Sax Zim Winter Birding Festival

On May 9th I headed up to Meadowlands to meet with the developement board and owners of local businesses (Wilbert's Cafe, Rocket Saloon, Country Market). Also in attendance were two woman who represented Floodwood and a area artist. I gave same presentation to the group and after the presentation we chatted about ideas to get this festival off the ground.

Finally towards the end of the meeting we set the date for the festival for February 16-18th 2008! I will help in creating field trips, getting leaders and finding speakers for Friday night and Saturday night. I will also aid them in other areas as well - if needed. I already contacted Bill George, president of the MOU and presented the same situation about how the MOU helps with the Salt Lake Weekend and see if the MOU will get on board to help the folks in Meadowlands.

You see the folks at Meadowlands have very little cash to get this going. The people on the board are not birders but a elderly group with a lot of pride and love for the area they grew up in. They recognize the fact that there is a drug problem in the area and they are using what little money they have to get police in the area to patrol the area to make their community safe. They want to add some lightpole banners with birds on them to show off their wildlife they have in the area. They want to help the young children in the area by creating fun activities to keep them busy. These people will greatly benefit from the profit they hope to make from this winter bird festival.

Here comes my rant !!

I met with this group twice now and I got to know them and they got to know me. One of the ladies even baked me chocolate cookies and put them in a nice tin bin to take home! I know them by first names now and got them interested in birds by fielding questions they have about birds. OK here it comes --- Pam Perry was head of a group called "Friends of Sax Zim Bog" she had other goverment people ( DNR, Forest Service) on board, she had a few local birders on board and some birders from the Twin Cities. They met with the Meadowland's Developement board and local business owners on how to make there area bird friendly, what to stock in your stores that will attract birders and ect.. Pam Perry had Sharon Stiteler (birdchick) give a presentation to the business owners that they should think about selling this, doing this and that blah blah blah -- After all these presentations they left town and NEVER went back to help these elderly ladies and give them direction! Remember they are not birders and this is all new to them!! This Sax Zim Group was suppose to launch a checklist for the area, they wanted to create wide out areas on certain roads to pull off on, they wanted portable restrooms in the bog and ect.. They NEVER tried to get grants for these projects except the checklist was done by Kim Eckert with help from me and other birders. The DNR had Mark Stensaas (who hired me to help) to create a brochure for the Sax Zim Bog area. All these projects are dead! The group folded for whatever reasons and left the people in the community hanging!

It still pisses me off that you get a group of elderly ladies all excited on how they can bring extra money to thier community and then leave them without any directions on how to achieve that goal! When I made my first presentation to them before I left for Colorado they asked me if I was going to stick to my guns and help them with these ideas and I said "YES" because one of the ladies said they were left with a bunch of ideas and NO HELP from the other group they met with!

So here is the update on what is going on in Sax Zim Bog:

-There will be now 4 bird feeding stations for visiting birders to visit. there will be drop boxes at these stations where birders can donate money to help these residents pay for the feed. I will be posting directions to these bird feeding stations this fall.

-a bird feeding station between Floodwood and Cromwell and also the woman in Floodwood prints the local newspaper and she is doing her part to bring bird watching as a way to get more business in that area. She was amazed on how many birders visited Hedbom Logging Rd last winter!

-There will be some deer ribs hung on McDavitt Rd, Owl Ave, Arkola Rd and Admiral Rd in the winter.

-Meadowlands sewage ponds has offered to build a viewing platform for birders and also the manager of the ponds will open the ponds during the birdathon if contacted. So birders do not have to walk along the barb wire.

-There are two places "Lady Slipper" and the Pruhommes who have rentals for visiting birders to lodge at.

- Winter Bird festival

* Also I have talked about the logging issue and they agree there is to much logging going on and hopefully more talks will follow on this subject. Remember these woman have sons, son-in-laws and family who are connected to logging.

So all in all I NEVER tossed a bunch of ideas at them and left it to them to figure it out. I came back to help them out and give them direction and by doing that more people get more interested in birds and more ideas are created during these talks. YES I am proud of myself and I am doing all this for FREE and giving back to a area that has done so much for me. Done for me? Hell yes! I made about $9,000 guiding birders in Sax Zim Bog during the owl irruption. I brought in a bunch of birders to the country market in meadowlands and heard about the problems they are facing. When I got an email this spring about how the business in meadowlands missed us birders, I had to meet with them and help them out. Meeting the community leaders was the best damn thing I ever did. I met some amazing woman and I ate some best damn chocolate cookies ever made!

Later