Brock Dolman, Occidental Arts and Ecology Center's Wildlife Biologist, will provide an evening of slide images and interpretation about water, watersheds, human development patterns and their affects on wildlife and habitat. The conservation of native ecosystems swimming, crawling and flying with biodiversity is absolutely dependent upon hydrologically intact watersheds. The focus of this show is in celebration of the Russian River watershed and all life forms that dwell within it.

Brock Dolman is a biologist, nationally recognized as a leading Permaculture educator and innovative design consultant. He is a co-founder of both the intentional community Sowing Circle LLC, and the widely acclaimed, non-profit Occidental Arts and Ecology Center. Brock is a Sonoma County Fish and Wildlife Commissioner. He is a co-founder of West County Watershed Network, a member of the Dutch Bill Creek Watershed Group and the Public Caucus of the Russian River Watershed Council.

[Coming in October-"Wildlife of the Great Southern Ocean"
with Doug Cheeseman]

A collective sigh of relief came from many environmental organizations on August 20 when a Press Democrat article announced that the Graton Rancheria had abandoned its plans to build a casino near Sears Point on San Pablo Bay and was looking instead at a site west of Rohnert Park.

Preservation of the baylands, the tremendously rich arc of diked former wetland which stretches from the mouth of the Petaluma River all the way east to Sears Point and then on to the Napa River, is a goal that Madrone Audubon has worked toward ever since Port Sonoma was illegally dredged from the San Pablo Bay mudflats some thirty years ago.

A "white paper" jointly prepared by The Bay Institute, Sonoma Land Trust and the Sonoma Ecology Center to protest the use of this area as a casino site explained the baylands restoration vision in these terms: "The ultimate goal of the Bay wetlands programs…is to restore a large, contiguous complex of wetlands across the historic expanse of tidal marsh habitat areas around the mouths of major sloughs and rivers, such as Petaluma River and Tolay Creek. Connectivity of restored areas enable wildlife to move throughout the ecosystem to find favorable conditions, enhancing their survival." More than $600 million has been spent or committed already for study, purchase and restoration projects, largely funded by public monies.

Long a leader in protecting ecosystems, Audubon launched its San Francisco Bay Restoration Program in the fall of 2000. Through this program, Audubon is working with its many partners to fulfill the collective vision to restore and preserve San Francisco Bay. The initial goal is to restore half of the San Francisco Bay Estuary's wetlands and associated habitats over the next twenty years. Current major projects include the restoration of the Napa River Salt Marsh and the Cargill Salt Flats in the South Bay, and closer to home, the Petaluma Wetlands Park project, which will protect and restore Petaluma River wetlands and quite possibly bring an Audubon Center to the Shollenberger Park area.

Typical of all these efforts, and a good example of how such restoration can benefit our local and migratory bird populations, is the Sonoma Land Trust's wetlands restoration project which will indeed bring bulldozers and backhoes to a property adjacent to the proposed casino site at Highway 37 and Lakeville Highway, though for a very different purpose. The creation of a 'bathtub' to hold winter rains on the property will, according to the Trust's description, "provide shallow ponds for shorebirds and waterfowl, such as northern shoveler, wigeons, pintails, sandpipers, dowitchers, and yellowlegs, as well as seasonal wetlands for other wildlife and plants."

The Point Reyes Bird Observatory describes the San Francisco Bay as the "most important estuary on the continental Pacific Coast for birds and a critical link in the Pacific Flyway." Many concerted efforts will restore the Bay to ensure thriving fish and wildlife populations, clean water, and a high quality of life for this and future generations.

Anderson Marsh and Clear Lake State Park, Wednesday, May 14
Twenty birders joined Jean Tonascia on a nice, sunny day to bird at Anderson Marsh, Clear Lake State Park and Lake Side County Park. Seventy species were observed. The highlights were: Western Grebes performing their dramatic courtship dance on the water, Yellow-headed Blackbirds, young Osprey and Great Blue Herons on their nests, and three young White-tailed Kites with their parent on a tree branch.

Sugarloaf Ridge State Park, Wednesday, May 28
Twenty-two birders, including two ladies visiting from Connecticut, joined Betty Groce on a very warm, sunny day. A total of 37 species of birds were observed. Highlights were being treated to good looks at a Western Tanager pair plus being serenaded by a great variety of summer nesters. The group enjoyed lunching by the creek under a magnificent maple tree. There was also much butterfly activity, resulting in seven species identified.

Annadel State Park, Thursday, June 5
Nineteen birders joined Jean Tonascia on a cold, overcast morning at Annadel State Park. In the afternoon we birded at Spring Lake and it was nice and sunny. Fifty-nine species were seen or heard, and the highlights were seeing five baby Wild Turkeys following their parent at Annadel and observing two young Red-Tailed Hawks on their nest and two immature Green Herons at Spring Lake.

Mayacamas Mountain Audubon Sanctuary, Wednesday, June 11
On an overcast day which later cleared in the upper reaches, 24 birders
led by Curtis Kendall, the Audubon Sanctuary Manager, and Lew Edmondson carpooled up Pine Flat Road, finding 50 species. Highlights included Western Tanagers, Lazuli Buntings, a Bullock's Oriole and a Red-tailed Hawk on a nest with two young. Birding was somewhat hampered by fog from up to Pine Flat, but the fog lifted just after noon. Of special interest was a detailed report of the status and history of the pipeline ably provided by Curtis.

New Local Members:

GRATON: Albert Ostheimer. GUERNEVILLE: Liam Davis. ROHNERT PARK: Faith & Gordon Adam, M. Renee McCovey. SAN FRANCISCO: Susan Cohen. SAN RAFAEL: Marilyn Schnutz. SANTA ROSA: David Bannesler, Josephine Borgeson, Bob & Judy Burness, Terry Carroll, Lora Collins, Rene Dufour, Sherry Hansen, James L'Hommedieu, Patricia Marcelli, Keith Marshall, Joyce McDaniel & Steve Haberman, Esther Meskis, Stephanie Nacouzi, Peter Neybaum, Amber Norby, Carolyn Perkins, Joann Robinson, Anne Ysunzi. SEBASTOPOL: Barbara Arbinich, Norman Hill, Mary Maloney, Neely Family, DeAnn Rushall, Shirley Sarten, SONOMA: Priscilla Coe, John & Sara Donnelly, Leslie Ellison, Marilyn P. Kelly, Jackie & Verne Stadtman. ST. HELENA: Robert Fescura. WINDSOR: Laura Silveira

New National Audubon Members:

SANTA ROSA: Michael Seddon.

The quiet fishing harbor at nearby Bodega Bay offers Sonoma County residents their own local version of the stunningly beautiful and much talked-about movie 'Winged Migration'. Now in its tenth week (as of press time) at the Rialto Theater in Santa Rosa, this sleeper film features dramatic close-ups of spectacular birds from around the world as they breed and migrate great distances, sometimes at great peril to their lives. 'Winged Migration' was originally scheduled for only a short, two-week stay with just two showings daily in a small screening room, but instead has played to huge audiences five times a day. It has also been at the Raven Film Center in Healdsburg, and at the Sebastopol Cinemas 9.

Meanwhile, off camera, many of these very same birds are in or on their way to Bodega Bay in real life. At this very minute they are leaving their summer breeding grounds in the Arctic; many have already arrived in their temperate wintering grounds at Bodega Bay. Rich food resources, safe shelter in the harbor, and relatively mild winter conditions here attract such a notable variety and number of over-wintering birds that Bodega Bay has been declared a Globally Important Bird Area by both the National Audubon Society and the American Bird Conservancy.

In the past weeks local birders already have been reporting high numbers of shorebirds on mudflats at low tide, and in Doran Pond when the tide is in. Many of the other regulars, including a goodly number of American White Pelicans and Brown Pelicans, are also here. Numbers and species will be increasing from now on, until thousands of birds and close to 100 or more species will be on the harbor from mid-November through the winter.

Audubon members as well as the general public are welcome to see these birds for themselves with experienced Madrone Audubon Society field trip leaders. Free bird walks for beginners and birders of all skills are conducted frequently at Bodega Bay and other local locations starting this month. For more information see the Calendar in this issue, or go to http://audubon.sonoma.net or call Tom McCuller at 546-1812.

Madrone Audubon at the Rialto…

The exquisite film 'Winged Migration' has been showing to enthusiastic audiences at Santa Rosa's Rialto Cinemas Lakeside most of the summer. The theater very graciously kept Madrone Audubon's display booth in the lobby for over a month. We appreciated this chance to let a wide variety of people know about Madrone and our many activities. We thank the management and staff of the Rialto for this opportunity, and our thanks also to the many Madrone members who stopped by to help at the booth.

Topolos Restaurant and Vineyard is host to a large colony of bats and we will visit at dusk to watch them come out to feed. While we wait for the stars of the show, Diane Hichwa, a local bat rehabilitator and bat landlady, will talk to us about them. The bats will come out a little after dusk. We are currently estimating that they will appear between 7:30 and 8:00 PM, but nearer the date we will check that this is accurate.
Please call Shona at 869-1577 to let us know you intend to come, and then we can call you a few days before if the time needs changing. We can also give instructions as to where to meet. Please be mindful that this is a local business, and will be open at the time we visit! The owners have asked that we do not enter through the restaurant itself.

Other events of interest to families:

The Bay Area Orienteering Club is holding an event at Spring Lake Park on Saturday, September 20, from 9 AM to Noon, meeting at the Oak Knolls picnic area at the south end of the lake. First timers and families are welcome. This is a "come and try it" event for National Orienteering Day. Beginner's clinics are at 9:30 AM and 10:30 AM. For more information contact Scott Aster at (415) 456-8118 or astersd@aol.com

The Vaux Swift should be gathering at Rio Lindo Academy east of Healdsburg from mid- to late September. The school welcomes the public to come and watch the swifts come into their chimney roost at dusk. It is an unforgettable sight! Call Claire at 527-6118 if you need instructions to get there. Check out Madrone OnLine for more Vaux Swift info.

You know our ACR summer is at an end when the fledglings have flown, the ravens have stop raiding, seedheads are swelling, and spiders are gorging on throngs of flying insects. While most of our flora and fauna wait out summer's drought this time of year, our staff and volunteers are poised for action. Docents at Bouverie and Bolinas Lagoon Preserves are starting their fall programs of teaching third- through fifth-graders in classrooms and on trails, a large cadre of researchers are digging into a rich offering of projects, and our committees and boards are launching new projects for the coming year.

Each September ACR celebrates its wonderful volunteers with a volunteer appreciation picnic. If you have been one of our weekend hosts, work day participants, researchers, or if you have participated in any other kind of volunteer work us this past year, we invite you to join us at our beautiful Cypress Grove Preserve on September 20. Not open to the public at any other time, CGP is a 135-acre wildlife sanctuary on Tomales Bay, dedicated to ecological research. It is from here that ACR manages over 25 parcels of land around the bay, encompassing almost 400 acres of tidelands, marsh, and grasslands providing critical habitat to wildlife. To get more information and assist in various research activities, please call (415) 663-8203, or visit our website at www.egret.org.

Bouverie Preserve continues to offer its popular guided nature walks this year from 9:30 AM to 1:30 PM on the following Saturdays: Sep. 6, Oct. 18, Nov. 8 and 15. Come experience the rich natural history of our 500-acre preserve. Call for an application form at 938-4554.

Work days keep our preserves spruced up and our volunteers shaped up and well fed. Please join us and help on the trails or in the gardens, libraries or kitchens on either of the two following days: Bouverie Preserve Work Day, October 4, 9:30 AM-1:00 PM; and Bolinas Lagoon Work Day, November 8, Volunteer Canyon, same time. Call Bouverie at 938-4554, or Bolinas at (415) 868-9244 to reserve a place. We promise you a free lunch AND an invitation to next year's volunteer appreciation picnic!

AUDUBON NEWS NOTES

Carol Browner is New National Audubon CEO

Two determined women who were committed to the environment founded the first Audubon chapter more than a century ago. After 107 years, Audubon is returning to its heritage in electing a determined woman who cares passionately about the environment to lead the organization.

Carol Browner, the longest serving Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, has been named Chair-elect of the National Audubon Society Board of Directors. Carol, who is the head of the Board's Public Policy Committee, will be the first woman to chair Audubon, and one of the few to ever lead a conservation organization.

Retreat weekend for California Audubon Chapters

The southern California Chapters of the National Audubon Society will be jointly sponsoring a retreat and workshop weekend in Orange County on November 1 and 2. Participation is NOT limited to members of southern California Audubon Chapters. We sincerely hope that all California Audubon Chapters will avail themselves of this experience. Every chapter and Audubon member is invited to attend.

The purpose of the weekend will be to address the issues facing Audubon chapters today. There will be concurrent morning and afternoon sessions about chapter development, fundraising, education and conservation-and also opportunities for some early morning birdwatching Saturday and Sunday, a barbecue with night hiking at the San Joaquin Wildlife Sanctuary in Irvine and daily snacks-all included in the registration fee. The cost will be $15.00 for Saturday, including the barbecue, and $10.00 for Sunday.

Please consider coming to this meeting. For questions please contact Bev McKenzie of Pasadena Audubon at lbmac2@earthlink.net or Catherine Waters of Sea and Sage Audubon at robcatwaters@earthlink.net or (562) 869-6718. You may pay for registration on site, but you must preregister.

The Madrone Audubon Board of Directors met June 6 at Bouverie Audubon Preserve to conduct our yearly planning meeting. The main topic of discussion at the meeting was the financial health of Madrone Audubon, and what if any additional measures need to be taken in the coming year to ensure that we can continue to offer the high quality of programs and services that our members have come to expect.

As you are probably aware, National Audubon has greatly reduced the share of members' dues that are sent to the chapters, and plans to eliminate this dues share completely next year. To compensate for this loss of revenue to the chapter, Madrone has taken several measures: we have introduced a local membership category, with dues that come directly to the chapter; we have encouraged members renewing at the national level to make a yearly donation directly to the chapter to support local programs; we have increased our focus on Birdathon, our main fundraiser.

Review of our progress over the last year led to the conclusion that we do not need to make any further drastic changes in the present financial year. A significant number of you have become local members, and many more have made additional donations and supported Birdathon- we thank you for this wonderful show of support.

We will be watching the events of the coming year carefully to determine whether we need to cut our expenses. The newsletter is our largest expense, currently mailed to about 1800 people, and would be the focus of any cost-cutting decisions. We are mindful that the Madrone Leaves is our main connection to all our members. It is an important way to reach people to tell them about local environmental issues and about our programs. Raising the consciousness of the community is an important function of the Leaves and sufficient reason to continue to send it to the entire membership for this next year, while we watch how our finances work out.

In the meantime, using as our model the National Public Media organizations, we continue to encourage National members to send donations to Madrone to support our local programs.

We are also looking to make better use of technology. The entire content of the Leaves is available each month on Madrone's website, <www.audubon.sonoma.net>. We would like to give members who use the Internet the option of declining to receive a paper copy of the Leaves. In the near future we will be setting up a service where we will notify you by email when an updated newsletter is posted. Right now, we would like to hear from folks who wish to stop receiving the Leaves in the mail. There is a form below that you can clip and mail to us.

Other good news from the planning meeting is that our much-anticipated new member database has been completed and is now being field-tested. This is the culmination of a year's worth of hard work coordinated by Bryant Hichwa. We are very grateful to Bryant for all the effort he has put in, and look forward to great improvements in efficiency of handling membership information. We would also like to thank Kathy Angell for volunteering to chair the Membership Committee and manage the new database-three cheers for Kathy!

With all this good news, we are beginning the new season of bird walks, educational programs and conservation activities in Sonoma County and Northern California with great enthusiasm. We encourage all of our members who have not done so to come and participate and urge our old friends to join us once again as we celebrate and strive to preserve the beauty of the natural world and the wonder of birds.

Valuable book donation

Fred Pedersen has generously donated to Madrone a limited edition book of prints by the English bird artist Basil Ede. The book contains beautiful prints of Ede's paintings of 34 wild birds of America, plus sketches, and a foreword by the Duke of Edinburgh. It is quite valuable. If you know anyone who would like to make us an offer on the book please let us know, it retails at $1500!

Madrone is currently seeking individuals interested in helping with the following tasks:

The Christmas Bird Count: We need someone to do mailings to previous participants and organize the teams. This effort begins in October, so we need to find someone soon! Contact Ken Wilson at 795-7547 if you are interested.

Education Kits: When teachers or families call to reserve a kit, we need someone to get the kit to them and check it over when it returns to make sure all the items are present. The kits are in five large suitcases that need to be stored somewhere dry and safe when not in use. Call Kathy Angell at 838-4041 if this sounds like something you could help us with.

Outreach: You may have seen the Madrone booth in the lobby of the Rialto cinema during the long run of the film 'Winged Migration'. Outreach involves taking the booth to various community events and being an ambassador for Madrone and birds in general. We would love to find someone to coordinate our Outreach program, but we also need individuals willing to take the booth to and from events and also to volunteer for shifts attending the booth. Call Claire at 527-6118 if you would like to help with this.

Education Chair: Kathy Angell has taken over as chair of the membership committee, leaving us with a vacancy in Education. If you are interested in taking the Audubon message into the schools, give Kathy a call and she can let you know what the job entails.

Geysers Pipeline construction is winding down-not finished, but it seems there may be light at the end of the tunnel. All construction on the Sanctuary is to be complete by October 1. Geysers Project restoration activities by Hanford will be in full swing this fall.

The Mayacamas Mountains Audubon Sanctuary Restoration Project, funded by the California Department of Corrections, is progressing nicely. Circuit Rider Productions was contracted to install 600 native trees and shrubs in the Pine Flat area east of the power lines. The layout included nine species of trees-bigleaf maple, madrone, Sargent cypress, Ponderosa pine, Douglas fir, valley oak, coast live oak, canyon live oak, and California bay, as well as seven species of shrubs-coyote bush, mulefat, redbud, toyon, coffeeberry, blue elderberry, and arroyo willow. Circuit Rider Productions has been contracted to maintain the planning for three years. Considering that the plants went in rather late in the season, they have fared quite well with relatively low mortality. More trees will be planted the fall as a continuation of the CDC Restoration Project.

We anticipate that Pine Flat Road will be fully open to the public by October 1, so please plan to take a drive through the Sanctuary, park in some of the turnouts, and watch for birds or just enjoy the view!

RUSSIAN RIVER CELEBRATION
The Sixth Annual "Celebration of the Russian River and Its Watershed" will be held from Saturday, September 13 through Sunday, September 21. The Celebration is sponsored by the Sonoma County Conservation Council. Events are staged during this time by different organizations; for details and contacts consult the website, www.russianrivercelebration.org/. (See the Calendar in this issue for related Audubon events on September 15 and 17.)

A few highlights:
Russian River Appreciation Festival
Sunday, September 14, 3-6 PM at Hop Kiln Winery. Celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Friends of the Russian River with speakers, displays, wine-tasting, barbecue, and silent auction. For information call 578-0595.

Russian River Cleanup
Saturday and Sunday, September 20 and 21. Planning meetings being held now for cleaning the river by canoe-over 450 volunteers participated in this last year. See www.russianrivercleanup.org for more information.

NATIONAL ORIENTEERING DAY
Saturday, September 20, at Spring Lake Park in Santa Rosa. See announcement in the Pee Wee column.

FAIRFIELD OSBORN PRESERVE
Naturalist-led hikes every Saturday at 9 AM and 11 AM, September 13 through December 13. The Preserve is located on the western slope of Sonoma Mountain. For more information and directions, consult >www.sonoma.edu/org/preserve> or call 795-5069.

FOP's Naturalist Training Program is scheduled for five consecutive Sundays, September 7 through October 5. An orientation program will be held at Sonoma State University on Tuesday, September 2, from 5-7 PM in Stevenson Hall, room 1056. Call the Preserve, as above, or write for more information to fairfield.osborn@sonoma.edu.

WILDCARE
Fall training for Spring Lake Park nature guides will be held every other Saturday from September 20 to November 22 at the WildCare/Terwilliger Nature Education and Wildlife Rehabilitation Center in San Rafael. Contact Julie Malet at (415) 453-1000, ext.12, (juliemalet@wildcaremarin.org) or Maria Rowell at 829-3792 (maria@sonomakids.com).

And don't forget-the Vaux Swifts give a "bird show" nightly in Healdsburg in September--see the Pee Wee column.

The Timber Harvest Plan for 44 acres of Haupt Creek old growth redwoods, owned by the Richardson family and located off Tin Barn Road in the northwest corner of Sonoma county, has been recommended for denial. Hopefully the plan will be withdrawn or the denial will stick. The current plan would have many negative impacts to water quality and habitat. Madrone's concerns include sedimentation, old growth logging, habitat destruction and endangered species impacts.

In recent times the rate of conversion of redwood timberlands to vineyards or other agriculture has escalated dramatically. General Plan 2020, Option 3, would eliminate this conversion in many areas of Sonoma county. The Citizen Advisory Board has recommended Option 3 with some small additions. The next desired steps are to get positive recommendations from the Planning Committee and finally-and most importantly-approval by the Board of Supervisors.

If you are interested in any of these issues please join the "nondenominational" Forest Coalition, which is made up of members of Madrone Audubon and other local and regional environmental groups. We work on issues through e-mail and have monthly meetings at the Environmental Center in downtown Santa Rosa on the second Tuesday of each month at 6:15 PM. All are welcome by e-mail or in person at the meetings.

A fund has been established to assist with legal actions if needed in the above and related forest protection issues. An anonymous donor will match funds donated for Forest Preservation to Madrone Audubon and a few other groups for up to $2,000 through the Forest Coalition for a 30-day period. This would make a most welcome addition of $4,000 to the fund.

If you would like to contribute, please make your checks out to Madrone Audubon and print "Forest Preservation" in the memo section. Donations are 100% tax deductible as allowed by law.

"They call it harvesting," Rick Coates of Forests Unlimited said to members of the Sonoma County Forest Coalition at Pomo Campground on July 13, "but you can't harvest what you don't plant." Yet, he explained, even clear-cutting is not the worst thing that can happen to a forest. Current plans for conversions of coastal redwood groves to vineyards would mean ripping every means of regrowth out of the soil and changing its conditions forever. What is needed, he told the group, is "environmentally sensitive logging"; it is the abusive timber "harvests" that we should oppose--but that's most of them.

Sonoma County prizes its vintners and its reputation as wine country. But wine lovers may want to consider which winemakers are enhancing and which are degrading the land, and the lives-both human and non-human-that it sustains. Why are viticulturists attempting to replace California's irreplaceable redwoods with grapevines at a time when more wine is being produced than the market can bear? Because the same weather and terrain that redwoods thrive on also favor wine that will bear a high price sticker, and because large-scale winemakers also covet the coastal hills and valleys of redwood country for lucrative wine tasting chateaus, resort hotels, and golf courses.

Forest conversions mean increased disturbance of slopes, more pesticides, more runoff, and more roads, trucking and other traffic resulting in greater silting of already stressed streams. The beauty and serenity of what nature gave to the land we call California over long ages could thus be irrevocably destroyed in short order.

Do we believe that redwood forests have rights of their own? Some of us do, some don't. But we must acknowledge that children of the future have the right to fresh water, streams with fish in them, and the ability to enjoy nature's diversity. The salvation of California's redwoods is a matter of ethics, not sentiment. Even so, we enjoyed a brief hike afterwards through the cool stillness among the beneficent, beautifully textured trees, the changing patterns of light and shade, and the birds and animals who know how to live in the forest and leave it be.

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