by Lori Turner, President

First and foremost, I’d like to say thank you for entrusting me as your president. It was a joy serving you all and helping where I could. My tenure as President ends on May 31. Here’s a list of accomplishments we’ve made through the year to help achieve our mission:

Nature areas

Columbia Audubon Nature Sanctuary

An anonymous person donated Pawpaw seedlings to be planted at CANS in memory of Tess Dukes. The pawpaws are in bloom right now at CANS in the woodlands. We will locate an appropriate place to plant these to honor Tess.

Contracted Timmermann Wildland Fire Services, LLC to conduct a prescribed fire at CANS. This occurred December 14^th and couldn’t have happened without the volunteer work of our membership and especially Bill Mees, our nature area committee member who manages CANS.

Overseeded CANS prairie with warm season grass seed after the prescribed burn.

Eagle Scouts built 4 Leopold benches to be used during educational programs. If one hikes the trail through the prairie and into the valley, they will see all four handmade benches, ready for students (or anyone needing a rest!).

Trail side interpretive sign was installed at CANS to educate folks on the importance of pollinators and which ones they might see while visiting CANS.

Fred Durrenberger is the beekeeper for the bee colonies at CANS and he harvested a gallon of honey and donated all of it to CAS. Bill Mees sold the 8 oz jars to CAS members and all proceeds went to CAS.

Wild Haven

Overseeded in the woodlands and expanded the prairie planting on the east side of Jenkins Hall.

A new outhouse was constructed. Thank you, David Neely and Bill Mees, for your hard work completing the project! They had to dig the pit, install the liner and stool and build the outhouse structure. See the April Chat for photos if you haven’t seen it.

Installed gravel in the parking lot.

Education

10^th year hosting Band with Nature at CANS, with 870 Columbia 2^nd graders in attendance!

Our Education Co-chairs, Lottie Bushmann and Lori Schenker, volunteered several hours visiting local elementary schools to educate kids on birds and why they are important.

Lottie also has helped with other nature education outreach programs for children outside of Columbia School Districts that included a program led by Missouri River Relief at Cooper’s Landing.

We are sending 3 local school teachers to attend this year’s summer ecology/ornithology work shop at the National Audubon Society camp on Hog Island in Maine. Those chosen are Joe Brown, Hilary Meyers and Ragan Webb. Each award covers tuition, room and board for an intensive multi-day course of field study and instruction in ornithology, ecology, and nature education.

Field Trips

We’ve had 30 field trips since June 12st, 2023.

Money Raised

We raised over $10,000 through the 2023 CoMoGives Fundraiser again for the 9^th year!

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Most of these accomplishments couldn’t be completed without our Board and members of the society donating their time to help. Thank you all! See you at the spring picnic on May 19^th at Wild Haven.

We are happy to announce our incoming Officers and Director for Columbia Audubon Society’s Board of Directors.

President: Lottie Bushmann

Incumbent President: Lori Turner

Vice-president: Emma Buckingham

Incumbent Vice-president: Judy Lincoln

Secretary: Vickie Park

Incumbent Secretary: Louise Flenner

Treasurer: Eric Seaman (Returning)

Director: Greg Leonard (Returning)

Their official term of office will start June 1^st.

Thank you all that have served and will be serving on the CAS Board. We do so much for the community and it couldn’t happen without you volunteering your time to serve.