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Presque Isle

Erie National Wildlife Refuge

Allegany State Park

Welcome to the Presque Isle Audubon Society web site. PIAS is a chapter of the National Audubon Society and a member of Audubon Pennsylvania serving northwestern Pennsylvania including Erie and Crawford counties. It is named after Presque Isle, a peninsula on the shores of Lake Erie near the city of Erie.

Our mission is to promote the conservation and protection of wildlife, plants, soil, and water in relation to human activity; to initiate and carry out plans and activities which would contribute to the conservation and protection of these natural resources; and to provide opportunities to become more aware and appreciative of our physical and biological environment.

The Presque Isle Audubon Society provides educational and recreational activities throughout the year which are centered around the natural world and open to the public. PIAS holds meetings on the third Friday of the month in September, October, November, February, March, April, May, and June. A wide variety of field trips are offered throughout the year. PIAS publishes a newsletter, Tern of Events, every month except in January and July.

In addition to field trips and monthly programs, PIAS is involved in other nature-related activities. PIAS owns and maintains the 50-acre Laura Olsen Memorial Sanctuary in Crawford County, the 33-acre Fern Wood Sanctuary near Fairview, and is co-owner (with the Botanical Society of Western Pennsylvania) of the 89-acre Titus Bog Sanctuary in Erie County. PIAS maintains a collection of nature books at the Nash Library of Gannon University and was instrumental in establishing the Presque Isle Research Library at Presque Isle State Park.

The Presque Isle Audubon Society provides volunteer services to the Erie National Wildlife Refuge and co-sponsors a biennial nature photo contest with the refuge. As part of the Important Bird Area Program, PIAS monitors breeding birds at Roderick Reserve. PIAS is a member group of the Erie County Environmental Coalition. The society is also a member of the annual Allegany Nature Pilgrimage held at Allegany State Park, NY in June. We participate in the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation's Adopt-A-Highway program. Our Education Committee provides free subscriptions to Audubon Adventures to numerous classrooms and school libraries in northwest Pennsylvania.

          Come to our annual banquet which officially begins the 2008-09 Presque Isle Audubon year.

DATE:
Friday, September 19, 2008
PLACE:
Elk's Lodge #67
2409 Peninsula Drive, Erie, PA 16505
TIME:
6:00 pm Social - Fruit Punch
6:30 pm Dinner Buffet
8:00 pm Program - Jen Brumfield - "Birds Have Taught Me...."
MENU:
Roasted Rosemary Chicken
Lemon Pepper Cod
Roasted Herb Pork Loin
Rigatoni with Marinara Sauce
Tossed Garden Salad   Baked Rolls and Butter
Mixed Vegetable Medley   Parslied Potatoes
Cake and Ice Cream   Coffee, Hot/Iced Tea
PRICE: $19.50 (payable at door)


Reservations are required by Sunday, September 14. Call Marti at 476-7029, or Kathy at 734-7188. If you are unable to honor your reservation, you must cancel by September 14 or you will be billed.

PROGRAM
     We are delighted to have as our evening's speaker, Jennifer Brumfield. As scientific illustrator and field naturalist, she has written and illustrated three field guides to the flora and fauna of Cleveland Metro parks where she serves as outdoor educator. Her illustrations have appeared nationwide including the American Birding Association's publication. Over one hundred of her detailed and colored pencil works will be featured in the Cleveland Museum of Natural History's soon-to-be released second edition of The Dragonflies and Damselflies of Northeast Ohio. Jen is also a birding tour guide for Birding America and Tropical Birding.
     An avid birder, Jen, brings a lifetime of field experience to this evening's presentation of "Birds Have Taught Me....." From the adorable to the silly, the nerdy and strange, this light-hearted presentation celebrates the real lives of birds. Are those late straggling migrants just plain lazy and not lost or slow as you may have thought. Do you have neighborhood gangs? -- of birds, that is! Come and find out what life lessons we can learn from "the feathered beasts of the air."

FUND RAISER
     For our annual fundraiser, P.I.A.S. is privileged to have Lois Wiley, respected artist and educator, donate an original pastel, "A Spit on Presque Isle," a beautifully rendered landscape of shoreline, trees, sand, water and sky for which she was awarded the Erie Festival of the Arts Panorama 2008 U-Frame It and Poster Annex Gold Circle Award. Benefiting the P.I.A.S. education programs, the framed painting (20 1/2" x 17 1/2") is valued at three hundred and twenty-five dollars ($325.00) and will be on display at the Bayfront Gallery, 17 East Dobbins Landing, Erie, during the month of August through September 18.
      Tickets, ($2.00 each or 3 for $5.00) will be available at the banquet, the Bayfront Gallery and Wild Birds Unlimited in Erie, Kelly Run Gallery in Cambridge Springs and by mail. To participate by mail, please send your check, payable to the Presque Isle Audubon Society, to banquet Fund Raiser, 6704 West Haskell Drive, Fairview, PA 16415 and your tickets will be sent by return mail. One need not be present for the drawing.

We welcome the new PIAS officers for 2008-2009:
PRESIDENT - Janet Price
VICE PRESIDENT - Mary Birdsong
SECRETARY - Bonnie Ginader
TREASURER - Kel McDonald

Executive Board Meetings are the third Tuesday of every other month starting on July 15. All members are encouraged to attend at 7 p.m. at the Tom Ridge Environmental Center, Room 212, 301 Peninsula Drive, Erie.

The PIAS By-Laws are posted here in PDF format. Click on the underlined name.

PIAS contracted to have a film produced in conjunction with our Festival of the Birds. It was to be a unique offering and a great way to advertise the festival. Tracy Graziano, owner of Moonfire Productions, did the filming. We wanted her to capture the various habitats and occupants of Presque Isle State Park in all four seasons. It took a complete year but she and her husband/helper, Ben Koncewicz, did just that.

"Wings, Sand and Song" journeys through the unique habitats of Presque Isle during all four seasons to view some of the most intimate moments of bird life: watch a Yellow Warbler build her nest, a Killdeer clutch hatch and take their first steps, Baltimore Oriole fledglings fed by their parents and a multitude of other species who call Presque Isle State Park their home - either for a brief moment during migration or all year long.

We have had a number of DVDs made of the film so we could share the moments with others. We currently have them available at our monthly meetings and at the Nature Shop at the TREC. If you purchase a DVD from PIAS the cost is $15. Or if you use the order form and want it mailed, the cost will include shipping at $5.95.

Click here for the order form.

Go to our Conservation Page to read a short summary about the pros and cons of commercial wind farms.