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March, 2010
Dear Friend,
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| Ryan Burnett talking at a Forest Service aspen restoration workshop. |
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Science is full of surprises—with facts and evidence regularly challenging our values and forcing us to constantly
re-assess how we enact effective conversation. This is one of the many reasons I have the best job in the world!
Based on our extensive research from the Sierra to the sea, all of the following actions have been recommended by
PRBO scientists to mimic natural processes that help ensure food and habitat for millions of birds:
- Secure limited water supplies for rice farmers in the Central Valley,
- Maintain artificial salt ponds around San Francisco Bay,
- Prescribe more fire in coastal scrub habitat, and,
- Make larger clear cuts in the Sierras.
Indeed, PRBO is at the front lines of bringing sound science—whatever it might conclude—to bear on the biggest
conservation challenges of our day. And with your generous donation, we can do even more to conserve birds
and ecosystems!
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| Please support PRBO’s urgently needed science today! |
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Consider, for example, PRBO's decade-long partnership with the US Forest Service under the outstanding leadership
of Terrestrial Ecologist Ryan Burnett. Our partnership has now expanded to all 10 National Forests and over 2000
monitoring sites in the Sierra Nevada.
Ryan and his team are assessing forest management practices and how they can support the diverse bird populations
that depend on a mosaic of high-elevation habitats.
National Forest managers in the Sierra have moved away from clear cutting in favor of lighter forest thinning and
very small clear cuts of 1-2 acres. Ryan discovered that these small clear cuts do not provide what's needed for a
number of species dependent on shrub habitat.
Ryan's surprising scientific conclusion: fewer but larger clear cuts—at least 10 acres or the size of a major league
baseball stadium—are necessary to support greater diversity of bird species. The benefits to birds would be far
greater and the impacts to the forest (e.g., roads and ground disturbance) would be far less.
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| Your generous gift supports pioneering research by PRBO’s highly accomplished scientists
to conserve birds and their habitats. |
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| Chipping Sparrow. Wikimedia
Commons license. |
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And now, as we face a dwindling snow pack and growing concerns
about limited fresh water supplies in California and the West, Ryan
and his expert team are collaboratively developing restoration guidelines
for montane meadows.
Sierra Nevada meadows serve as huge natural sponges, much like tidal
salt marshes, helping to regulate the water supply. Vital as habitat to
birds, these meadows also play an increasingly crucial role in enhancing
water supply. This is especially important as precipitation patterns
change and the gradual spring-summer runoff we've experienced over
the past century diminishes with accelerating climate change.
PRBO scientists are engaged with our partners on the front lines of this
new strategy for securing water well into the future—for birds, other wildlife and our communities.
But we can't do it without your continued support!
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| Support PRBO working hand-in-hand with habitat managers to address the
great challenges of our time. |
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| Mountain Bluebird. Wikimedia
Commons license. | |
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PRBO's unique bird ecology studies, on the ground, and at sea, translate into effective
conservation action. Our scientists and staff are hard at work from the Sierras to the sea,
and even as far away as Antarctica, thanks to you!
With your support today, PRBO scientists will continue long-term studies on birds and their
environs, working hand-in-hand with natural resource managers.
With your donation today, we will continue to communicate our scientific findings in
the field, with private landowners, with federal and state agency leaders, and to school
children, the public, and key policy makers.
With your generous gift today, PRBO biologists will continue to unearth new surprises that will improve conservation
outcomes—and continue making my job the best ever!
Thanks to you, PRBO's science is being heard and our advice heeded!
Thank you for making the most generous gift possible to help fund our scientists and ensure better outcomes for birds,
other wildlife and the ecosystems we all depend on.
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Sincerely,
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Elle M. Cohen
President and CEO
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