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

Link to print copy of our 2024-25 Calendar of Field Trips and Programs

Dear Friend of SMBAS,                                                                                                 November 6, 2024

We ask for your help only once a year!  Last year marked the end of our 12 year support for 10 buses for inner city students to attend the Ballona Wetlands education program. The field trip is for elementary schools to participate in a hands-on learning session about the environment around a beach. Teachers & students love the Ballona program because it is fun. Students use microscopes to see what is in the water; they learn to pull invasive weeds and not confuse them with native plants; they learn to identify coastal birds; and they see where the river finally reaches the ocean.

With your help, we can continue to fund more buses. Educational programs like the Ballona field trip have helped create the commitment the younger generations have to the environment.

Our focus is on:

Education

• Student Conservation Association. We financially support the association because it is on the job training for students.  They repair trails and even put up barriers to prevent dirt bikes from straying off the trails.
• Nature Nexus Institute, the new formal name for the Ballona Wetlands program mentioned above. For some elementary students, it is the first time they have seen the ocean.
• We provided funding to support laminated training/education materials for the LA County’s Young Lifeguard program.
• Children’s walk. Every fourth Sunday of the month at 10 AM, we offer an educational program at the Malibu Lagoon State Beach.  (Adults 8:30 a.m.)

Public Outreach

• Every first Tuesday (October-May, except January) we have a Zoom program starting at 7:30 PM with speakers on subjects that range from the parrot population in Los Angeles to conservation efforts on the ocean. Upcoming programs are announced on our BLOG, smbasblog.com  (Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/SantaMonicaAudubon).  Prior program recordings are available on the blog.

Habitat Conservation and Research

• We offer grants to local college students. Current projects include collecting DNA from Wilson’s & Yellow Warblers to determine timing of migration, the number breeding locally and identification of the bird’s origins as a means to establish migration patterns.  Another student study collected data on the effects that various species of lice have on quail and the level of health of the quail as a result.
• We sponsor and staff the Malibu Lagoon location for the Coastal Cleanup project.
• We actively support the Dune Restoration Project undertaken by the City of Santa Monica and the Bay Foundation. We are helping to fund the new signage.

Bird Monitoring

• Not only have we kept a bird count at Malibu Lagoon for decades, we also monitor Western Snowy Plovers (WSP) and have helped pay for fencing for the WSP at Malibu Lagoon and Santa Monica Beach. Volunteers from our organization also monitor Brown Pelicans and Least Terns whose numbers are included in the data given to Federal, State and local agencies so that declining or increasing populations can be tracked.

We hope you will check our blog for fascinating articles by Chuck Almdale, look for the upcoming speakers, and check out our other monthly walks.  Join us at Malibu Lagoon (on the 4^th Sunday of every month).  On the Lagoon walk, you can leave at any time so don’t think that it will take all morning if you don’t want to.  We have good binoculars to lend to you for the walks, paid for by your donations.

Please remember all contributions are fully tax deductible and will be used exclusively in direct support of our programs.

Your continued financial assistance helps us to encourage other people to care about the environment!

Jean Garrett, President
post office box 35 pacific palisades california 90272

Please check the blog www.smbasblog.com for changes and updates.
[posted by Chuck Almdale]