identify conservation targets and analyze organizational capacity.

One example of Esri in action comes from Audubon Washington, where the state office and local chapters have used mapping technology in efforts to protect the Marbled Murrelet. Listed as a threatened species at both the state and federal level, this unique seabird inhabits coastal waters and bays but breeds up to 45 miles inland in old-growth forest. A coalition of conservation organizations led by Seattle Audubon Society has organized members to attend public hearings and produced maps layering Marbled Murrelet habitat ranges, state and federally protected forests, and Audubon Chapter territory to demon-strate the need and capacity for protecting Marbled Murrelet breeding habitat.

California’s Owens Lake IBA Gets New LifeOwens Lake in Southeastern California was at one time the largest inland salt lake in California for shorebirds like American Avocets and Western Snowy Plovers. But since 1913 the lake’s water has been diverted by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power via the first LA Aqueduct. In the late 1990s, dust pollution from the drying lake bed became a major issue, and in 2001 the Department began applying water to the lake to reduce dust. Audubon California convened a working group that just created a master plan to conserve habitat, save water, and control dust at Owens Lake. The one-billion-dollar proposed master project will re-engineer the entire lake bed and create at least 25,000 acres of bird habitat.

Creative Engagement Efforts Boost Results

Exit the Highway, Audubon’s get-outdoors campaign with Toyota, smashed goals this summer. 136,241 participants pledged to spend time in nature and 91,363 new supporters joined Audubon’s email list. The campaign earned substantial media attention including a feature on Fox & Friends Weekend’s national TV broadcast and a national radio story with travel expert Peter Greenberg.

In August, American Birds, the storied Christmas Bird Count print publication, made a leap into virtual space, becoming Audubon’s first citizen science email newsletter. The digital edition already reaches twice as many readers as the former print version.

A new partnership with PBS gave 82 Centers and Chapters the opportunity to host Hummingbirds at Home events this summer. Audubon New Mexico’s screening of the NATURE film Hummingbirds: Magic in the Air played to a sold-out audience of 835 supporters and prospective donors. In September, Audubon and PBS collaborated to promote EarthFlight, a video series on bird migration, with Audubon scientists participating in real-time social media engagement around the broadcast.

There were a record 4,087,932 views on the Audubon and explore.org Osprey, puffin, and tern live bird cams this summer. Viewers tuned in for more than one million hours.

Audubon Chapter territory (shaded in various colors) layered with Marbled Murrelet habitat management parcels (in red) in Washington/Esri

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Western Rivers Action Network Sees Results in Central FlywayJune brought a major victory for the Western Rivers Action Network when the Elephant Butte Irrigation District board of directors approved a policy allowing farmers to sell water rights for riverside vegetation restoration. The deal, negoti-ated over the last decade and led by Audubon New Mexico and the irrigation district’s farmers, is one of the most innovative examples to date of the growing movement across the western U.S. to reclaim water for riverside environments. The project will restore cottonwoods, willows, and other native vegetation on 500 acres at 30 sites along a 100-mile stretch of the Rio Grande between Percha Dam and the New Mexico-Texas border—restoring critical habitat for birds like the endangered Southwestern Willow Flycatcher.

The grassroots-focused coalition is growing exponentially:

• Audubon’s national policy team organized seven WRAN advocacy work-shops in Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona. More than 200 leaders from Audubon Chapters and partner organizations have attended the workshops.

• More than 18,000 people have signed-up to receive email alerts on west-ern water issues and more than 2,000 people have taken online action since March.

• Audubon was featured in more than 30 earned-media hits in the WRAN target states of Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico.

Successful State Fundraising Supports Land Acquisition and ReconstructionIn July, Audubon Nebraska and Rowe Sanctuary successfully completed a campaign to raise $2.5 million for the purchase and restoration of a key 577-acre property along the Platte River. Audubon South Carolina also reached a fundrais-ing goal, raising $1.15 million to reconstruct the Beidler Forest Boardwalk.

Online Growth Captures Industry AttentionOver the past two years, Audubon grew its online fundraising more quickly than any of the other 153 charities surveyed by the Chronicle of Philanthropy. Audubon grew (gross) online revenue from $184K in FY11 to $920K in FY13—a 400% increase—by building our email list, engaging supporters, and increasing the number of fundraising appeals.

New Opportunities for Revenue & VisibilityAs Audubon focuses its conservation work along strategic priorities, we are also identifying new revenue sources. Cause marketing partnerships can provide a consumer-facing corporation increased business success (including higher sales and customer loyalty) while the nonprofit partner benefits from improved brand visibility, public support, and financial return. Audubon has engaged cause agency For Momentum to assess the organization’s partnership strengths, develop a cause marketing strategy, and attract corporate partners.

The USFWS and the National Wildlife Refuge System selected Audubon Connecticut’s Urban Oases program to become one of ten pilot Urban Refuges. The selection comes with a $40,000 grant and designates the New Haven Harbor Watershed as one of theU.S.’sfirstUrbanNational Wildlife Refuges.


PUTTING WORKING LANDS TO WORK FOR BIRDS & PEOPLEEsri Technology Helps Audubon Alaska Identify Top Conservation LandsUsing Esri’s ArcGIS Online, Audubon Alaska has developed an innovative tool to assist with land management and conservation planning in the 6-million-acre Kenai Peninsula. The tool builds layered information, including salmon habitat, IBA location, and developed areas, onto a single map. By looking at the overlap, Audubon is able to identify the most important conservation areas—especially critical when working with partners like local land trusts.

Easement on Connecticut Farmland Protects Habitat for BirdsAfter work from Audubon Connecticut and partner organizations, state legisla-tion now permanently protects more than 800 acres of agricultural lands at the Southbury Training School—adjacent to the Audubon Center at Bent of the River. The land will be protected through an easement granted to the Southbury Land trust and managed to balance agricultural production with wildlife habitat protection. This management plan will provide a haven for Bobolinks, American Kestrels, and Brown Thrashers, which flourish in the habitat on working farms.Conservation Compliance and the Farm Bill In June, the U.S. Senate approved a version of the Farm Bill that included Audubon’s priority language on conservation compliance, which would give farmers critical incentives to put a conservation plan in place. Audubon supporters sent more than 9,500 emails to U.S. Representatives, and the House approved the bill; however, it was a radically different bill than approved by the Senate—setting up a partisan debate on a final measure. Audubon’s policy office will continue to mobilize grassroots action as further iterations of the Farm Bill come to a vote.

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGYIBA Application LaunchesIn July, IT launched a new IBA application that helps users with IBA selection criteria, location, and status of habitat and bird species. The application is the first tool built by Audubon IT that integrates Esri mapping technology. By centralizing input and output, the IBA tool will allow administrators to both upload new information and download existing maps and data.

Other new IT applications launching this fall include:

An online system for Audubon field offices that streamlines the invoice submission process and simplifies the Finance Department’s processing responsibilities.

A new matching gift program, built in partnership with Donor Trends, that is estimated to increase matching gifts by 50% in the next year.

FINANCENew Investment Policy for Endowment FundsAudubon’s new investment policy is now fully implemented. The policy creates five distinct portfolios to allow for better match of risk tolerance to underlying funds. It also assigns differentiated spending yields to the funds to promote sustainable spending.

New Staff RecruitedFinance continues to attract talented leaders. Christine Offermann, most recently Controller of Carnegie Hall, joined Audubon in the same role and Deborah Grumet was hired as Director, Financial Analysis and Administration, focusing on improving our government grant analysis, compliance, and reporting.

Kenai Decision Support Tool showing watersheds weighted by priority using selected layers. Red: Very High, Orange: High, Yellow: Medium, Blue: Low/Esri

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SHAPING A HEALTHY CLIMATE & CLEAN ENERGY FUTUREAudubon Offers Energy Siting Guidelines To Protect Bird Habitat In June, Audubon Vermont and area Chapters completed a survey of more than 1,200 acres of Golden-winged and Prairie Warbler shrubland habitat as part of a two-year partnership with the Vermont Electric Power Company (VELCO). The results will help Audubon Vermont provide recommendations to VELCO for long-term habitat management in Champlain Valley transmission corridors. Audubon will build upon this work with a $195,000 National Fish & Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) grant awarded to Audubon Vermont and Audubon New York specifically for Golden-winged Warbler conservation. This grant, along with similar NFWF grants awarded in North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Michigan last year, will support Audubon’s work to stabilize the Golden-winged Warbler’s population, including work with private landholders to protect habitat across the Atlantic and Mississippi Flyways.

Innovative Partnership Protects Connecticut Wetlands and Marshes In August, Audubon and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers partnered to estab-lish the Connecticut In-Lieu Fee Program. Under this innovative partnership, application fees paid to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for development projects that would impact wetlands and watercourses will now be used to fund large-scale mitigation projects under the management of Audubon Connecticut. Habitat restoration projects, land acquisition, and other mitigation projects focused around aquatic habitats and their upland buffers will be selected and administered by Audubon Connecticut and partner organizations.

Here’s what U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal said about the initiative:

“[Audubon’s] expertise, along with that of the other partners, will help expand the ability of the U.S. Army Corps to protect the waters, wetlands and associated uplands of our state. The program will provide benefits both in terms of helping to simplify the proposal and permitting process, and in terms of providing an ongoing source of funds to accomplish meaningful environmental mitigation including the restoration and permanent protection of habitat throughout Connecticut.”

OFFICE OF GENERAL COUNSELProtecting Alaskan Old Growth Forest In August, Audubon filed an appeal with the U.S. Forest Service to stop the Big Thorne timber sale. At 149 million board-feet of mostly old-growth forest, the sale is the largest in the Tongass National Forest since the early 1990s and has significant implications for the Queen Charlotte Goshawk and the Marbled Murrelet and has the potential to be a tipping point for the biological health of Prince of Wales Island. Stop-ping this sale is also the best chance to hold the Obama administration accountable for its promise to transition from old-growth to second-growth logging in the Tongass.

Drilling Battle ContinuesAudubon and co-plaintiffs filed an appeal after a June ruling by the U.S. District Court in Alaska that the Department of the Interior complied with the law when it approved Shell Oil’s plan for cleaning up oil spills in the Arctic Ocean’s Beaufort and Chukchi Seas. Our latest appeal asserts that DOI did not comply with the law.

Golden-winged Warbler nest /Ed Burress

“The idea that Shell has a viable plan to contain a spill doesn’t pass the laugh test, so it’s hard to see how the plan meets legal standards. Americans are smart enough to know that an oil spill cannot be contained in an ocean full of ice.”

—David Yarnold

President and CEO, Audubon


CREATING BIRD-FRIENDLY COMMUNITIESBird-Friendly Communities Signature Programs LaunchThis fall, Audubon’s Community Conservation & Education (CC&E) team launched a series of Bird-Friendly Communities (BFC) signature programs, focusing on towns and cities with both the highest concentration of threats to birds and the highest concentration of constituents to save them. A summit for Chapter, Center, state, and national leaders helped refine the rollout strategy and develop success measures by flyway.

The first BFC signature program, Lights Out, builds on the success of similar programs run by Chapters around the country. The signature Lights Out program will be implemented in at least 40 cities across all four flyways—with the potential to save hundreds of thousands of birds each year. Fatal bird collisions can be reduced by more than 80% if building owners and managers are persuaded to turn off excess lighting during migration season.

Minnesota Leads U.S. with First State-wide Bird-safe Building Guidelines Audubon Minnesota was instrumental in shaping the new Minnesota Sustainable Building Guidelines, sharing research on bird collisions with the Center for Sustainable Building Research and advocating for more than two years to ensure Minnesota instituted the first state-wide bird-safe design standards in the U.S. As of May 2013 all new building projects that receive Minnesota state bond funding must comply with bird-safety requirements. The guidelines protect birds from hazards like clear glass railings, skyways, and large expanses of glass adjacent to bird habitat. Already, more than 200 Minnesota buildings currently under construction are following the guidelines.Technology Provides New Perspectives on CBC Data Audubon is using Big Data to solve big conservation problems. In August, Audubon collaborated with HP Vertica, a leader in using data to resolve real-world challenges, on a hackathon of 114 years of Christmas Bird Count data. HP Vertica provided teams of skilled hackers with tools to analyze large CBC data sets, and explore relationships between migrations and climate. One team produced density maps of bird counts over time, while another explored the relationship between local weather prior to the count and bird abundance on the day of the count, providing Audubon with new ideas of how to analyze CBC data in the future.

Woodlands Protected for Birds & WildlifeMore than 20 years ago, Audubon helped create a landmark comprehensive conservation plan in Orange County, California—parts of which provide critical procedural protections for the ecological integrity of Audubon’s Starr Ranch Sanctuary. In July, the California Superior Court ruled in Audubon’s favor in a lawsuit, agreeing that a 113-acre development scheme failed to comply with that 20-year-old conservation plan. Halting the development didn’t just preserve the conservation plan; it also protected an important wildlife corridor that connects to Limestone-Whiting Regional Park, an important area for Cactus Wren and endangered gnat-catchers.

Lights Out Minnesota/Per Breiehagen

TheSenateconfirmedGina McCarthy as the new head of the EPA in July. Audubon’s policyofficegeneratedgrassroots calls to key swing votes to urge support for McCarthy’s nomination.

“McCarthy has been a champion for Long Island Sound, grass-lands and species conservation, clean and sustainable water resources, clean air, and dealing with climate change.”

—Mike Daulton

VP for Government Relations, Audubon


Spotlight on Toyota TogetherGreen FellowsToyota TogetherGreen Fellow and Iraq War veteran Ben Haberthur launched the Veterans Conservation Corps of Chicagoland, a volunteer group designed to help veterans regain balance in their personal lives through habitat restoration. During the yearlong fellowship, veterans planted about 8,000 seedlings in a wetland and savanna habitat at the Dick Young Forest Preserve in Illinois.

Toyota TogetherGreen Fellow Elizabeth Sarmiento engaged Latino families in Silicon Valley around home energy conservation—hosting workshops and distributing free clotheslines, low-flow shower heads, and compact fluorescent light bulbs. Each family is expected to save around $500 in yearly energy costs and reduce water consumption by an average of 15,000 gallons per year.

HUMAN RESOURCESNew Audubon LeadersAudubon continues to attract impressive talent to key leadership roles. Some recent additions:

Stewart Hudson joined Audubon as VP/Executive Director for Connecticut. Stewart comes to Audubon with more than 20 years’ experience in the nonprofit, environmental space.

Peter Jones, Audubon’s new Director of Development for the Atlantic Flyway, has built his career as a successful fundraiser for several environmental organizations including The Wilderness Society and Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences.

Jerry Muntz, new Director of Planned Giving, comes to Audubon from Princeton University, where he served as Associate Director of Gift Planning.

Total RewardsHuman Resources is continuing a comprehensive review of the rewards portfolio offered to employees—base salary, bonus program, retirement support, and benefits—to stay competitive with the market and attract and retain top talent while being sensitive to cost. Changes to Audubon’s health care plans for 2014 will help Audubon align with the Affordable Care Act and respond to ever-increasing health care costs. Audubon’s retirement vehicles, both the active (403(b) and 457(b)) and the frozen pension scheme, are now in review to ensure proper management and market competitiveness. A number of optional benefits, employee perks, and discounts are also being rolled out.

Ben Haberthur/Toyota TogetherGreen

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Audubon Programs Reach Kids Across the CountryAudubon Centers and Chapter programs often introduce children to the magic of nature, an experience that can turn kids into champions for conservation. A few heartwarming examples from 2013 include:

• An Audubon Adventures Summer Camp at Trinity River Audubon Center in Dallas turned seven-year-old Ashley Gomez into an animal expert. Ashley won an animal identification competition at her local library after attending the summer camp, and went on to participate in Educación Sin Frontera (Education with-out Borders), traveling to Mexico for two weeks.

• The Aullwood Audubon Center is piloting a project, STEMing Science and Research into Conservation Action, in five Dayton, Ohio, public schools. Designed to boost performance in life and earth sciences, the program combines the scientific method, inquiry-based learning, and hands-on field work.

• With the help of a Toyota TogetherGreen Innovation Grant, the Audubon Society of Corvallis, Oregon, created the Student Riparian Stewards program. Students from four local schools designed and imple-mented a restoration plan for two acres of wetland and creek side habitat. The students removed inva-sive plants, planted native species from seedlings grown in their greenhouse, and completed pre- and post-restoration monitoring that showed increased use of the area by native wildlife.

AUDUBON CONVENTION: TAKING FLIGHT TOGETHERAudubon’s first convention in 13 years sold out with more than 500 people in attendance. Twenty-two State programs, 109 Chapters, 13 Centers, and seven BirdLife International partners were represented; national staff, volunteers, board members, and sponsors also participated.

Deep in conversation at the Audubon Convention/Hugh Simmons David Yarnold kicks off the convention/Hugh Simmons

Birding in the beautiful Columbia River Gorge/Zach Slavin Leigh Altadonna, Audubon National Board Member & Convention Co-Chair (R) Helen Engle, President of Tacoma Audubon Society (L) /Alan Dolan

oct 2013 president's report--dy edits · 2019. 12. 14. · 2 | audubon president’s report |...

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