Conservation of our nation's natural areas
Our mission is to conserve native species and habitats through
restoration, research and education. Our vision is a world where all people and wildlands are healthy and interact positively, biological diversity flourishes, and environmental challenges are met with a social commitment to solving problems with scientific principles.
And we need you to support conservation. To join us in our work,
"Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wildness is a necessity." - John Muir, 1838-1914
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Searching for Meadows and Marvelous Oaks |
The prairie and oak inventory crew is at it again, assessing remote forest clearings for hidden oaks and diverse prairies throughout the Willamette Valley. They never know what they’ll find when they set out from Corvallis in the morning. Will it be a weedy grassland? A quaint meadow bursting with native wildflowers? A high-elevation clearing surrounded by oaks with stunning views of the snow-topped Cascades? Or everyone’s least favorite, a blackberry and poison oak thicket?
This is the third year that the Bureau of Land Management has engaged IAE to conduct the prairie and oak inventory. To access remote sites, the crew drives down long and winding logging roads and then bushwhacks through Douglas fir forest and up steep terrain. They use tablets to map locations of oaks, large populations of native plants suitable for seed collection, rare plants, wildlife, and large landmark trees. They also map non-native species and woody plants that are encroaching on open meadows. Later this year, we will compile all the data into site reports that provide a comprehensive overview of each area, including its ecological treasures and threats to native habitats. Read More
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World Migratory Bird Day Celebration
Aves Compartidas Project
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This spring, the Willamette Laja Twinning Partnership embarked on a new annual tradition. In the Willamette and Laja basins, we held events to celebrate World Migratory Bird Day through bird counts, children’s activities, and community science. In celebration of this event in the Laja River Watershed, the Civil Association Salvemos al Río Laja coordinated a small bird count event in the Peña Alta Natural Protected Area in the community of San Franco, San Diego de la Unión, Guanajuato. This event engaged children and adults from the local community, provided information about the birds found in the community, and taught the importance of monitoring efforts and conservation of native habitats. Read More on Willamette-Laja's website
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Marine Blues Rule Southern New Mexico |
By Steven J. Cary, IAE Southwest Technical Advisory Board
Yes, it’s dry, the heat is upon us, surely, and yes, there’s a little smoke in the air. Hey, it’s June, so get over it. The mid-90s in Santa Fe is not pretty, but other places are even hotter, so I’m not complaining. In southwest New Mexico, Elaine Halbedel gets out frequently and reports poor conditions and few butterflies everywhere except in the region’s higher mountains. One thing all our several southern observers agree on . . . Marine Blues are having a good year! It makes sense because their widespread mesquite hosts (their caterpillars will eat virtually any legume) are deep-rooted and less daunted by drought. In the face of dry, hot and smoky, several fun and fascinating stories are offered below, including a remarkable new hairstreak life history, and even a brief video.
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Announcements & Brief Updates |
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Business Office Spotlights:
Kaori Friedman & Ketty Herb-Kalberer
It has been a challenging year, and we would like to take a moment to acknowledge those working behind the scenes and remotely to keep IAE's Business Office and finances running smoothly through it all!
While she may rather be fishing, Ketty Herb-Kalberer has recently become our Chief Financial Officer, bringing an extensive background in budget development, financial performance evaluation, and non-profit management to IAE. An MBA graduate of the Lundquist College of Business at the University of Oregon, she worked as a Senior Financial Analyst for Hewlett-Packard for six years developing financial models and projecting the profitability of HP’s worldwide inkjet business. She has served on the Board of non-profits including Corvallis Community Children’s Centers and the Center for Nonprofit Stewardship.
We are delighted to have Kaori Friedman as our new Accounting Specialist! Kaori received her B.S. from Hosei University in Tokyo, Japan. She has seven years of non-profit accounting experience and is also an Enrolled Agent. Kaori has been always interested in nature, environmental protection and the preservation of wildlife since she was a child, so she is very excited to be working for an organization that is involved in this area. In her free time, she enjoys working on her hobby farm and taking care of the many animals she raises. She is also a member of animal rescue groups and enjoys fostering both adult dogs and puppies that are waiting to be adopted into their new homes.
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Join IAE Southwest on Nat'l Bee Day!
Pollinator Workshop
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Dr. Olivia Messinger Carril, nationally renowned bee biologist and author of Bees in Your Backyard, will be providing a hands-on Bee Identification and Pollinator Workshop on National Bee Day August 21, 2021. The workshop setting is the beautiful Salinas Pueblo and Missions National Monument, Quarai site, near Mountainair New Mexico. More information
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Save the Date!
Invasive Species Cook-off
Sunday, September 12, 4-8 pm
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Our most popular in-person event is back! Join IAE friends, staff and supporters in celebrating native species by taking a bite out of some of those invaders to our native ecosystems. This year we will gather safely and outdoors at Common Fields Beer Bar in downtown Corvallis for some live music, fun and a food cart competition. Tickets will go on sale in August. We will abide by all CDC-recommended Covid-19 safety rules. We hope you can join us!
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Scott Harris recently joined our team as our new Program Director. This field season our research ecologists have been busy stewarding projects that range from Idaho, Oregon, and California and span multiple taxa and ecosystems. At right, Denise Giles describes the long-term efforts (over a decade!) to restore and monitor habitat for Fender’s blue butterfly at Oak Basin – an example of how public-private-IAE collaboration has led to the proposed down-listing for Fender’s blue – a conservation success! |
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The Plant Materials Program has been working diligently on seed collection, harvesting on the farm, and grant writing. Our Seeds of Success seed collection team in the Burns and Vale Bureau of Land Management districts are collecting shaggy fleabane (Erigeron pumilus). Our Seeds of Success seed collecting team that is working outside of Ukiah in Northern California as been collecting many species including Oregon sunshine (Eriophyllum lanatum). At right, Logan Vogel, Emily Sheydayi, and Allison McKenna pressing herbarium specimens for our voucher collection in Northern California.
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Habitat Restoration & Plant Materials Program |
Plant Materials Field Technician Emily Wittkop is excitedly collecting shaggy horkelia (Horkelia congesta) seed outside of Roseburg, Oregon. Collected seed will be used to bolster the shaggy horkelia population at Twin Prairie, which is a mid-elevation meadow in the Cascade foothills east of Cottage Grove, Oregon.
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Looking for an easy way to support our restoration, research and education work? IAE is proud to partner with EarthShare, a federation of leading non-profit environmental charities, making it easy for Oregonians to share the responsibility for our environmental legacy. Many workplaces can deduct from your paycheck via Earthshare; ask your employer to set up a Workplace Giving account. If you have questions, please send us an email at info@appliedeco.org. |
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IAE Board of Directors:
Ken Bierly, President; Brandy Humphreys, Vice President; Cary Stephens, Secretary, Jack Halsey, Treasurer; Jason Bradford, Anne Bradley, Shinji Kawai, Judy Li, Carol Savonen, Sunia Yang
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