Southern Wisconsin Bird Alliance Inc

Education: sowba has two full-time educators on our staff who taught weekly in about 14 classrooms spanning kindergarten through fifth grade. We also work with elementary students at local community centers. Our partnerships are with organizations serving groups with more than half of the kids being people of color or from low-income families. Our fun, hands-on lessons get kids running, exploring, and thinking like scientists. Lessons and podcast episodes are available online for free! We also provided many adult education programs like birding 101 and birding by ear (for people of all visual abilities) in addition to a variety of field trips welcoming people of all ages, backgrounds and abilities.

Advocacy: along with its members, southern wisconsin bird alliance supported meaningful conservation efforts and advocated widely for environmental justice issues through a blog, newsletter, email, social media, website, and more. We provided significant public outreach through hybrid (in person, streamed online) programs and events. We worked diligently to improve representation in conservation and access to nature for bipoc, lgbtq+, and people with disabilities. We coordinated multiple volunteer-led citizen science efforts across the state, including bald eagle nest watch, now established in over half of the counties around wisconsin. We also promoted bird-friendly communities through our bird-window collision monitoring and bird-window collision prevention outreach programs. In february 2024, middleton passed a bird-safe glass ordinance that matched the one upheld by the city of madison. Sowba also coordinates monthly meetings for a coalition of bird and environmental conservation advocacy organizations to better improve and strengthen our collective approach and work to better advocate for birds and their habitats.