York County Audubon will host Anna Siegel for a program on the 30-Year Bird Project on Tuesday, May 16, at 7 p.m. The program will be presented live at the Mather Auditorium at Wells Reserve at Laudholm, and also will be live streamed via Zoom.

Courtesy image

According to an Audubon news release, in 2019, an article from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology reported that three billion North American birds have been lost since 1970 (about 30 percent). Maine’s nearly 10-million-acres of commercial forest form the heart of National Audubon’s largest Important Bird Area of Global Significance in the contiguous U.S. The session will discuss what role the area plays in national-scale land bird conservation. The fertile breeding ground still supports a wide range of bird species of conservation concern.

In 2021 and 2022, the 30-Year Bird Project replicated a 1990s study to understand how bird populations have changed as a result of changes in forest practices. The project has involved three generations of scientists.

Siegel, the outreach lead of the project, will describe what the team has learned and how forest practices might change to further support bird conservation while also sustaining rural, forest-based communities. Siegel is climate justice activist, young birder, and high school student.

Anna Siegel Courtesy photo

She is the advocacy director of Maine Youth Action, core member of Maine Youth for Climate Justice, and serves on Yarmouth’s Climate Action Task Force. She is also a member of the Maine Young Birders Club and is an avid hiker.

The program will be presented in-person in the Mather Auditorium of the Wells Reserve at Laudholm, and will also be available online via Zoom.

To view on Zoom, register in advance at www.yorkcountyaudubon.org where the registration link is found. After registering, participants will receive a confirmation email with information for joining the meeting.