The President’s Hoot!

I am very pleased that the PIAS membership recognized the many contributions of Maggy Bowman and declared her our Founding Member and President Emeritus. I would also like to acknowledge the contributions of Jonathan Day who is stepping down at the end of his 3 year term as Director at Large and was a key member in developing and selecting the high school students to receive the PIAS Scholarship award. As incoming President, I am delighted about the new people who have just joined our board and taken leadership positions on our committees: Robert Adair, Janice Broda, Debby Ecker, Darlene Halliday, Tina Marchese, Patricia Sawyer, Ruth Stanbridge, and Ellie Van Os.

I would like to start a dialog with you on how Pelican Island Audubon Society can make future contributions to Indian River County. As Jen Tripson outlined in last month’s Peligram, Audubon has made many contributions already. I would like to see us continue the excellent monthly presentations at our general meetings, cleaning up our beaches, providing scholarships, canoeing trips at ORCA, and being proactive in the community on conservation issues.

We plan to activate our Five Year Plan. To promote the use of native plants in landscaping, and initiate stronger county and city tree ordinances, our Botany Committee can be reactivated. We plan to offer birding courses at the ELC and FMEL, monthly field trips to Florida’s Great Florida Birding Trails, birding videos at the north county library, and initiate activities for our youth. A major goal is to provide leadership to secure additional funds to preserve lands and habitat in our county. To accomplish these objectives, we will need your help. I hope you can volunteer to be on our board, join in our committees, and attend county and city meetings. Active committees will help us do great things in Audubon.

Looking forward to working with you. Please call me at home at (388-1572) or email me rhba@canoesRus.com with your suggestions- Richard Baker, President (April 2003)