First Planning Meeting
August 20, 2005
| On Saturday, August 20, 2005, 19 members of WCAS met at the Rocky River Nature Center to develop a strategy for adopting the Rocky River Important Bird Area (IBA). Also in attendance were Dan Petit, Director of Natural Resources for Cleveland Metroparks, and Jerry Tinianow, Executive Director of Ohio Audubon. Jerry served as facilitator for the workshop. |
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During the workshop, the participants developed a plan for WCAS to adopt
the Rocky River IBA. The plan includes three working committees that
will plan the adoption in detail. The three areas of effort include
finding a coordinator for the project, studying how to conduct point
counts for birds throughout the watershed, and planning and organizing a
formal dedication ceremony for the IBA in 2006. Click here for details of those follow up meetings. Study, Coordinator, and Dedication Group & Committee Chairperson meeting minutes.
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Why is it important to adopt the IBA? Without data on the presence of birds and suitable habitat for them to thrive, valuable habitat in the watershed is subject to commercial development. Adopting the IBA means having a plan in place for teams of dedicated volunteers to conduct point counts of birds throughout the watershed year-round. A coordinator would collect the data and submit it to Cleveland Metroparks and Ohio Audubon, who would have the data available to combat development. |
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According to Ohio Audubon, WCAS is the first Audubon chapter in Ohio to plan to adopt an IBA. Ohio has 19 chapters and 63 IBAs. WCAS is setting the standard for Audubon chapters to take this initiative. If you are interested in helping in this way, you can call Tom Romito at (216) 741-2352 or E-Mail him at tomromito@ameritech.net
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