A conference with major potential significance for birding was held at the John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) in Philadelphia last Saturday, Oct. 22. Kimberly and I attended this conference and we found it powerfully inspiring, so I wanted to share some information and links with the rest of the Ohio birding community.

Originally conceived by Dave Magpiong of the Fledging Birders Institute in New Jersey, the conference was called "Focus on Diversity: Changing the Face of American Birding." Briefly stated, the focus of the event was the fact that people of color are severely under-represented in birding (as in many other arenas of outdoor recreation). Dave Magpiong, working with independent conservationist Paul Baicich (a part-time resident of northwest Ohio) and Heinz refuge manager Gary Stolz, put together a remarkable lineup of speakers for presentations, panel discussions, and brainstorming sessions, all focused on the aim of increasing the overall diversity of birders. Basic information on the conference can be found at this link: http://www.fledgingbirders.org/CFAB.html

The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, as a major host of the event, was able to videotape most of the conference and to have it streaming live during the day Saturday. The video is now available online, and for anyone interested, it's worth the time to watch and listen to some of the powerful, revelatory, and sometimes disturbing ideas that came out of the day. This link will take you to the first section of the video: http://bit.ly/oFTJsTand from there you can find links to the rest of the day. The video is broken into four sections; at the moment, three of them are labelled as "Diversity" parts 1, 3, and 4, while the other is labelled as "Live Show [Procaster] Sat Oct 22 2011," so it requires a little interpretation to figure out that that's the other piece. Incidentally, with the viewer on this site, it's possible to fast-forward or move around within each section easily, in case you're interested but have only limited time.

The lack of diversity in the U.S. birding community has been painfully obvious for decades, but people have begun to talk about it openly only in recent years. I'm proud to say that Ohio has been on the forefront of trying to open up the issue for discussion. In September 2009, Black Swamp Bird Observatory (BSBO) organized a conference in Toledo - co-sponsored by Toledo Metroparks and Ottawa NWR - called "Diversity in Outdoor Recreation: The Many Faces of Conservation." More information is here: http://www.bsbobird.org/diversity_conference.htm

Following the success of that event, BSBO shared the format and materials for the conference with staff at Aullwood Audubon Center near Dayton, and Aullwood held an event by the same name in July 2010; more information is here: http://ocess.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/diversityconference.pdf

John C. Robinson and Dudley Edmondson were speakers at all three of these events (Toledo, Aullwood, and last Saturday in Philadelphia). They have been leaders on this issue all along, and they both have strong Ohio connections: Dudley started birding as a teenager in the Columbus area, and John lived in the Marysville area for quite a while. Now they are taking their message nationally and internationally. And other strong voices are speaking out about diversity as well; the Philadelphia conference included superb presentations from Drew Lanham, Doug Gray, Roger Rivera, Anita Guris, Keith Russell, Roy Rodriguez, Flisa Stevenson, Mamie Parker, and other people of color with significant messages to share. This is an exciting new movement that could have a tremendous positive effect on the future of birding.

Incidentally, Black Swamp Bird Observatory would be glad to freely share information and materials from their September 2009 conference (as well as more recent insights) with any organization that might be considering a similar event.

Kenn Kaufman
Editor, Kaufman Field Guides series
http://www.kaufmanfieldguides.com/
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