By Margot Griswold

Western Tanager, Vol. 86 No. 2, Nov/Dec 2019

As President of Los Angeles Audubon Society, I want to thank you, members and volunteers, all for a great year! As I look back over 2019, I am grateful to have been a part of our efforts at conservation, community science, education, and spreading the joy of bird watching. With the recent reports of the decline of bird numbers (insert citation), our efforts at local conservation and habitat restoration is what we can do to make a difference. Think globally but act locally – That is what we are doing here in Los Angeles to provide more and better habitat for birds and humans alike.

Renewing your membership to Los Angeles Audubon Society is a good step in support of local conservation for birds. Not only are we protecting and restoring habitat for birds, but we are growing conservationists and young scientists with our environmental education programs. And, I know it is somewhat confusing, but Los Angeles Audubon Society is its own 501c3 non-profit organization, and while we are affiliated with National Audubon Society, we receive very little financial support from memberships assigned to us through National Audubon. We are on our own! So consider renewing your membership directly with Los Angeles Audubon Society at https://www.Laaudubon.org/membership/ where you can join/renew at a level of your choice. Susan Castor, our office administrator will keep your memberships straight.

Our newest endeavor is the formation of the Endowment Committee to start raising a significant endowment to fund at least half of our annual budget for our conservation and education programs. A robust endowment will protect our programs as funding for environmental education and conservation from grants and foundations becomes more difficult. Planned giving is one way to remember Los Angeles Audubon Society. You can look at various ways to donate on our website at www.laaudubon.org.

The following describes many of our programs and what makes me so grateful to lead Los Angeles Audubon Society. We have a very large, sprawling territory, but let’s start at the coast!

We have an Open Wetlands on the first Saturday each month that is brought to us by the volunteer efforts of our Ballona Wetlands docents and our amazing environmental education staff leadership, with Cindy Hardin and Emily Cobar on hand to guide the docents. Open Wetlands is the only day that the public can visit the wetlands, a wildlife preserve managed by California Department of Fish & Wildlife. This same team of Los Angeles Audubon Society staff and volunteer docents leads environmental education field trips for approximately 2,300 elementary and middle school students each year, providing free buses to schools without adequate funding so that all students have an equal opportunity to visit a coastal wetland. Our docents’ knowledge of the wetlands is enhanced each year by training sessions including local experts as well as field trips to other Southern California wetlands. Our Ballona Wetlands programs has been supported by grants from numerous foundations and by private donations for over 20+ years. You can become a volunteer docent if you want to train each fall to lead students in the wetlands; check out the volunteer opportunities on our website at www.laaudubon.org.

And speaking of the Ballona Wetlands, our board is supporting a rational, science-based approach to the restoration and enhancement of the Ballona Wetlands. There are far too many wildlife species, including sensitive bird species, to take a heavy handed, humancentric approach to drastically remake the wetlands into something that never existed. Almost two years ago, Los Angeles Audubon Society submitted detailed comments on the inadequacy of the draft EIR/EIS for the Ballona Wetlands project in defense of birds and wildlife.

At Los Angeles County beaches, a volunteer army of Western Snowy Plover and Least Tern monitors join our staff scientists, under the guidance of Tom Ryan and Stacey Vigallon, to provide an uninterrupted 12-year, and counting, data set on these shorebirds so that beach management by the California State Parks and Los Angeles County Department of Beaches and Harbors can be science-based. Los Angeles Audubon Society volunteers assemble and maintain ex-closures to protect the tiny Western Snowy Plovers on local beaches during the breeding season, resulting in the first successful breeding in 68 years. We partner with Santa Monica Bay Audubon Society on this important work. We also lead students and volunteers to maintain the Least Tern habitat at Venice Beach, and we offer community Beach Ecology walks at Dockweiler Beach. The specific shorebird conservation studies and activities have been supported by US Fish and Wildlife Service, California Department of Fish and Wildlife, Susan and Daniel Gottlieb, and the Disney Foundation, as well as the hundreds of hours by volunteer community scientists. You can train to become a community shorebird monitor by checking out volunteer opportunities on our website at www.laaudubon.org

Moving inland to the Baldwin Hills, I am pleased to tell you that our environmental education program now includes a certificate course in conservation and parkland stewardship offered through West Los Angeles College at Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area (KHSRA) Park. The course is free through West Los Angeles College to all community members. It is taught by Emily Cobar with input from other Los Angeles Audubon Society staff, Arely Mendia, Ingrid Carrillo, and Edgar Pedroza, as well as myself. This program is a result of a three-year pilot grant from the Baldwin Hills Conservancy and the Baldwin Hills Regional Restoration Authority. The capstone project this past year was the development of a plan and implementation of the closure of ‘volunteer trails’ to improve KHSRA park.

Persons who complete the conservation and stewardship certificate are eligible to become docents for the KHSRA Outdoor Environmental Education Program. Cindy Hardin coordinates and trains docents to lead elementary and middle school field trips to the upland park where students learn about the geology, vegetation and wildlife of the Baldwin Hills and the Ballona Creek watershed. Our program is in its 10th year and currently serves approximately 1,000 students. Again, Los Angeles Audubon Society provides free buses to schools so that all students have the opportunity for quality outdoor environmental education. Our KHSRA education programs have been supported by California State Parks Foundation, the Annenberg Foundation, Green Foundation, and private donors.

Last quarter, you read about the volunteer habitat restoration work by Eleanor Osgood and Alan Starbuck, leading volunteers at KHSRA Park. Eleanor Osgood is a long time Los Angeles Audubon Society volunteer and true example for all of us. You, too, can join them pulling weeds – contact them at: gardenbird1@att.net

Under the leadership of Stacey Vigallon, our high school Baldwin Hills Greenhouse program is starting its 12th year training Restoration Leaders and Greenhouse Interns from three different local high schools in hands-on environmental science at the Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook (BHSO) State Park. Students not only carry out original research projects, but they learn teamwork helping each other and the park with restoration activities. This program is very successful in providing students with opportunities to explore potential college programs in environmental studies, science and environmental education. We are growing urban conservation scientists! Our students participate in Outward Bound programs as well as internships with Environment for the Americas. Our program started with a grant from the Baldwin Hills Conservancy, and has continued with grant funding over the past from Toyota Green, National Fish & Wildlife Foundation 5-star grants, and private donors.

Also, Los Angeles Audubon Society has led thousands of hours of habitat restoration each year at BHSO Park over the last ten years. We are making a difference, and you can help if you volunteer with us. Join myself, Carol Babeli and Los Angeles Audubon staff restoring habitat at BHSO. Check out our volunteer opportunities in habitat restoration on our website at laaudbon.org

Linking to our Baldwin Hills Greenhouse program, Los Angeles Audubon Society started implementing Schoolyard Habitats within urban Los Angeles elementary schools in 2009. Each school community of parents, students, and teachers work with our high school Restoration Leaders to design and plant native habitats that serve as outdoor classrooms. Our high school Restoration Leaders develop and teach curricula based on each school’s habitat, promoting intergenerational learning and community connections across Los Angeles. This work has been supported by National Fish & Wildlife Foundation, US Fish and Wildlife Service, UCLA Class on Philanthropy, as well as private donors. We are working on our third Schoolyard Habitat. Below are photos showing the development of our second Schoolyard Habitat at Esperanza elementary School. These Schoolyard Habitats are located in some of the most highly urbanized areas of Los Angeles, and they allow students to interact with nature in very meaningful ways

Los Angeles Audubon Society also sponsors birding at locations across Los Angeles each week. Volunteers, coordinated by Eleanor Osgood, lead birding at Stoneview Nature Center, Franklin Canyon, Ballona Creek, KHSRA Park, and Topanga State Park, with quarterly birding at Echo Park Lake (Spanish & English). Additionally, each Bird LA Day, Los Angeles Audubon Society leads bird walks at MacArthur Park, South LA Wetlands Park (Spanish & English), Ballona Wetlands, and KHSRA. These bird walks are open to all levels of birders and can be a great way to start watching birds. Check out the times and locations of the Calendar for bird walks at our website www.laaudubon.org.

We also want to recognize the longtime volunteer work of Mary and Nick Freeman in organizing seasonal field trips throughout southern California. While coordinating all the field trips, Mary and Nick also lead some of these trips each year, especially for owls in the San Gabriel Mountains. For more information on the field trips, check out the Calendar on our website at www.laaudubon.org

Be sure to check out our Calendar for the monthly program speaker and schedule. We offer these speaker programs for free mainly at BHSO but also at other locations. See what is upcoming at www.laaudubon.org.

Thank you to the volunteer Board of Directors for meeting and working every month to make Los Angeles Audubon run smoothly. Special thanks to Nicole Lawson for coordinating the new website which was a ton of work last year. And, where would we be without our Tanager editor, Linda Oberholtzer. Thank you for your years and years of service!

Gratefully yours,

Margot Griswold, President

Los Angeles Audubon Society