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The Mountain Chickadee Newsletter of the Sangre de Cristo Audubon Society Volume 45 Number 3, September, 2016 Photograph by Tom Taylor Upcoming Activities Mark your Calendar Illustrated Evening Programs Wednesday, September 14 Monarch Butterflies and the Southwest Monarch Study Steve Carey Wednesday, October 12 TBA Wednesday, November 9 TBA Check the Sangre Website for information. Note the new location at the Randall Davey Audubon Center and time: 6:30 PM. Field Trips Saturday, September 10 Las Vegas National Wildlife Refuge and Environs Sunday, November 6 Back Roads of Las Vegas Wildlife Refuge A Century of Saving Migratory Birds A field station popped up last month amid the famous monuments framing Washington, D.C.'s National Mall. Ornithologists set up nets to briefly capture some of the park's flying residents, including Gray Catbirds, Song Sparrows, and Mourning Doves. But the scientists' real objective was to draw attention to a landmark in bird conservation, the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. One-hundred years ago this August, the Migratory Bird Treaty was signed by the United States and Great Britain (acting on behalf of Canada) to protect the millions of birds that were being killed each year, primarily for feathers to adorn ladies’ hats. So called “plume hunters” were following in the path of earlier hunters, who had already wiped out the Passenger Pigeon, Carolina Parakeet, Great Auk, Labrador Duck, and Heath Hen by the end of the 19th Century. Mexico later joined the pact, and the United States also struck deals with Russia and Japan. Birds that migrated to and from their breeding grounds had to run a gauntlet of threats to their very existence. But the fledgling Audubon Societies being founded in various states were starting to exert national political and economic influence against this slaughter. As early as 1900, women were being encouraged to boycott hats that used bird bodies, plumage, or nests. In 1900 Audubon had conducted the first Christmas Bird Count which sought to replace the tradition of people going out to shoot as many birds as possible on Christmas Day simply as a pastime with counting and recording the species and numbers of birds seen. Audubon was also a pioneer in pushing politicians to protect the habitat that birds need to live and reproduce. Even before President Teddy Roosevelt began creating National Wildlife Refuges, Audubon Societies had established wildlife refuges on private lands. But the profit to be made from bird plumage was so great that three game wardens hired by Audubon were murdered in the line of duty. The murders of game wardens made headlines throughout the country and helped engender the political will necessary to move Congress to authorize the Migratory Bird Treaty. But while the Treaty was signed in 1916, it wasn’t until two years later that Congress passed the enabling legislation to enforce it with the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA). is made it illegal to “pursue, hunt, take, capture, kill, or sell” a migratory bird or any of its parts including nests, eggs and feathers. Further laws expanded the protection of birds, especially raptors. Thanks to the MBTA, many birds no longer face the threats of a century ago, and for that the centennial of the Treaty and the Act are celebrated. Every year since the early 1990s, people all over North, Central, and South America have been participating in the Migratory Bird Count on the second weekend of May Thanks to the citizen science being conducted on migratory birds, we have a better picture of their state and threats to their existence, now primarily habitat loss and climate change. Audubon continues to lead the way, as it did a century ago, to tell the world about the threat to birds and to point to actions humans can take to help ensure that no more species go extinct. Audubon Activities Illustrated Evening Programs Wednesday, September 14 Wednesday, October 12 Wednesday, November 9 Monarch Butterflies and the Southwest Monarch Study TBA TBA Steve Carey Steve, the Butterfly Guy, will talk about Monarch butterflies, summarizing our state of knowledge (and ignorance) for New Mexico specifically. He also will highlight ongoing tagging efforts during the southward migration for winter as a means of learning more about New Mexico's role in that unique, nternational, continent-scale phenomenon. Check the Sangre Website Check the Sangre Website for information. Note the for information. Note the new location at the Randall new location at the Randall Davey Audubon Center. Davey Audubon Center. Meetings are held on the second Wednesday of September–November and February–April at 6:30 PM in the Education building at the Randall Davey Audubon Center at the end of Upper Canyon Rd. in Santa Fe. Abundant parking is available. Everyone is welcome. There is no charge; the building is wheelchair accessible. A short update of environmental issues and chapter activities precedes the program. Field Trips Saturday, September 10 November 15-20 Las Vegas National Wildlife Refuge and Environs Festival of the Cranes Bosque del Apache NWR The festival offers many tours, classes, This trip has been canceled for lack of a trip exhibits, and even a wildlife art show. The leader. Bosque is an Audubon Important Bird Area. For information call the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge at 575-835-1828 or visit the website. Sunday, November 6 Back Roads of Las Vegas Wildlife Refuge Leader: Roy Stephenson, 505-500-6413, [email protected] This half-day trip will focus on the rarelyopened back roads of Las Vegas NWR. Contact leader for meeting time and place. Christmas Bird Counts The National Audubon Society began the Christmas Bird Counts (CBC) in 1901. These counts provide important information about wintering bird populations. There are close to 30 counts held in the state of New Mexico and the Sangre de Cristo Chapter participates in 10 counts in its area. The CBCs will be held between mid-December and mid-January. Novices are welcome and will be paired with more experienced birders. For information, check the web sites: Sangre de Cristo Audubon, The New Mexico Audubon Council, Audubon New Mexico, or New Mexico Ornithological Society. Contact the leaders of each count you want to participate in to make count arrangements. Sangre de Cristo Audubon Society Field Trips are designed to promote understanding and appreciation of wildlife and their habitats. Our aim is to cultivate awareness of outdoor ethics in an atmosphere of friendly companionship. Field trips are free and open to the public. Some area entry fees are required and driving costs are shared. Participants are expected to carpool whenever possible. On all field trips, wear walking shoes and clothing appropriate for the weather. Bring water, lunch, and binoculars. No pets, please. Always call the trip leader before the trip. Trips may be cancelled for a variety of reasons. Audubon New Mexico Randall Davey Audubon Center and Sanctuary The grounds at the Randall Davey Audubon Center are open Monday to Saturday, 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM, closed Sundays. Stroll the gardens as birds visit the birdfeeders, or walk the trails and enjoy the natural beauty and serenity of the 135-acre wildlife sanctuary. The grounds also house a nature store with a complete selection of field guides, bird-related items, and more. Additionally, we are an environmental education center and offer a variety of educational events. Please check our new website randalldavey.audubon.org or call (505-983-4609) for information or to register for events. The Center is located at the end of Upper Canyon Road on the far east side of Santa Fe. Historic House Tours Step back in time as you stroll through the old Santa Fe style home (originally a lumber mill built in 1847 by the U.S. Army), of the artist Randall Davey (1887-1964). This docent-led tour will give you an opportunity to view some of Davey’s most spectacular works of art, as well as a beautiful collection of Spanish Colonial and European antiques. Tours are held each Friday at 2:00 PM. Reservations are recommended. Cost is $5 per person. For information call 505-983-4609. New participants are sent a Research Kit with complete instructions for participating, as well as a bird identification poster and more. You provide the feeder(s) and seed. Then each fall participants receive our 16-page, year-end report, Winter Bird Highlights. Participants also receive access to the digital version of Living Bird, the Cornell Lab’s award-winning, quarterly magazine. There is a $18 annual participation fee for U.S. residents ($15 for Cornell Lab members). Canadians can participate by joining Bird Studies Canada for CAN$35. The participation fee covers materials, staff support, web design, data analysis, and the year-end report Project Feederwatch Help Audubon Track Climate Change Audubon’s Birds and Climate Report predicts that over half of North American bird species will lose more than 50% of their current climatic range by 2080. To test these predictions Audubon is piloting the new citizen science project Climate Watch. Climate Watch aims to document species’ responses to climate change by having volunteers in the field look for birds where Audubon’s climate models project they should be in the 2020s. This is a pilot program between the National Audubon climate team and participating chapters. In 2016, the Central NM Audubon Chapter participated and Audubon is looking for more participants in the next phase of the program in 2017. Climate Watch will focus on species for which our climate models have strong predictions and which have a high detectability in the field. The 2017 pilot focuses on three species of bluebird: Eastern, Mountain, and Western. Bird Walks Every Saturday at 8:30 AM Project Feederwatch: Count Birds for Science Project FeederWatch is a winter-long survey of birds that visit feeders at backyards, nature centers, community areas, and other locales in North America. FeederWatchers periodically count the birds they see at their feeders from November through early April and send their counts to Project FeederWatch. FeederWatch data help scientists track broadscale movements of winter bird populations and long-term trends in bird distribution and abundance. Anyone interested in birds can participate. FeederWatch is conducted by people of all skill levels and backgrounds, including children, families, individuals, classrooms, retired persons, youth groups, nature centers, and bird clubs. You can count birds as often as every week, or as infrequently as you like: the schedule is completely flexible. All you need is a bird feeder, bird bath, or plantings that attract birds. Climate Watch will occur over two distinct fifteen-day periods each year, in the winter and in the breeding season. The first phase of the pilot occurs in January and the next phase covers the breeding season; June 1—June 15. Participants may choose to conduct their point counts on one or more days of the count period. We ask that you conduct your point counts in the morning (before noon) whenever possible. If you are interested in participating in our area, go to the Audubon Climate watch page or contact Beth Bardwell, Director of Conservation for Audubon New Mexico. Amazon Smile Sangre de Cristo Audubon Society is now registered with Amazon smile. We have already received some donations through this program and will receive more if eople use the Sangre de Cristo portal for their Amazon purchases. Amazon will donate 0.5% of the price of your eligible AmazonSmile purchases to Sangre De Cristo Audubon Society whenever you shop on AmazonSmile. Simply click here to register Sangre as your favorite charity. Environment News Pesticides Are Really Bad for Bees Affluence Attracts Biodiversity New research has provided some of the strongest evidence yet that pesticides can do serious, long-term damage to bee populations. And the findings may help fuel the ongoing debate about whether certain insecticides should be permitted for agricultural use at all. When you’re rich, you can have more of everything—more opportunities for travel, more flashy gadgets, more house, and now, something else: more bugs. A new study suggests that people in affluent neighborhoods have a richer variety of arthropods in their homes, something they call the “luxury effect.” It works like this: People in wealthy zip codes tend to have more extensive landscaping with a greater variety of plant species. That means, in turn, that the arthropods they attract— creepy crawlies including spiders, flies, and millipedes—are also more diverse. To see whether this idea had legs, a team of entomologists strapped on kneepads and headlamps and scoured 50 different homes in Raleigh for any arthropod they could find. They collected 10,000 specimens from more than 300 different families, from the humble pill bug to the panic-inducing paper wasp. They found that houses in neighborhoods with the highest average incomes had more species than those in the lowest income breacket., they reported in Biology Letters. For example, a house in a neighborhood with an average annual income of $33,510 had members of 74 arthropod families living inside, whereas a house in a neighborhood with an average annual income of $176,289 had members from 105 families. Houses in nice neighborhoods didn’t have more of any one particular species, though—they just had a whole lot more species. Understanding of how these arthropods fit into the indoor ecosystem could shed light onto how pests like bedbugs and termites thrive—and how other species might be able to keep them in check. The next challenge after that? Getting people to befriend their tiny, many-legged roommates. Reviewed in Science 5 August, 2016 The new study, published in the journal Nature Communications, examines the question of whether the use of a common (and highly controversial) class of pesticides called neonicotinoids can be linked to wild bee declines in England. The results suggest that this could be the case. Using 18 years of data collected on more than 60 bee species in England, the researchers found that species foraging on pesticidetreated crops have experienced much more severe losses than species foraging on other plants. The study provides some of the first evidence that the effects of neonicotinoid exposure can scale up to cause major damage to bees. In the meantime, scientists from Bayer Crop Science, a major manufacturer of neonicotinoid pesticides, took issue with the study’s correlational findings, which they’ve pointed out cannot be used to argue with certainty that pesticides cause declines in bees. The authors of the new study acknowledged that pesticides are by no means the only factor contributing to bee declines. “Bees have been undergoing declines for a long time and it’s been linked to a number of things — habitat fragmentation, climate change,” said the lead author of the paper. “This is a contributing factor to bee declines, it’s not the sole cause. If you stop using neonicotinoids tomorrow, you wouldn’t solve the problem.” But many experts feel that limiting their use would certainly help. Washington Post, 18 a\August 2016 Sperm Whale Foreheads Designed for Ramming Ever since a sperm whale head-butted and sank a whaler's ship in 1821, whalers and scientists have theorized that the mammals' boxy foreheads might be adapted for use as battering rams— possibly for male-on-male battles over access to females. But skeptics point out that structures key to the whale's clicking communication would be front and center in such an impact. In a new study, researchers tested the idea by running virtual crash tests: They simulated ramming impacts on a sperm whale's skull, and recorded where the impacts produce the most mechanical stress. The simulations showed that vertical tissues that divide up the large, oil-filled organ—called the “junk” by whalers—help spread the force of impact over the skull; removing those compartments increased overall stress on the skull by 45%, the authors report. Male ramming behavior has only been observed once in sperm whales—but, the authors say, these contests may be occurring below the surface. Science, 9 April 2016 Cloud-gliding Frigate Birds Frigate Birds are among the highest fliers in the avian world. Researchers have shown that Great Frigate Birds stay aloft for months at a time, using a variety of strategies that take advantage of atmospheric conditions. Locally, they exploit uplift and favorable winds, but for long-distance transoceanic travel, frigate birds fly up to 4000 m high to exploit low-pressure conditions within clouds for gliding. Understanding the strategies of these impressive voyagers increases our understanding of longdistance migration and our appreciation for the extremes that flight adaptations can reach. Science 1 July 2016 Nature Helps Calm—Even Inmates Inmates at a prison who watched nature videos several times a week over a year committed 26% fewer violent infractions relative to inmates who didn't watch the videos, scientists reported in August at the American Psychological Association's annual meeting. Science 12 August 2016 Climate Corner Boreal Forest Fires Scientists have been warning for decades that climate change is a threat to the immense tracts of forest that ring the Northern Hemisphere, with rising temperatures, drying trees and earlier melting of snow contributing to a growing number of wildfires. The near-destruction of a Canadian city by a fire that sent almost 90,000 people fleeing for their lives is grim proof that the threat to these vast stands of spruce and other resinous trees, collectively known as the boreal forest, is real. And scientists say a large-scale loss of the forest could have profound consequences for efforts to limit the damage from climate change. Global warming is suspected as a prime culprit in the rise of these fires. The warming is hitting northern regions especially hard: Temperatures are climbing faster there than for the Earth as a whole, snow cover is melting prematurely, and forests are drying out earlier than in the past. The excess heat may even be causing an increase in lightning, which often sets off the most devastating wildfires. The forests of the world are helping to offset rising human emissions of greenhouse gases, absorbing a significant portion of the carbon dioxide that the burning of fossil fuels throws into the air. So far, even as fires and other disturbances increase, the forests are growing more than enough to compensate. But scientists see a risk that if the destruction from fires and insects keeps rising, the situation will reverse, and some of the carbon that has been locked away in the forests will return to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide, accelerating the pace of global warming and further magnifying the stress on the forests — a dangerous feedback loop. Read more here: Boreal Fires NY Times, May 11, 2016 How a ‘Godzilla’ El Niño Shook Up Weather Forecasts The 14-month El Niño climate event that ended this June brought impacts across the globe, from wildfires in Indonesia to drought in Peru. The main drivers of El Niño conditions, ocean temperatures in the central and eastern Pacific, were as high as 3°C above the average, making this event one of the three most intense El Niños on record. For the most part, forecasts of its impacts on weather patterns were borne out, but forecasters fared relatively poorly in California, which relies on El Niños to deliver rains to parched areas. Along the U.S. West Coast, the jet stream was shifted hundreds of kilometers north last winter, which had the effect of dousing the Pacific Northwest with extraordinary precipitation while Southern California experienced its fourth straight year of drought. Now, scientists are analyzing why their climate models were blindsided and how they can be improved. Science 24 Jun 2016 Earth's Lakes Are Warming Faster Than Its Air The world's lakes are warming faster than both the oceans and the air around them, a global survey of hundreds of lakes shows. The rapid temperature rise could cause widespread damage to lake ecosystems, say scientists who presented the findings in December, 2015. The global effects could be even more serious, because higher lake temperatures could trigger the conversion of billions of tons of carbon stored in lake sediments to methane and carbon dioxide (CO₂), in a feedback effect that could accelerate global warming. The temperature increase—a summertime warming of about a third of a degree per decade over 25 years—is pretty modest, but you don't need 2° to 3° increases in lake temperatures to have profound impacts.” On average, lakes warmed 0.34°C per decade, more than twice the 0.12°C warming per decade measured in the oceans over a similar period. That the oceans lag isn't unexpected, given their enormous mass. But many lakes are warming even faster than surface air temperatures, which rose an average of 0.25°C per decade between 1979 and 2012. The rapid summertime warming bodes ill for lake species. Freshwater fish that like the cold, such as lake trout, could suffer. So could species that rely on increasingly threatened lake ice. The Baikal seal in Russia's Lake Baikal gives birth on the ice. Large changes in our lakes are not only unavoidable, but are probably already happening. Warming lakes may have global implications as well. As aquatic organisms die, their carbon-rich remains fall into the water column, where they can be stored in sediments or broken down by micro organisms into gases. “Lakes are already massive furnaces for processing terrestrial organic matter” and creating greenhouse gases, one researcher says. “Warming these regions further is likely to increase their role in combusting carbon to CO₂.” Science, 18 December, 2015 Carbon Sequestration Demonstrated Atmospheric CO2 can be sequestered by injecting it into basaltic rocks, providing a potentially valuable way to undo some of the damage done to the atmosphere by fossil fuel burning. Researchers in Iceland injected CO2 into wells that pass through basaltic lavas at depths between 400 and 800 meters. Most of the injected CO2 was mineralized in less than 2 years. Carbonate minerals are stable, so this approach should avoid the risk of carbon leakage inherent in some other deep injection schemes. Science 10 June, 2016 However, because the Hunt partnership does not include PNM, there is no provision for the removal of the existing—and soon to be obsolete—115 KV line. In this case two transmission lines is definitely not better than one. Sangre de Cristo Audubon Society has recommended that the proposal be approved only if removal of the old line is part of the package, something that should be obvious. We are also recommending that the Rio Grande crossing and that of the Pojoaque river be undergrounded to reduce its effect on the riparian areas (although this is pretty unlikely). President’s Column We are in the waning months of a Presidential Campaign that has been less than edifying. For all the mud that has been slung, there has been precious little attention paid to environmental issues so far. But as the articles on the next page demonstrate, what the Congress and the President do—or don’t do—can be important to the protection of the natural world that we so cherish. Both Presidents Clinton and Obama have protected large areas through the power of the Antiquities Act. While George W. Bush did create large protected marine reserves, the Republican party has been associated with attempts at the state and federal levels to privatize federal lands or turn their management over to individual states. So My message is to VOTE in November despite the angry rhetoric. It is important to the environment! Verde Transmission Project Earlier this year, Hunt Power, L.P., a developer of electrical transmission lines, contacted Sangre de Cristo Audubon about a proposed transmission project along the Rio Grande. The proposed 30 mile, 345 kilovolt (KV) line would connect PNM’s Ojo and Norton substations. It would approximately parallel an existing PNM 115 KV line connecting these substations and would provide a high capacity connection that would increase system stability to disturbances such as lightning strikes and other outages. PNM is seen as the eventual customer for the power this line would provide. This proposal can be thought of as “son of OLE”, the 30-50 mile Ojo Line Extension proposed in the 1980s that would have gone through the Jemez Mountains and the Valles Caldera. At the time, the obvious question that was asked was why the line could not follow the existing right of way. That proposal was finally defeated by a sustained public outcry. Because the proposal avoids San Ildefonso Pueblo lands, it follows a different corridor to the east of the existing 115 KV line south of the Rio Grande crossing just north of San Ildefonso and farther from the Rio Grande. Moving the corridor farther from the river would be an improvement, as would the fact that the river crossing would be directly perpendicular to the river, both reducing the exposure to birds migrating along the river. We have two avenues to press our case. The BLM will soon begin an environmental analysis of the project since it crosses BLM land, and presumably the Public Regulatory Commission will have to approve the project. We plan to use both of these avenues to try to make the project less harmful to birds. Burrowing Owl Shot Near Santa Fe Driving across the Caja del Rio plateau the morning of June 27, Julie Luetzelschwab photographed two burrowing owls on federal land, peering out from tall grass dotted with cacti, their yellow eyes wide and unblinking. Less than a foot tall, their bodies were half obscured by the brush. Three days later, one of the owls was spotted again, but its mate was missing. That owl’s body was discovered nearby, its feathers clumped together and wings splayed wide, as if it were struck down midflight. One leg was missing. X-rays confirmed the bird had been hit by shrapnel embedded in its left wing and shoulder blade. Burrowing owls are protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, which prohibits the hunting, capture, killing or transporting of migratory birds on federal land. Killing an owl is punishable by up to six months in prison and a $500 fine, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Luetzelschwab said she set up her wildlife camera near the area where she had first sighted the birds, and when she retrieved the film, she discovered three small chicks being fed on the hour by a lone parent. She was worried that whoever shot the owl would come back for the chicks. And when she went back to check on them, she said, she heard gunshots. Killings of the burrowing owl are rare. In 2015, just one burrowing owl was intentionally killed in the nation, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, although nearly 50 were relocated for various reasons in four states. Donna Hummel, a spokeswoman for the Bureau of Land Management in Santa Fe, said this incident was the first of its kind to be reported in recent years. Hummel said the BLM continues to monitor the area where the burrowing owl was killed and hopes to work with other conservation groups to create signage, especially for those who might not know that it is illegal to kill the birds. “Our job on public land is to protect them to the best of our ability,” she said. “And we do that with a lot of help from the community.” Advocacy groups are offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person who shot and killed the owl. Santa Fe New Mexican 5 July 2016 Political Issues GOP and Democratic Platforms Highlight Stark Differences on Energy and Climate If there was any lingering confusion on how America's two major political parties differ over climate and energy policy, platforms released by the Republican and Democratic Parties during this summer’s national conventions made their often polar-opposite views exceedingly clear. Today's designation builds on the President's strong record of protecting our nation's natural resources. To date, he has permanently protected more than 265 million acres of America's public lands and waters -- more than any other president in history. The White House The National Park Service at 100 Republicans would dismantle the Environmental Protection Agency as it currently exists and abolish the Clean Power Plan, the centerpiece of the Obama administration's plan to rein in greenhouse gas emissions. Democrats called for a price on carbon, implementation of the Clean Power Plan, which was stayed by the Supreme Court in February, as well as other regulatory measures to reduce greenhouse gases, and prioritization of renewable energy over natural gas. While platforms are more outline of party beliefs than binding policy, they nonetheless offer a picture of the widening gulf between the increasingly conservative Republican Party and a Democratic Party that has adopted many more progressive policies. The GOP platform states "coal is an abundant, clean, affordable, reliable domestic energy resource" and questions the scientific integrity of the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the global authority on climate science. Democrats say climate change is an "urgent threat" and call for an 80 percent cut in carbon emissions. Inside Climate News 26 July 2016 President Establishes New National Monument In honor of the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service in late August, President Obama designated the Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument. In honor of this anniversary, President Obama is designating the Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument -- a site that encompasses awe-inspiring mountains, forests, and waters of north-central Maine. Land for the Monument was donated to the United States by Roxanne Quimby, a founder of Burt’s Bees. The gift included $40M to endow operation of the new Monument. The new national monument will protect approximately 87,500 acres, including the stunning East Branch of the Penobscot River and a portion of the Maine Woods. In addition to protecting spectacular geology, significant biodiversity and recreational opportunities, the new monument will help support climate resiliency in the region. The protected area -- together with the neighboring Baxter State Park to the west -- will ensure that this large landscape remains intact, bolstering the forest’s resilience against the impacts of climate change. About 6,000 people gathered under the Roosevelt Arch at the Yellowstone National Park’s north entrance in August to hear federal officials and governors extol the virtues of what’s hailed as “America’s best idea,” a system started in 1916 by then-President Woodrow Wilson that now includes more than 400 sites on 85 million acres in the 50 states and territories. But these days, the views at the parks aren’t all pretty. The system faces a $12 billion maintenance shortfall that has left such entities as bridges and restrooms in disrepair. Yellowstone’s backlog alone is $603 million with crumbling roads, buildings and wastewater systems. Congress has declined to provide funding needed for fixes that have lingered for more than a decade. The Interior Department has appealed to Congress, and for years lawmakers have declined to increase the services appropriation above a standard of about $3 billion. Republican members instead called on the Government Accountability Office to investigate the Park Service to determine whether it was collecting enough visitor fees and membership dues to address the problem on its own. In a December report, the GAO concluded that Congress’s $3.1 billion appropriation over about a decade amounted to an 8 percent funding drop when adjusted for inflation. Lawmakers who called on the service to create a higher revenue stream overlooked one major obstacle: Congress. It virtually barred the agency from increasing rates and must pass a law to change that. But even if the service could increase rates, will there be enough visitors to pay them a few decades from now? A significant group of park visitors are older than 65, and at that age, entrance is free. The bulk of paying visitors are between 50 and 60, paving the way for a revenue crash from fees in the next decade. The Park Service desperately needs new visitors as it moves into its new century. Washington Post, 25 August, 2016 Sangre de Cristo Audubon Society P. O. Box 22083 Santa Fé, NM 87502-2083 Sangre de Cristo Audubon Board of Directors 2016 Officers: President Tom Jervis Vice President Vacant Treasurer Carlyn Jervis 988-1708 Program Tom Jervis 988-1708 <[email protected]> Joe Fitzgibbon 662-7707 Secretary Nancy Brandt 982-2776 Field trips Membership Publicity Vacant Tom Eglehoff Vacant 988-1708 Committee Chairs: Conservation Newsletter Editor Members at Large: Sheila Gershen Adele Caruthers Mary Ristow Tom Taylor 988-3143 984-3279 820-0906 424-3238 Vacant 699-8838 New Mexico Audubon Council Delegates: Mary Ristow 820-0906 Tom Jervis 988-1708 Sangre de Cristo Audubon Society on the World-Wide Web Audubon en Español New Mexico Rare Bird Alert Matt Baumann, Compiler The New Mexico Rare Bird Alert is on the Web Audubon ha lanzado su sitio web en español para conectar con las audiencias hispanas y disfrutar juntos de la naturaleza y la protección de las aves y sus hábitats. Visita Audubon en Español. Report sightings to 505-264-1052 (leave a message) or contact the compiler Contact your Congressional Representatives Let them know that protecting the environment is important to you! Senator Martin Heinrich U. S. Senate 840 Dirksen Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510 202 224-5521 (office) 202-224-2841 (fax) Toll free 1-800-443-8658 Santa Fé Office 988-6647 www.Heinrich.senate.gov/ Senator Tom Udall U. S. Senate 110 Hart Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510 202.224.6621 (office) 202.228.3261 (fax) Santa Fe Office 988.6511 www.TomUdall.senate.gov/ Congressman Ben Ray Lujan U. S. House of Representatives 502 Cannon HOB Washington, D.C. 20515 202-225-6190 (office) 202-226-1331 (fax) Santa Fe Office 984-8950 www.Lujan.house.gov/