Community Corner
12 Days of Giving: Rouge River Bird Observatory
Join us every day until Christmas for a new way to give time and money locally. Today, we showcase the Rouge River Bird Observatory.
Name: The Rouge River Bird Observatory
Website: www.rrbo.org
What they're all about: Did you know that there have been 250 species of birds recorded in Dearborn? Or that the population of woodpeckers is rising?
Find out what's happening in Dearbornwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
The Rouge River Bird Observatory's mission since opening in 1992 is just that–to find and track birds around Dearborn. They operate out of the Environmental Interpretive Center on the campus of the , focusing on the banding of birds and effects of urbanization on bird populations, explained director Julie Craves.
"We’ve been banding birds for 20 years–about 30,000 of them," said Craves, who is in the middle of writing her second book about the birds of Dearborn. "When we started this, we were the only ones doing this in an urban area."
Find out what's happening in Dearbornwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
The findings of the observatory not only provide detailed data on the changing bird population of the city, but valueable information for local and national groups. Wayne County used the data to track the West Nile Virus, while Cornell University collects the observatory's data for scientific purposes.
How to help: Despite the fact that the Rouge River Bird Observatory has been around so long, Craves admits, "It's a pretty well kept secret."
Another thing many people don't know is that their work is not funded by the university, but mainly by grants and private donors. And as the former dries up, individual donations become increasingly important.
"Monetary support is always important," Craves said. "What it supports is the research here."
Craves is the only paid employee, and does the work of three–including marketing, website maintenance, blogging and grant requests, on top of her research in the field.
The rest of the observatory's workers are students and volunteers, which help with everything from the actual research to doing vegitation surveys or maintaining the paths around the Environmental Interpretive Center.
Though the work is year-round, Craves said that more volunteer positions will open up in the spring.
But monetary donations are always needed, and can be made online, or by mailing a donation form to: Rouge River Bird Observatory, Environmental Interpretive Center, University of Michigan-Dearborn, Dearborn, MI, 48128
