The Color of Nature

A seed was planted by Kenn and Kim Kaufman at the Bird Education Network Conference at Jekyll Island,Georgia in February 2009. I was there as part of my Audubon and Toyota TogetherGreen Fellowship, in which diversity was a major emphasis. That seed was watered and fertilized by the first Focus on Diversity: Changing the Face of American Birding conference at John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge in Philadelphia in October 2011. That is where I wrote my action plan for what has evolved into the Color of Nature program of Lehigh Gap Nature Center in eastern Pennsylvania.

We began by training members of the Latino community in the nearby city of Allentown, Pennsylvania to lead bilingual bird and nature walks in Allentown's excellent park system. They also led programs at a nearby state park that attracts thousands of Spanish speaking visitors on summer weekends. These leaders selected the name Color of Nature - people enjoying birds and other aspects of nature should be varied in color as nature is.

Last summer, there were two new advances with the program. Our leaders teamed with staff from another local conservation group to lead summer programs in Allentown's parks. This was the first time ever that brown-faced children could look up to brown-faced leaders teaching them about nature and conservation in the park system's summer program. The second big innovation was our Conservation Leadership Academy - an intensive weeklong day camp for young Latinos and Blacks in grades 7-12. Ten young people including two of our leaders spent the week with a naturalist from a local state park and me exploring birds, butterflies, ecology, conservation and careers. The young people enjoyed the week so much, we began a club at their school (Roberto Clemente Middle/High School) last autumn and have been running an after school nature program weekly at the school.

Recently, a businessman-philanthropist from Allentown contacted me and offered to fund a program for members of Allentown's black community. We settled on a series of two-day mini-camps for students and adults from this community in the summer of 2015. We will also hold Conservation Leadership Academy II and will host three of our leaders in two-week residential internships at our own nature center this summer, integrating them in to our program leadership. They will also continue leading bilingual bird and nature walks for families and work with kids in the parks during the summer.

While we had to overcome some difficulties along the way, the program has evolved over the past three years. The network of partners is expanding - we are now working with several philanthropists and foundations, Promise Neighborhoods of the Lehigh Valley, the Hispanic American Organization, and several schools.

Our approach was never to provide programs for these communities but to build the leadership capacity to do their own programs and to pay the leaders for their work. We are a long way from spreading the message throughout all communities of color in our region, but we have our foot in the door and are making some progress. We encourage others to make similar efforts to be inclusive in your areas. The future of our birds and of conservation will be much brighter if we have conservation champions that are as colorful as nature.

Feeding Wild Birds in America  

Book Review by Dave Magpiong

Later this month, Texas A&M University Press will release Feeding Wild Birds in America: Culture, Commerce, and Conservation by Paul J. Baicich, Margaret A. Barker, and Carrol L. Henderson. This impressive 306-page volume provides bird educators with not just historical insights into the development of bird feeding but also its role in conservation and outreach throughout the last century and a half.  Feeding Wild Birds also gives readers best practices for bird feeding based on recent and comprehensive studies.  

Rules for the Black Birdwatcher

Last Friday, the folks at BirdNote released a video titled "Rules for the Black Birdwatcher" on their Facebook page. The 2-minute segment, featuring Dr. J. Drew Lanham of Clemson University, is entertaining while also sharing several profound points on the issue of diversity in birding. With over 25,000 views in under 48 hours (which is viral for the birding community), the BirdNote team was inspired to also post the video on YouTube and their own website, so people beyond Facebook could readily view this important piece.

Much of what's on the video was originally written by Lanham in an article  he did in 2013 in Orion Magazine.

The BEN Bulletin editorial team encourages you to watch and share "Rules for the Black Birdwatcher".

The impact of the video has become evident in various online forums, as people are publicly asking "What can I do to help promote diversity in birding?"

The following link is a video compilation of some key lessons from the first Focus on Diversity conference at the John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge in October 2011. These are considerations and tips that can help you start reaching out to new audiences.