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e-News from Willistown Conservation Trust
| June 25, 2014
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Bonnie Van Alen Receives Honorary Degree
We are pleased to announce that on June 13, 2014, Bonnie Van Alen received an honorary doctoral degree from the College of Arts and Sciences at Drexel University.
In recognition of her dedication to preserving natural places among our towns and cities, Drexel University conferred upon Bonnie the degree of Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa.
Congratulations Doctor Bonnie!
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Junior Birder Wins Scholarship
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Junior Birder Jay Familetti holds a Flicker that was gently captured and later released at the Rushton Woods Preserve Banding Station.
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We always knew he was a star, and on June 13th the Delaware Valley Ornithological Club formally recognized it when they awarded Jay Familetti the prestigious Adam J. Sabatine Scholarship. The scholarship will enable Jay to attend Camp Avocet in Lewes, Delaware. This young birder camp is located at Cape Henlopen State Park, minutes away from two major National Wildlife Refuges and close to the northernmost cypress swamp in North America, brimming with birds.
Jay has been involved with the Trust's Junior Birding Club for several years, is an active volunteer at the Rushton Woods Bird Banding Station, and attended the American Birding Association's Young Birder conference last September with the Trust's Nature Education Coordinator, Blake Goll. Jay shows great promise as a lifelong birder and we look forward to his contributions to the world of conservation.
For more information about the Trust's Junior Birding Program click here.
The scholarship award was established in the name of Adam J. Sabatine, a passionate young birder who spread his knowledge of birds and shared the importance of bird conservation with nearly everyone he met. Sabatine lost his battle with diabetes at the young age of 26 in April 2012. His enthusiasm for birding was a driving force in his life and he spread that passion like wildfire throughout the birding community. The memorial scholarship's purpose is to help encourage, enlighten, and foster ornithological skills in young birders between the ages of 13-18. For more information about the award and DVOC click here.
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Two Grad Students Move on
to Advanced Bird Training
Trust's Bird Conservation Program Provides Launching Point to U. of Pennsylvania Independent Study Courses
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Alison Fetterman shows a fellow student how to age a songbird at the Rushton Woods Bird Banding Station.
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Under the guidance of Lisa Kiziuik, the Trust's Director of Bird Conservation, two graduate students recently completed advanced bird conservation training as University of Pennsylvania independent study experiences. Alison Fetterman has just completed an advanced Bird Banding Course provided by the Institute of Bird Populations held at the Wolf Ridge Environmental Learning Center in northeastern Minnesota. Her experience was enhanced by the training she received from the Trust's Bird Conservation Program. |
University of Pennsylvania graduate students take a break from field study with their professor, Lisa Kiziuk (far right), the Trust's Director of Bird Conservation.
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James Dickenson took a field ornithology course at Audubon's Hog Island site. During this course, he immersed in all things avian from bird biology to nesting behavior, osngs, migration and conservation. He was able to learn from pros including author John Kricher, field biologist Tom Johnson, Project Puffin Stephen Kress, biologist Sara Morris, and author and ornithologist Scott Weidensaul. |
Great Valley High School Environmental Students Donate their Award to the Trust
Great Valley High School's AP Environmental Science classes recently competed in the Albert M. Greenfield Foundation UNLESS Contest, a regional competition sponsored by the Philadelphia Zoo designed to engage students about a topic of environmental justice around the globe. The Great Valley students placed second among 35 teams and decided to donate their monetary prize to local non-profits that encourage environmental sustainability/land conservation in the community. The students included Willistown Conservation Trust as one of the recipients.
Great Valley High School students have participated in several Trust activities, including helping us reduce our major events waste stream by supervising recycling at Run-a-Muck and Harvest Celebration.
Thank you, Great Valley students!
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About Us
Willistown Conservation Trust works to preserve and manage the open land, rural character, scenic, recreational, historic, agricultural and natural resources of the Willistown area and nearby communities, and to share these unique resources with people of all ages and backgrounds to inspire, educate and develop a lifelong commitment to the land and the natural world.
To learn more or to find out how you can get involved visit
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