President’s Message

A CHAPTER FOR ALL

by SeEtta Moss

By the time you receive this issue of the Harrier, we will have held our first Southern Colorado Bird-N-Nature Fest. Although I write this before the Fest, I am quite sure it will be successful. Watch for a report on the Fest in next month’s Harrier.

Although the Fest is over for this year, we will still be selling Audubon Calendars and Audubon plush birds at program meetings in October and November. They make great gifts and by purchasing them from AVAS you will be supporting our local conservation efforts

Speaking of funds for AVAS, don’t forget to send your dues to our local chapter instead of sending your checks to National Audubon. By doing so you will still retain your membership in National Audubon but provide your local chapter with a larger share of your dues. And, if you choose not to be a member of National Audubon, you can pay for a local chapter only membership. 

To remind members of the benefits of paying your dues directly to AVAS, your Board members will be sending personalized letters explaining this process. And, as a bonus, these membership dues reminder letters will have a photo of the Board members. Then you can see that we are just regular people like you. And, like each of you, we all enjoy birds and other wildlife. 

As you will note in the program description, our meeting will be in Cañon City in October again this year. We do this as an outreach effort to AVAS members in the Cañon City-Florence-Penrose area. If you live outside the Pueblo area and would like to see a program meeting or other AVAS activity held in your area, give me a call or send me an email so we can explore possibilities.  This year’s program will be on trees and shrubs for birds and wildlife with a focus on native and xeric—an area of much interest so ask a friend to come with you.

October program

PLANTING FOR THE BIRDS

The October Program Meeting will be held again this year in Cañon City. The topic will be on trees and shrubs for birds and other wildlife with a focus on native and xeric species that are adapted to area conditions. The presenter will be highly skilled in the selection, planting and maintenance of trees and shrubs (we just don’t know which person will give the presentation as of press time for the Harrier). 

Although most areas of Colorado had much better precipitation than last year, the AVAS region is still in drought conditions with continuing low soil moisture. So it continues very important that plantings chosen for our yards be xeric (requiring only a relatively small amount of moisture).

As many area residents have found, nothing beats native trees and shrubs for survival in the drought conditions. Additionally, native vegetation is more attractive to the birds and other wildlife while being less likely to be harmful to them.

The meeting will be held at the Golden Age Center at 728 Main Street in downtown Canon City. We will meet at 7:00 p.m. on Friday, October 10 for a social time with refreshments and the program will start at 7:30 p.m.  Ask a friend or neighbor to come with you, as this is a popular topic.