On July 6th 2023, I gave my first-ever online presentation! I was incredibly nervous, but the participants seemed interested and engaged and many asked questions. My nerves eventually steadied some and I wound up going quite a bit over the 30 minute time frame I was allotted. I was a bit worried that I had bored the audience and hoped that I was able to at least make some small impression on someone. Less than two weeks later, I had the opportunity to give the presentation again in a virtual meeting hosted by the Naugatuck Conservation Commission. They were considering a building proposal and were hoping to convince the developer to agree to a conservation goal of protecting a grassland area where bobolinks are known to nest. Despite my best efforts at brevity, the second presentation ran almost twice as long as the first! To my surprise, an attendee of that presentation contacted me asking me to share the presentation with her birding club.  

 

In April of 2024, I went to the Western CT Birding Club meeting at the Audubon Center in Southbury. This was the first time I had presented in person with an actual audience but I was well prepared - I had honed and polished the power point, adding text and titles, and even supplementing the information itself with updated resources. I had practiced following the outline and filling in the salient points ad lib. Still, I was  nervous. Again, I talked longer than I had planned. And again at the conclusion of the  talk, I was asked to share with a different birding group in another town. I’ll be  presenting “BIRDS, BUGS AND BEYOND: The Biodiversity and Benefits of Grasslands” for the Litchfield Hills Audubon on September 9th! 

 

In May, chapter leadership was contacted by a Sierra Club member who was  concerned with the impact of early mowing in a municipally owned parcel known to  contain nesting Bobolinks. With just a few hours notice, members of the Wildlife  Committee submitted individual comments to the local government. Following  discussions with the individual who reached out to us and the town administration, the  presentation was added to the Brookfield Conservation Commission’s agenda for June  5th. I made the long trek from my home out to Brookfield, armed with the knowledge  and passion I needed, but very unsure that any of it would be enough to sway their  decision to allow the farmer who leased the field to mow before the nests were  vacated. As I sat waiting to give my talk, I noticed that there were about a dozen people in the audience of citizens, but I had no way of knowing what brought them to this  meeting as my presentation was only one of many things on their agenda. When my  time came, I shared all Bobolink specific information I had collected — facts, data, and 

pictures for visual impact. I shared with them best management practices and  discussed options for minimizing the impact on the birds. I answered questions from  the commission and the audience. 

 

When I was done, I thanked them and prepared to leave. As I was gathering my things, a man stood up to speak. Not being a resident of that town, I didn’t pay much attention when he stated his name and his address. My heart fluttered a little bit when I heard him say that HE was the farmer who leased the field and had been mowing it for hay for at least a decade. I braced for the hostility that I assumed was about to be directed to me, the outsider who was coming in just to tell him that he should no longer do things as he had been doing for years. In a gruff voice he said ”Ok, I’ll wait to mow.” I thought I must have misheard him. I was stunned when he turned to me and said “You made sense. You didn’t talk down to us. You understood all sides of the issue and you presented reasonable options. I don’t want to kill the birds so I’ll wait to mow.” I shook his hand and fought back tears as I left. The woman who had initially reached out for help followed me into the hallway of the municipal building and hugged me. Few things in life are as fulfilling as the feeling of having truly made a difference, even if just for one person to save one bird in one field in one town. 

 

I am grateful to be able to do this work through the Sierra Club. I am proud that this presentation has been so well received, and I’m always happy to share knowledge  with others. More than that however, I am thrilled that through the efforts of this group,  this chapter, and this organization, we are making a tangible impact on the preservation  

of wildlife and the environment in which it thrives.

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Tanya Bourgoin is our Wildlife Committee Chair.