Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory hosts workshop

The Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory, RMBO, brought community members together on Tuesday not only to explain their current bird conservation efforts, but to also expose the public education opportunities that they provide.

RMBO and the Nebraska Environmental Trust held the Kimball County Conservation Informative Workshop at Kimball Event Center this Dec. 11 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

In attendance at the workshop were resource professionals, landowners and representatives from the Game and Parks Commission, Farm Service Agency, Natural Resources Conservation Service and Pheasants Forever, Larry Snyder a wildlife biologist at RMBO said. An avid bird watcher was also present.

“We’ve been doing these informational workshops since 2002 and the meetings are currently focused in the Southern Panhandle,” Snyder said.

RMBO is a nonprofit organization based out of Colorado that specializes in bird conservation efforts and educating the public.

“These workshops serve as a way of letting people know about habitat programs and not only ours but NRCS, Pheasants Forever and Game and Parks. We try to bring all the partners in that we can,” Snyder said.

Snyder said that another reason for holding the workshops was to introduce the kind of educational programs that RMBO has to offer to schools and the community.

“One thing that we haven’t brought to landowners is letting them know what we are doing in the schools,” Snyder said.

Magdalena Vinson a Nebraska Education Coordinator from RMBO said that programs are not just open to schools but anyone in the community.

“Anybody who isn’t a teacher might not know about our programs. So part of this is just to introduce others to the programs,” Vinson said.

Vinson said she holds educational programs for the general public and could even do programs for families or groups.

Vinson said that instead of educators going to the schools to provide the programs there are also field trip opportunities that the schools can attend.

Currently, Vinson said she is running bird mating stations in the Wildcat Hills and at Chadron State Park where schools are allowed to come out and see how the birds are caught and banded.

Vinson said that the education available can be focused on anything to do with wildlife and ranges from birds and mammals to amphibians and plants.

Snyder said that the workshops were great for giving the public needed information on wildlife and also how they can protect the wildlife around them.

“The value that we are giving them is the value that they have in wildlife and the opportunity they have to help certain species,” Snyder said.

Snyder also said that landowners are also informed about certain tourism development ideas that could provide alternative income to their farms and ranches.