SACAJAWEA AUDUBON SOCIETY

SACAJAWEA AUDUBON SOCIETY (SAS) HAS ACCOMPLISHED MANY ACHIEVEMENTS IN SUPPORT OF THEIR MISSION IN 2023. WHAT FOLLOWS IS A PARTIAL LIST-Sacajawea Audubon Society owns and manages the Indreland Audubon Wetland Preserve (IAWP), which is a 40 acres degraded wetland within the Bozeman city limits. Our goals are to restore, enhance and permanently maintain the IAWP wetland for environmental and educational purposes. We envision the wetlands as a gateway to conservation. The IAWP provides unique opportunities for experiencing wildlife through use of strategically placed, non-obtrusive blinds and observation points, and windows to the wetlands to view aquatic activity. Additionally, SAS plans to use this site as a mitigation bank to keep future mitigation impacts local (Gallatin valley mitigation credits are currently placed in a different watershed) and provide financial stability for long-term maintenance of the property. Finally, the plan to build an innovative, sustainable nature center of architectural importance near the restored wetlands. This easily accessible visitors center would be open year-round to further promote this complex and increase the awareness of wetlands. Community and partner support and its final location will determine its size and scope. The IAWP Busy Beaver Volunteer Program trains volunteers to be stewards of the IAWP and other local wetlands. The Busy Beaver program conducted weekly citizen-science bird surveys, avian point count, piezometer & well monitoring and plant & wildlife monitoring on the wetland to establish baseline data. We led weekly bird walks and hosted many school group on the preserve for the benefit of the community. We conducted and involve the community in an annual BioBliz at the IAWP in July.Sacajawea Audubon provides educational opportunities and encourages the enjoyment of birds to promote the conservation and enjoyment of our natural resources. To that end, we offered the following activities in 2023: We offered twelve(12) birding, wildlife & habitat workshops ranging from beginning to intermediate birding, raptor identification, wildlife communication & tracks and plant identification. We offered over 20 bird and other wildlife field trips within Gallatin, Park, Madison & Broadwater Countries of Montana. We offered over 20 guided bird walks in our local parks and on our wetland preserve, the IAWP. We provided educational activities at the Bridger Raptor Festival that sees an attendance of over 5,000 people. Our volunteers maintained a bird-feeding station at the Story Mill Community Park for visitors to experience the enjoyment of birds up close. Together with Gallatin Valley Earth Day we provide 8 wildlife presentation and other activities leading upto and on Earth Day. We hosted nine monthly educational programs in person and virtually.Sacajawea Audubon promotes the welfare of birds and the natural environment by managing a variety of conservation projects and citizen science activities. In 2023 this included: Our Bird Friendly Communities Initiatives: We promoted Bird-Friendly Landscaping by giving presentations throughout the community, maintaining a demonstration garden on bird-friendly plants, writing a Plants for Birds column in our newsletter, and offering a bird friendly garden tour. We promoted Bird Safe Windows by printing and distributing brochures, building display models of window treatments, tabling at events, writing articles, and assisting with the application of window treatments at members homes. We promoted a Cats Safe at Home program with a catio tour and the printing and distribution of brochures. We managed a Knock Out Burdock program. Burdock is an invasive weed with Velcro-like burs that entangle and kill songbirds. For the past 12 year our volunteers have made a huge difference in the control of burdock from our local parks and trails. We maintained and managed hundreds of nest boxes for Mountain Bluebirds and over 70 nest boxes for American Kestrels. Nesting data is collected every year and shared with other scientific agencies. Nestlings are banded. We funded and managed the Bridger Mountains Raptor Survey, a 33 year long project in partnership with Hawkwatch International to document Golden Eagle and other raptor populations. We oversaw seven local Christmas Bird Counts.