Visitors to Oregon’s small coastal city of Yachats will soon be greeted by signs on U.S. 101 announcing they are entering a Bird City, an officially recognized bird conservation area.
Yachats is the first community on the Pacific Coast to be named a Bird City by the Bird City Network, which has about 300 participating communities in North and South America, according to founders with the nonprofit American Bird Conservancy and Environment for the Americas.
Education is part of the Bird City program.
“Nature is so important to wellbeing and birds are the most available animals to connect us to our environment,“ said Jim Welch, a member of the Yachats Lions Club that sponsored the program.
“Unfortunately, bird populations have dropped 30% to 40% since 1970,” he said, due to climate change, wildfires, habitat lost to development and other factors.
“We hope to encourage residents and visitors to enjoy our precious native birds, wildlife and habitats and to develop projects for their protection,” said Welch, an environmentalist and wildlife photographer who retired from a career in renewable energy.
A speaker series and bird walks are being planned for this year.
This summer, volunteers will help SWIFTY (Swallows in Flight to Yachats) tag 2-ounce Western purple martins to track their progress in their almost 16,000-mile roundtrip from estuaries in Oregon to Brazilian rainforests.
Bird City Yachats is also supporting the city in its efforts to convert streetlights to Dark Sky standards. “Artificial lights at night severely disrupt wildlife nocturnal behavior,” Welch said.
Last fall, Yachats was designated a Bird City because of the residents’ longtime conservation efforts to protect wildlife, specifically bird habitat. Projects include capping pipes and chimneys to avoid trapping birds, window treatments to prevent bird strikes, and stopping free-roaming cats from hunting birds.
On March 1, Mayor Craig Berdie will be presented with a Bird City Network certificate at the Yachats Lions Hall. The event will include information on coastal wildlife refuges managed by the U.S. and Oregon Fish and Wildlife office in Newport that provide critical seabird nesting habitat.
The Bird City Yachats group of volunteers joined the local Seven Capes Bird Alliance to survey 24 state parks in Lincoln County and identified more than 150 open pipes. The bird alliance is providing the funds for caps and materials, and Oregon State Parks will perform the work as part of building maintenance, said Welch, who serves on the alliance’s board.
Information on birds and birding sites is available at the Yachats Chamber of Commerce & Visitors Center, at 241 Oregon Coast Highway and birdcity.org/oregon/yachats.
An exhibit of photographs of wildlife and local birds is at the new Yachats Public Library at 560 W. Seventh St. (yachatslibrary.org).
Leave a Reply