President’s Annual Appeal for 2022

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The Western Gulls have already chipped in. (Photo: Grace Murayama 7-23-17)

We are asking you to consider giving us your support this year. Remember, this is our only fund raising effort. We don’t pester you weekly, monthly, or throughout the year. Your help allows our all-volunteer group to accomplish our mission “to be a center for wildlife education, habitat protection, and conservation issues that involve birds.”

These efforts are of increasing importance in view of the past decreasing support for environmental issues coming from the Federal Administration.

You can DONATE four different ways:

• With the self-addressed envelope enclosed with the annual appeal letter (sent to those already on our membership rolls)
• Send a check to our mailing address: SMBAS, PO Box 35, Pacific Palisades, CA 90272
• With PayPal using the PayPal Widget located on the right side bar of the blog
• With a Credit Card using the same PayPal Widget located on the right side bar of the blog.  You do not have to join PayPal to donate, just have your credit card “standing by.”

Please take a moment and make a donation today.

We continue our strong backing of all things birds, habitat, native plants, the environment and conservation through education, field trips, bird monitoring, speakers and grants to students and conservation groups.

Please take a minute to read the annual appeal letter below and see what we have been doing this year.

Thank you,

Jean Garrett
President

After a year approaching normalcy, we come to you to ask for your support.  This is our only fund raising effort by our all-volunteer group. The pressures on our natural habitat (including fire and drought) have continued unabated and are likely to require more effort than normal to find sustainable conservation solutions as we face unprecedented environmental conditions.  Your donation is needed to continue the strong SMBAS support of all things bird, habitat, native plants, natural environment, and conservation.

Currently, some of our activities – those which can be transferred to electronic discussion, or involve only small numbers of people – continue without interruption.  Even with the pandemic,  SMBAS continues to focus on:

Education

• We continue our support of the Student Conservation Association which provides hands-on conservation service and training where possible in the Santa Monica Mountains and/or Butterbredt Spring area, the site of our annual Christmas Count.
• For the Nature Nexux Institute (NNI), (formerly Audubon Education Program) at Ballona Wetlands, we are once again funding ten bus scholarships to help elementary school students visit Ballona Wetlands for field trips that – for many – is their first glimpse of the ocean! We have increased our funding to reflect the higher costs of the bus rental.

Public Outreach

• Our evening speaker programs are diverse and insightful. They are held the first Tuesday of October through May, except January.  This year we will do a mix of Zoom and in-person meetings. We hope to have a new location at the Colorado Center in Santa Monica at Broadway and 26th Street.  Keep in touch for topics and access via the BLOG smbasblog.com, Twitter at http://twitter.com/SMBAudubon or Facebook  http://www.facebook.com/SantaMonicaAudubon.
• Our ever popular monthly Malibu Lagoon walks have resumed, with Covid protocols in place. (See blog postings on how to reserve a space).  Our diverse and richly rewarding series of field trips on the second Saturday of the month also have returned. 
• By signing up to receive email notifications via our BLOG, smbasblog.com you will always be on top of upcoming trips and meetings when they are scheduled.

Bird Monitoring

• Western Snowy Plovers (a Threatened species). Our support for this monitoring effort (and for the Endangered Least Terns and for Brown Pelicans) into subsequent years is imperative in collaboration with State, Federal, and local agencies.  We continue our monthly Snowy Plover counts at Malibu Lagoon, Santa Monica Beach, and Zuma Beach.  Check out our Snowy Plover page and slideshow on the blog. 
• To support the Snowy Plovers, we also help fund the cost of maintaining fencing at Santa Monica beach and a plover/tern volunteer coordinator for Los Angeles County. We also participate in regional coordination efforts and the Rangewide Snowy Plover Conference.

Habitat Conservation and Research

• We offer small, but essential, grants to support local college students with their research. Because grants last year were limited by online schooling, we are able to increase the number of grants for students from UCLA, Pepperdine, Loyola Marymount, and California State University Los Angeles.  Since 2005, sixty-six grants have been awarded.
• We also support Friends of Big Morongo, Endangered Habitats League, American Bird Conservancy, and Birder’s Exchange.
• We have sent a donation to LA County Museum of Natural History to celebrate the retirement of Kimball Garrett as Collection Manager and prime birder.
• An additional donation was made to Friends of Big Morongo in memory of Dee Zeller, a much valued part of Big Morongo for the last 26 years.
• We helped cover some of the costs for Dan Cooper’s survey of raptor nests within the Jawbone/Butterbredt OHV area.

This is your chapter and we hope you will join us in many of our activities, either in distance learning format, or in person when they again become available.  We welcome your input to this diverse program of events.  If you wish to receive or continue to receive our bi-monthly, single sheet paper news update/calendar, please indicate on the enclosed remittance envelope.  (You need not donate to receive the print version.).  Please remember all contributions are fully tax deductible and will be used exclusively in direct support of our programs. 

We hope you will consider the solid positive impact of our group and make a contribution if you are in a position to do so.

Thank you in advance for your consideration and your generosity.  We very much hope you are healthy and in good spirits.  Your critical support matters to the environment and to the birds.

Jean Garrett
President
post office box 35 pacific palisades california 90272

SMBAS SCHEDULE OF FIELD TRIPS  2022-2023
Subject to change.  Always check our blog for updates: smbasblog.com

Please check the blog www.smbasblog.com for changes and updates.

[posted by Chuck Almdale]