Pelican Island Audubon Society Inc

Planting 100,000 trees for life: we have installed a greenhouse, collected thousands of acorns and have over 4,100 acorns that have started to germinate and being put into one gallon pots. Many organizations and irc schools have signed on as partners: uf/ifas irc extension office, ocean research conservation association, irc school district, indian river land trust (irlt), peterson's farms, sebastian river farms, cherry lake farm, arbor day foundation, digg gardens, estuarine, coastal & ocean science, inc., florida research center, irc health department, city of vero beach gis division (each tree planted will be placed on a gps map.), cultural council of irc, indian river neighborhood association, vero beach elementary, indian river academy, citrus elementary and glendale elementary.

Pelican island audubon society presented our transforming landscapes for a sustainable future conference to provide information to residents, businesses, homeowners associations, and governmental entities with information on the importance of planting native plants and reducing fertilizer and pesticide use for the health of our environment.

Peligram, our monthly pias newsletter (both printed and electronic), features monthly articles on native plants, experiences in nature, advocacy and articles on public policy, local interest, and the florida bird photo of the month with an outstanding photograph submitted by a member or staff. All articles have significant educational messages about birds, nature and conservation, and they advertise our chapter to the public, especially to photographers and local naturalists.pias website: http://www.pelicanislandaudubon.org provides education and conservation information via videos to our members and the community on basic birding, ebird, and the pelican island nwr, as well as information about our initiatives and projects and how people can get involved. Pelican island audubon society inc has held a conservation easement on martha wininger park and adjacent properties which were purchased through fundraising and advocacy by students of pelican island elementary school to protect resident florida scrub jays. In the previous fiscal years, pelican island audubon society requested and received support from the public to repair and replace fencing and informational kiosks and to restore and improve trails which were created for the use of pelican island elementary school teachers and students. In this fiscal year, pelican island audubon society has done outstanding work keeping the trails clear and the work will continue.field trips and monthly meetings. Pias sponsored birding field trips and monthly educational meetings with different speakers in two cities - sebastian and vero beach - to expand our educational efforts to the whole county. Attendance varied from 40-110 for each monthly meeting, and 15-40 people joined each of the field trips. We also participate in our local christmas bird and great backyard bird counts. Eagle watch. Pias member leads the program to monitor nesting bald eagles in indian river county with additional pias members contributing to the effort. Annual awards. To encourage excellence, pias gave different awards to fifteen members of the community and our chapter, in the areas of outstanding conservationist, educator, environmental citizen, journalist, landscaper, and generosity of time & money.pias nature library. Two pias board members with member support have transfered our 3,500-volume library to the audubon house and are continuing to computerize the catalog collection so the public may access it more easily on a computer in our audubon house building.spoonbill watch: two rookery islands at the stick marsh reservoir were declared a critical wildlife area by the florida fish and wildlife conservation commission. The designation has helped to provide a safe place for spoonbills and many other nesting bird species without disturbance. Citizen science volunteers tracked roseate spoonbills, led by dr. David cox and dr. Bill loftus.osprey watch: blue cypress lake in indian river county forms the headwaters of the st. John's river and has the highest nesting density of osprey in the world. Successful surveys of ospreys and other bird nests were conducted on blue cypress lake as part of this citizen-science project that we conduct each year. We also performed geo-mapping of the gps data to visually display the nests on an aerial photo of the lake. This data will be invaluable as we continue on-going yearly surveys with additional funding. Local newspaper coverage informed the public of this amazing local resource.