Bird Conservation Network

Executive Committee

Minutes: February 28, 2002

In attendance: Donald Dann, Bob Fisher, Mary Anne Harrison, Judy Pollock, Lee Ramsey

We discussed various issues relating to Montrose Point: the ENSBC letter to the Park District, the reported desire of CAS to take a position on the fencing, and a possible forthcoming proposal by MONDOG. No proposal has been presented to BCN.  Judy noted that the Park District hasn't asked us for comments. So we decided to postpone further discussion until the general meeting in April.

There is a need for stewards and monitors at Montrose: Mary van Haaften will send invitations to all the groups involved seeking people to take on these responsibilities. We agreed to ask Bob Hughes if he would be interested in the bird monitoring.

Six monitoring workshops are scheduled in March and April, three for new monitors and three for monitors experienced with the BCN protocols. We have lined up speakers for some of the workshops but not yet for all of them.

During the past three years we received $1000 grants from the IDNR checkoff. Bob agreed to write the grant proposal for this year.

We are looking for a delegate and an alternate to the Illinois Conservation Congress. This was put on the April agenda.

We’ve also been invited to speak (on a Friday afternoon) at the Lake County (Indiana) Birding Fest in May. Our consensus of opinion seemed to be that such a session would not be a good idea because it is likely to be very lightly attended.

Dave Ewert’s proposal for a study of migratory birds and their habitats (explained at the December BCN meeting) has been abandoned for lack of funding. However, BCN can still work on the citizen science part.

A group including representatives from BCN (Judy and Lee), Chicago Wilderness, Audubon, and other conservation agencies has developed a proposal for a Woodlands Audit: an ongoing study of the health of woodlands in our area. This project will require bird monitors, and BCN will be involved in developing protocols and recruiting. We are inviting Karen Glennemeier of Audubon to address the April BCN meeting and describe this project in more detail, along with the Audubon grasslands project.

Judy has written two grant proposals so far seeking funding for the new monitoring website. One, to the Fish and Wildlife Service, was unsuccessful; the other, to the Cook County FPD, hasn’t been answered yet. We discussed the possibility of using some BCN funds for this purpose. Judy will make this proposal at the April meeting.

Mary Anne will develop a BCN budget for 2003.

Our letter regarding the Soldier Field windows has apparently not been written. Donald will try to see this through to completion.

BCN has endorsed the conservation provisions of the Farm Bill currently before the U.S. Senate.

We decided not to participate in this year’s It’s Wild in Chicago.

There was a discussion of the idea for a birding trail.

Bob is working on finding a place for the April meeting.