2002 Partners in Flight Award Winners

Each year, Partners in Flight presents awards to those individuals, groups or organizations who have made exceptional contributions to the field of landbird conservation.  Awardees are recognized in one of four categories: Leadership, Investigations, Land Stewardship and Public Awareness.

The American Birding Association (ABA; http://www.americanbirding.org/) has again sponsored the Partners In Flight Awards program. Awards were presented by USFWS Director Steve Williams during the Director’s Reception at the North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference in Winston-Salem, NC, on 26 March 2003. Paul Baicich represented ABA and its Executive Director, Dr. Paul Green.

The PIF Awards Committee, chaired by Rich Fischer, is pleased to announce the 2002 awards.

Point Reyes Bird Observatory (PRBO) has been significantly involved in numerous avian conservation efforts across the State of California and more broadly in the West. They spearheaded the collaborative development of 7 habitat conservation plans now in wide use by land managers in California. PRBO also has been instrumental in developing the Riparian Habitat Joint Venture that has spawned many riparian enhancement and avian conservation projects in the state. PRBO also helped organize and run the very successful 3^rd International Partners in Flight Conference during 2002.

In 1991, Sr. Ruelas helped launch the Veracruz River of Raptors conservation initiative with a goal of establishing the first standardized migration count and conservation initiative for migratory raptors and water birds ever conducted in Mexico. The project records over 4 million migrants annually including nearly 95% of the world’s populations of Mississippi Kites, Swainson’s Hawks and Broad-winged Hawks. Through his efforts our understanding of population size and concentration of over 30 raptors and other species has been expanded greatly.

Megan has coordinated the international component of the Park Flight Migratory Bird Program since 2000, including provision of technical assistance to projects in six Mesoamerican countries. Through her Guatemala-based work as Director of International Programs for National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, Megan is credited with creating, organizing, coordinating, and supporting the Partners in Flight – Mesoamerica Group. She has played a pivotal role in expanding the vision of Partners in Flight throughout the Western Hemisphere.

Steve has played a central role in Partners in Flight since its inception, and has served as the Chairman of PIF-Canada since 1993. Steve initiated the funding mechanism by which PIF Canada’s National Working Group is maintained, which has led to the development of national level tools like the Framework for Landbird Conservation in Canada and the PIF Canada newsletter. He has played similar roles in the waterfowl and shorebird communities, making him truly a force towards the North American Bird Conservation Initiative goal of conserving all birds in all habitats.

Missouri Department of Conservation Natural History staff have written numerous grants to raise funds for acquisition, management and monitoring in focal areas identified by the Missouri Grassland Coalition, and have worked closely with partners to restore or enhance habitat for prairie-chickens and other high priority grassland birds.

They have conducted numerous workshops for both private landowners and government employees to improve knowledge of prairie and grassland habitat management for priority bird species.

Terry has dedicated much of his 20+ year career to promoting conservation of early successional bird habitat. He has diligently worked to improve and implement federal Farm Bill conservation programs on private lands. Terry played a large role in creating and implementing NC’s Cooperative Upland Habitat Restoration and Enhancement (or CURE) program, which focuses on restoration and management of early-successional habitat on a landscape scale. The CURE program has established management plans for habitat improvement on over 38,000 acres of public and private land.

Dr. Twedt has been instrumental in developing Bird Conservation Plans and conducting research that furthers our understanding of bird habitat relationships in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley (MAV). He has been instrumental in developing the biological models that relate bird populations to habitat objectives which have since become the foundation for many PIF bird plans. Dan has used his extensive knowledge of GIS to assist the Lower Mississippi Valley Joint Venture in developing a spatially-explicit decision support model to prioritize reforestation activities in the MAV.

Erica Dunn was the first Canadian to actively contemplate the concept of priority setting. Her landmark publication "Setting priorities for conservation, research and monitoring of Canada’s landbirds" in 1997 first developed an approach that included the concept of conservation responsibility. She also has been the Canadian leader in developing "landbird action sheets" that summarize the status and main conservation, research or monitoring needs of approximately 200 species of landbirds in Canada.

Joni Ellis initiated Optics for the Tropics in September 2001 to provide binoculars to ornithologists in the Caribbean and Latin America where equipment is lacking, and to provide an opportunity for partnerships to develop between people in North America and the Caribbean. Joni’s ceaseless commitment and energy led to the acquisition of significant grant money not only for purchase of binoculars, but also field guides, tape recorders, scopes and other materials desperately needed by projects.

Susan has been the full-time coordinator for International Migratory Bird Day (IMBD)since 1999, responsible for annual promotion, product development, sales, budgeting, and coordination with partners. Sue designs and publishes a catalog of IMBD sale items that is used at hundreds of events, reaching hundreds of thousands of people each year. Her efforts to provide useful and unique resources provide an outstanding source of educational material that otherwise may not be available.