Pelican Island Audubon Society wins 2017 Conservation Award

INDIAN RIVER COUNTY – For the second year in a row, the Pelican Island Audubon Society (PIAS) was awarded the prestigious Best Chapter Conservation Project Award at the Audubon Florida Assembly’s 2017 conference in St. Augustine on Oct 21.

The Audubon Florida Assembly 2017 recognized PIAS for their outstanding work on various environmental projects throughout the local Treasure Coast area led by Dr. David Cox, PIAS board member and Audubon Florida Indian River Lagoon Regional Conservation Committee chair.

One such project is the citizen-science Spoonbill Watch at the Stick Marsh. In 2016 and 2017, PIAS citizen-scientists collected data on a 140 nest Spoonbill colony located on two small islands in the Upper St. Johns River Basin, contributing valuable information to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission that facilitated the designation of the colony as a Critical Wildlife Area.

PIAS also partners with Pelican Island Elementary to maintain threatened Scrub Jay habitat at the adjacent Martha Wininger Reflection Park in Sebastian. Students and PIAS volunteers work to maintain the trails and establish both butterfly and square-foot vegetable gardens.

A group of PIAS volunteers conducted Osprey monitoring in the Spring of 2017 at Blue Cypress Lake, documenting 306 occupied nests, the highest nesting density of Ospreys in the world. PIAS Conservation Committee members continue lobbying local and state officials for their support on current conservation priorities.

The Florida Audubon Assembly consists of 45 Audubon Chapters throughout the state. Pelican Island Audubon Society was one of 33 chapters represented at the annual conference.

For more information on membership and volunteering opportunities, please contact PIAS at pelicanislandaudubon.org or 772-567-3520.

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