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By Larry Brandt
Willapa Hills Audubon is looking for two to four volunteers with some very special birding skills for a May/June project. We have an opportunity to stop the harvest of some legacy [near old growth] trees. Lidar surveying indicates many to be as tall as 200-ft. The grove, consisting of douglas fir, hemlock, cedar and red alder, is located in the Grays river watershed north of Naselle WA. This is Washington Department of Natural Resources managed forest. No private property would be included in the survey.
Determining the presence of marbled murrelet would cancel logging operations and preserve this habitat for murrelets, spotted owls and deep forest wildlife. We learned of this cutting too late in the year to employ radar identification, hence, our need for feet on the ground.
Volunteers must have some experience identifying marbled murrelets during their dusk and dawn flights between the forest canopy and the ocean. Positive identification may include call recognition as well as visual sighting. We propose to cove at least three day of observations (dusk and dawn) but any would be of benefit and more would be superb.
An exceptional viewing location overlooks the entire site and then as far west as the Pacific ocean. Access to the viewing location is via nine miles of unlocked DNR logging road off of highway #4 at Salmon creek east of Naselle. Mile-by-mile directions are available including several formats of mapping. Elevations range from 640-ft. to 1760-ft. The viewing team may allow inexperienced birders wishing to learn.
Interested birders please contact
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Here are some ways you can help WHAS in its mission to support ecologically responsible ways of life, to help maintain biologically diverse habitats, and to promote environmental understanding and enjoyment of nature:
- Join our Volunteer list on the right of this page,
- Become a member of Willapa Hills Audubon Society,
- Once you are member consider to become a WHAS board member, please contact our president for more information,
- Count birds for the Audubon Christmas Bird Counts,
- Attend public meetings in support of local conservation efforts,
- Help in one of our committees from conservation to backyard birding,
- Help staff a WHAS table at an event,
- Bring awareness to Earth Day by working the WHAS booth,
- Offer and lead field trips for adults and/or children, please contact our field trip chair for more information,
- Make a donation through our member form, and no you do not need to become a member, though we love to have you around,
- Check out the other possibilities further down on this site.
If you are interested in any of the above tasks or if you have other ideas to help WHAS with its mission, contact any of the board members on our contact page.