September Membership Drive 2021-2022

The Peace River Audubon Society is starting our membership drive for the 2021-2022 season. For those who support your local organization, your donation is due in September. One accomplishment this year is that we distributed 3,000 activity booklets on plants for birds to schools, camps, science centers, and at festivals. We also designed 4 signs to be placed at Kiwanis Park and Ollie’s Pond regarding ethics while birding and photographing. One upcoming project is to work with the environmental center to purchase a pre-fab building to replace our old bird blind. I hope you will continue to support these local projects and more.

This year we have an online payment option so you can pay with a credit card. Just go to our website at www.peaceriveraudubon.org. On the homepage click on SUPPORT OUR CAUSE or BECOME A MEMBER. Fill out the form…it’s that easy.

Of course we are still accepting donations by check to our treasurer at:

PRAS PO BOX 510760 Punta Gorda, Florida 33951-0760

Many of you have already chosen the 3 year family membership. This reminder does NOT apply to YOU until your 3 year membership expires. And if you are a Lifetime member…hat’s off to you! If you are not sure if your donation is due, just email Phyllis at ps_cady@yahoo.com, that’s ps_cady. Here are your membership options.

____Annual Family Membership @ $20

____3 Year Family Membership @ $50

____Lifetime Family Membership @ $250

We hope you will continue to support our local efforts in environmental education, conservation, and birding.

Thank You,

Peace River Audubon

Phyllis Cady – Membership

PRAS Bird and Butterfly Sanctuaries

Peace River Audubon Society was the first Florida Audubon to have one…….

A program was created to help with the decline of birds, butterflies, and bees (the 3 B’s), while attracting wildlife in 2019.

With this program it provides food, shelter, and water for wildlife throughout our area by the community and individuals requesting to be instrumental in this program using Florida native plants.

Research was conducted gleaning data from willing states such as Portland Oregon Audubon, Illinois Audubon, and Atlanta Audubon in the creation of a sanctuary for birds and butterflies.

The name of the PRAS first, is the Bird and Butterfly Sanctuary Certification Program. Our PRAS Board Member, Rob Mills created the worthwhile program for nature with funding by Florida Power and Light grants, Keep Charlotte Beautiful grant, along with many dedicated volunteers transforming landscapes to wildlife sanctuaries.

Many community landscapes have already been established as yard certified sanctuaries such as:

Elsie Quirk library in Lemon Bay (the first one certified), Charlotte County School Board building, Wintergarden Presbyterian Church, Punta Gorda Boat Club, Audubon Pennington Nature Park, Hickory Bluff Cemetery historic graveyard maintained by the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Girl Scouts, East Virginia Street garden in Punta Gorda maintained by the Quality Improvement Day Treatment Program for Disabled Adults, Steve and Olivia Scott home located in Deep Creek, and eight (8) acres of property owner Master Gardener, Jayne Hayes in Shell Creek.

The purpose of the Florida Power and Light is to promote National Audubon’s “Plants For Birds”.  The website Audubon Plants For Birds illustrates a free list of appropriate native plants for your area.  Once on the website indicate your zip code, and plant photos, plant information, what birds are attracted and much more will be available for you to view.

Many community agencies have requested to be certified sanctuaries that are in the beginning stages.

If you would like to participate, kindly go to the Peace River Audubon Society website and click on Yard Certification for more information.

Rob Mills photographed some sanctuaries, for you to view on what our community and individuals can accomplish for the love of helping our wildlife flourish. Thank you, Rob Mills for your dedication to nature and the creation of this program.

Announcement from the PRAS Board

To all members of the Peace River Audubon Society, it is with regret that the board has decided not to hold in-person general monthly meetings because of the current state of the COVID pandemic. We felt the risk was too high due to the status of the unvaccinated population in SW Florida and the high transmission rate of the delta virus strain. Many of our members are still at some risk despite being vaccinated due to their age and any associated comorbitities (any other risk factors). This policy will commence with the September meeting until the January meeting, when we will re-evaluate the overall risk of resuming in-person meetings.

Our speaker schedule will continue as before, but we will resume ZOOM presentation to lessen any individual risk. Please refer to our Facebook page or website (www.peaceriveraudubon.org) for any updates to this policy. A yearly schedule for meetings, field trips, and walkabouts will be posted there. Email notifications will be sent out with the necessary ZOOM invites.

With respect to our monthly field trips and walkabouts, they will continue to be held as scheduled with the 2020 – 2021 Audubon recommendations. All persons participating will be required to wear masks and observe social distancing as before.

The board deeply regrets this change to our general meeting schedule. We were all looking forward to seeing old friends and renewing acquaintances.

Respectfully submitted,

Brenda Curtis Mike Krzyzkowski Co-Presidents, Peace River Audubon Society