By Becky Herman
Special to The SUN
Wednesday, April 18, is the date for the next chapter meeting of the Weminuche Audubon Society, which will start with socializing at 6 p.m. at the Community United Methodist Church on Lewis Street.
The program this month should be of interest to birders and non-birders alike, because the speaker, Kristina Kline, is a wildlife biologist for Bird Conservancy of the Rockies (BCR), which partners with the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) and landowners out of the Durango NRCS office to implement bird habitat conservation projects on private lands.
Kline will highlight completed and upcoming habitat enhancement projects in southwest Colorado, as well as the incentives that exist to make conservation projects more feasible for landowners. Also of interest will be some of BCR’s extensive avian monitoring efforts and focal species research across the western U.S. and Mexico. The BCR is a nonprofit that has been conserving birds and their habitats for the past 30 years.
Kline received her B.S. in environmental biology from Fort Lewis College in 2010. Shortly after, she worked as a biologist for a private company conducting avian surveys and threatened and endangered species surveys in southwest Colorado. Along the way, she assisted with the Colorado Breeding Bird Atlas II, volunteered with CPW working on black bear/human conflicts, and became a naturalist, leading students on nature hikes. Kline finished her master’s degree in wildlife ecology at Oregon State University in 2016.
The presentation will start promptly at 6:15 p.m. Chapter announcements will be made after the presentation. Memberships for the remainder of this fiscal year and for the next fiscal year will also be available at that time. As usual, refreshments will be served. Audubon events are free and open to the public. Call Becky Herman at 264-2171 or 903-0788 for more information.
