Birding festival wins award for mindfulness

Wrangell's springtime birding festival was acknowledged for its mindfulness and dedication to conservation.

The Stikine River Birding Festival received the 2017 Mindful Birding Award from the Mindful Birding Project, which promotes ethical birding and conservation efforts nationwide. The award comes with a $500 grant, which was applied for by the city's Convention and Visitors Bureau.

"We wrote in and explained how we met their criteria," said Carol Rushmore, Wrangell's economic director.

Mindful Birding had first contacted the Wrangell Ranger District of the United States Forest Service about the festival, which it puts on each year with the CVB. Following that conversation, USFS interpreter Corree Delabrue and biologist Joe Delabrue put together a list of ethical birding guidelines for festival goers, which Rushmore then submitted to the conservationist organization.

Wrangell's was one of three festivals highlighted by the award this year, which also include the Kachemak Bay Shorebird Festival held in Homer, and the Wings Over Water Pacific Northwest Birding Festival in Blaine, Washington. Slated for April 27-30, this year's Stikine River Birding Festival will be the 20th annual, and an extended weekend of education, recreation and art have been planned.

In the past the festival has been supported by Recreation Advisory Committee grant funding through USFS, which was unavailable last year. An appeal to area businesses helped get the birding festival off the ground, though a number of its outdoor activities were ultimately hampered by rough weather.

"We had a great response from our local businesses," said Rushmore. Event organizers may try for a small push this year, but she explained the Mindful Birding grant will help cover costs, which includes booking speakers and allotting space for activities. Mostly though, the event is put on through the efforts of volunteers.

Tentatively, this year's festival has scheduled two guest speakers, including Juneau photographer Bob Armstrong, author of the "Guide to the Birds of Alaska" and other books. He will be discussing his nature videos, emphasizing unobtrusive observation such as setting up a GoPro camera to record species without interference.

"It kind of fit the theme that's taking shape for this year's festival," Delabrue explained.

The principal ethic behind bird watching is to not have an impact on the birds being watched. To that end, the festival's presentations will emphasize observation from a distance, outdoor photography and bird habits. Festival goers can also learn about spring foraging, see bird banding as done by biologists, and help clean up marine debris from area shores – habitat to many of the island's avians.

Special jetboat tours will also be scheduled – weather permitting – for the Stikine River through the weekend. Art contests, music, short films and the annual Ducks Unlimited banquet are also on the agenda for this year's festival.

In a press release connected to the award, Mindful Birding explained Wrangell's festival "has demonstrated a commitment to ethical bird watching behavior by adopting and adhering to a code of birding ethics marked by clarity, specificity, and restraint. The festival distributes its code of ethics to field trip leaders and attendees to provide guidance on how birders can achieve safe and gratifying bird watching experiences without altering the ability of birds to behave naturally. Additionally, the event publishes its ethics online for a wide distribution."

A website for this year's festival is currently being updated, along with a schedule of events once that is finalized. The site is at http://www.stikinebirding.org.

Mindful Birding is a charitable project of the Morrissey Family Foundation, headquartered in San Luis Obispo, California. Additional contributors to the project include Klamath Bird Observatory and various individuals who have helped craft a more refined structure for the project.