Madrone Needs Your Support

November General Meeting

Thank You

Contract on Mayacamas Restoration Planning

Seed Gathering at Sanctuary

The Village at Pine Flat

Agreement on Hillside Ordinance

Observations

Midweek Walkabout Results

Pee Wee Report

Things To Do

Winter Birding

Ideal Holiday Gift

Through the Garden Gate: Backyard Birding

Welcome New Members

Pee Wee Audubon

Madrone Needs Your Support

AUDUBON'S GREATEST strength is its volunteers---but there's a lot that manpower cannot do without financial support. The success of Madrone Audubon's education and conservation programs is due to our members and special contributors.

Membership dues fund less than half of our activities in Sonoma County. We hope you will continue to support your chapter, and we especially encourage you to consider making a year-end contribution in the enclosed envelope.

• This school year almost 150 Sonoma County classrooms are participating in the Audubon Adventures program, most of them sponsored by Madrone Audubon and its members. At $35 per class, this represents an investment of more than $5,000 in natural science and conservation education, reaching at least 3,000 elementary-school children. With your help, we hope to enroll 200 classrooms in the next school year.

• Our expanded Pee Wee Audubon program is now offering two outings per month for children and their families, with excellent naturalist leaders thanks to last year's generous donations. Binoculars and other equipment acquired for the program this year have enhanced the outdoor experience for many participating children and adults. This program requires our continued support.

• A total of seven Madrone Audubon Education Kits now are circulating to teachers and youth group leaders in the county, and binoculars have been added to several of the kits. The new kits on bats and on owls have been especially popular. Madrone has now been asked to provide an additional owl kit to circulate out of the office of the Sonoma County Office of Education, and a nest box kit for use in classroom presentations by the non-profit Circuit Rider Productions ecology program. The materials for each kit cost about $400.

• At Audubon's Mayacamas Mountain Sanctuary, we're just wrapping up a very successful series of special field trips for the public, with professional leaders from various disciplines. More trips are now being planned. We achieved a satisfactory settlement in our suit to protect the Sanctuary from damage by the proposed Geysers pipeline, and are now moving ahead with restoration plans and additional educational programs at the Sanctuary (see article). Most of the $35,000 received from the City of Santa Rosa will be used toward Audubon's expenses for the suit, and any residue will be applied to the work at the Sanctuary. No additional funds will be coming from the settlement unless the pipeline is actually constructed through the Sanctuary, which we hope will never happen.

Charitable contributions, along with Birdathon funds, proceeds from the Sonoma County Breeding Bird Atlas, and sales of our hand-crafted bird boxes support these and other conservation and education projects. With your help, the Chapter can continue to build on these achievements.