community. Audubon was one of those organizations that received a substantial amount of the $56 million and will be issuing grants to the Audubon chapters across the country for the next 4 years. Check out the Together Green website to see such grants.

Living Green

Avoid plastic bags at grocery and other stores. Why? Check this multimedia link: The dangers of plastic bags.

Beware of plastic water bottles too! Why? Find out more in the "Living Green" section on our Conservation page.

Lighter Side

Top 10 reasons to become a bird watcher

An article by Bill Thompson, founding publisher of Birdwatcher's Digest

Events & Programs

Birding trip this Saturday, one more summer birding trip remains

Birding field trips, each to Sugden Park, are planned over the summer and early fall. Learn more...

Audubon Young Birders Club releases 2010-2011 field trip schedule

Boat trips and moonlight walks are among the activities planned for this year's Audubon Young Birders Club. Field trips and activities begin this month. Learn more....

STA-5 birding dates for 2010-2011 announced

Dates for scheduled birding trips in Storm Water Treatment Area 5 in Hendry County have been finalized for the fall-winter-spring 2010-2011. Learn more...

For a checklist of STA-5 birds, go to the Birding page and click on "Get Lists" at the top the left column.

Audubon Assembly returns to St. Pete on October 22-23

This annual event brings Audubon members, staff and board members together providing the opportunity to look back on the accomplishments of the previous year and to make plans for the year ahead.

The St. Petersburg and Clearwater Audubon chapters will provide additional birding adventures in the morning before the event begins, Saturday afternoon, and Sunday until noon after the Assembly is over.

Learn more...

Dinner at Roy's benefits CCAS

Thank you to all our members who came out to Roy's Restaurant in Bonita at the Promenade on Friday evening, July 30, to help support a summer fundraising event.

Thank you also to Roy's in Bonita for sponsoring the event.

We look forward to doing more events with you in the near future! Stay tuned to more information on the next summer dinner event.

Collier County Audubon Society is endorsing Project Innovation. Please go to www.projectinnovation.cc for additional information.

Brad Cornell receives 2009 Trailblazer Award for commitment to sustainability policy

The Sustainability Awards were created to annually recognize and celebrate progress made by individuals, organizations or corporations towards making the region more sustainable. This platform will provide an opportunity for future sustainable practices to build off of the successes of others and to take note of lessons learned along the way.

To be sustainable means to change our communities and our economy to utilize and restore our environment so that our actions today do not compromise future generations. People and organizations that demonstrate innovation, leadership and have a positive impact on the region were invited to submit nominations for the Sustainability Awards. Entries were reviewed and considered by a panel of jurors selected by the District Council. The winners were determined by a majority vote of the panel.

The 2009 winners were:

Trailblazer Award (for an individual whose personal work has helped to shape the sustainability movement in the Southwest Florida region): Brad Cornell, Collier County Audubon Society for his long term commitment to developing environmental policies in Southwest Florida

The jury commented that "Brad demonstrates a passion and a sustained commitment to be involved in issues facing the region. His long standing commitment and collaborative approach towards sustainable policy development was clearly articulated in this nomination." Brad is pictured above receiving the award from Ray Judah, Lee County Commissioner.

Impact Award (for demonstrating measurable results that positively impact Southwest Florida): Charlotte County School Board for its efforts to rebuild "sustainably" following Hurricane Charley

The Charlotte County School Board (CCSB) provided the leadership skills and foresight to incorporate energy efficiency and environmental design criteria into rebuilding six of the school district's 20 schools after Hurricane Charley in 2004. In addition, CCSB is striving for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Energy Star Label at all existing schools. CCSB have embodied the essence of creating healthy and comfortable spaces for learning while conserving energy, water and natural resources.

Corkscrew Swamp named internationally important wetland

Audubon of Florida's Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary has been listed as a Wetland of International Importance by the Ramsar Convention. The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands promotes conservation of wetland habitats around the world, from the Florida Everglades to Africa's Okavango Delta. Corkscrew is the second Audubon sanctuary in the United States to receive the prestigious designation. Audubon's Beidler Forest in South Carolina, was designated in 2008.

Nearly 200 species of birds thrive in Corkscrew, renowned as home to America's largest nesting colonies of Wood Stork, a federally endangered species. The storks nest in majestic 600-year-old bald cypress, reaching heights of 40 meters, in one of the largest remaining stands of virgin bald cypress trees in the world.

Five sentenced for killing birds in Collier County

Naples Daily News, April 15, 2010: Four Navy officers-in-training and another man who shot and killed 21 migratory birds near Goodland last year were sentenced Wednesday to six months' probation.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Gustave DiBianco also ordered Zachary James Mato, 23, of Marco Island, Pensacola residents Cullen Mark Shaughnessy, 23, and Joseph W. Gursky Jr., 24, and Corpus Christi residents Alexander B. Wilhelm, 25, and Mark Lewis McClure, 24, to pay $5,000 to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to benefit shore bird conservation in or near Collier County.

The plea deal also requires the men to perform 150 hours of community service in conservation and ecology and to complete a hunter education certification class. If they fulfill all those conditions before six months, their unsupervised probation can be terminated early.

DiBianco, who sits in Fort Myers, imposed the sentence after the men pleaded guilty Wednesday to the unlawful killing of migratory birds, a Class B misdemeanor.

"We're pretty happy with it," Fish and Wildlife Capt. Jayson Horadam said of the plea agreement. "We spelled out what we felt was proper, correct and just. Obviously, you always want more, but you have to be realistic. It's a misdemeanor."

"It's all about (wildlife) protection and making sure people understand that's our job and people of the state of Florida want their resources protected," he added. "We take it very seriously."

The pleas and sentences brought to an end a case that gained national headlines in February 2009, when officers responding to a volley of gunshots at a bird rookery near Goodland described watching from the road as birds dropped from the sky.

"It was hard for us to comprehend," Horadam said of the mass killing, adding that the officers who worked on the case never gave up and worked hard for justice.

The birds are protected under the federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Officers said 30 were shot and 21 were recovered: 11 White Ibis, three Double-crested Cormorants, two Little Blue Herons, a Tricolored Heron, a Snowy Egret, a Cattle Egret, and two Tree Swallows.

The plea agreement says the men disputed killing 30 birds.

Shaughnessy, Gursky, Wilhelm and McClure were Navy pilots-in-training when the birds were killed on Feb. 17, 2009.

The defendants faced up to six months in federal prison and $15,000 fines for the misdemeanor charge, but were sentenced as part of a plea agreement negotiated by the men's defense attorneys, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Michelland and Managing Assistant U.S. Attorney Doug Molloy.

Defense attorney Lee Hollander of Naples, who represented Wilhelm, said there wasn't much negotiating in terms of the plea agreement, but he called it fair.

"The big fear for the four U.S. Naval air trainees is being severed from the service," Hollander said, adding that the men pleaded to a Class B misdemeanor, not a Class A misdemeanor or a felony. "It's up to their base commanders in Corpus Christi and Pensacola."

Navy officials have said they're conducting their own investigation and the men were placed on administrative hold pending the outcome of the federal case.

"This was a bunch of guys who got together and made a mistake," Hollander said, adding that two were training to be Naval combat fighters, while the others were learning to be a pilot and a navigator. "There was no alcohol involved. But it was a strict liability offense, so if you shoot one of those birds, you're guilty."

Defense attorney Brian Dickerson of Naples, who represented Mato and Shaughnessy, and McClure's attorney, Martin Raskin of Coral Gables, couldn't immediately be reached for comment. Gursky, who had no lawyer, represented himself and also could not be reached.

The plea agreement says the men went to Rookery Bay National Estuary Research Reserve with nine guns, hundreds of rounds of ammunition, and a small boat. According to tests by the U.S. National Fish and Wildlife Forensics Laboratory, the birds died from multiple shotgun pellet wounds.

The case was investigated by Special Agents of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officers.

The men were indicted March 24, nearly a year after the State Attorney's Office declined to pursue charges because the property where the shootings occurred wasn't properly marked with "No Trespassing" signs and none of the arresting officers witnessed the shootings.

Only Mato admitted shooting the birds, but his statements were inadmissible and couldn't be used against him because he'd made them before officers read him his Miranda Rights.

The men were charged after Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission Officer Dan Stermen heard gunshots at a bird rookery off County Road 92, between U.S. 41 East and Goodland, near Marco Island.

It was about 5 p.m. and Stermen and officers who responded watched from the road as birds dropped from the sky. About a half-hour later, seven people, including a 24-year-old East Naples woman, emerged from the rookery, with Mato, Shaughnessy and Gursky in a boat that contained guns; two were not indicted.

Officers went to where the shooting took place and found the carcasses. At the time, an officer said the shooters were "sitting in the birds' bedroom waiting for ... the birds to return to go to bed for the night."

All text, photos, graphics ©2007-2010 Collier County Audubon Society unless otherwise noted. Do not reproduce without prior permission.

since June 13, 2007