January 30, 2007
Audubon At Home aims to create a culture of conservation in Pennsylvania that will be pervasive and mainstream. Audubon Pennsylvania, the state office of the National Audubon Society, joins a handful of other states in putting Audubon At Home to work by conducting outreach and addressing the needs of homeowners and landholders within the state. When it comes to bird diversity, Pennsylvania is a rich tapestry, and the birds will benefit directly from the cumulative actions of people doing Audubon At Home in their backyards and beyond.
Steven will be working directly with universities, corporate landholdings, schoolyards, municipalities, conservation organizations, and individuals and neighborhood groups in urban, suburban and rural settings to facilitate the implementation of Audubon At Home programs. Programs currently being developed include a property recognition program for those who adopt Audubon At Home principles on their properties and Audubon At Work, which aims to engage large-acre corporate landholdings in an effort to have corporations dedicate some land as bird habitat and engage employees in enriching outdoor experiences.
Steven is focusing on areas close to or within Pennsylvania Important Bird Areas to help landowners realize the significance of their properties as critical habitat and how to best care for them for the betterment of the entire ecosystem.
Specifically, Steven is partnering with Penn State University to incorporate a sustainable bird landscape plan at the Center for Sustainability and an Audubon At Home yard in Penn State's national 2007 Solar Decathlon project. Also, he is applying Audubon At Home to the John James Audubon Center at Mill Grove's master landscape plan, which is currently being developed at the historic Montgomery County site.
Steven, a native of northeast Philadelphia with roots in Warrington and Doylestown, has been involved with Audubon since 1978, when he lived in Las Vegas and was Red Rock Audubon Society's youngest active member. As an environmental educator in California's Santa Monica Mountains, Steven continued his association with Audubon by leading bird walks for Los Angeles Audubon Society for nearly ten years.
After moving back to the Philadelphia area, Steven was hired by the National Audubon Society's Science office in 2003 to help launch the national web content and materials for the national Audubon At Home program. Last year, the Science office collaborated with Bucks County Audubon Society to publish The Audubon Guide to Gardening for Life in Southeastern Pennsylvania, a book that serves as an important resource for residents to utilize in conjunction with Audubon Pennsylvania programming.
Tim Schaeffer stated, "We're thrilled to have a dedicated Audubon At Home staff member and an opportunity to implement our motto of 'connecting people to nature' through projects that create habitat and improve human-influenced landscapes for the benefit of birds, people, and the environment."
Steven can be reached by email or by phone at 610-666-5530. For more information on the Audubon At Home program, visit athome.audubon.org.