 | Central New Mexico Audubon SocietyTo appreciate, experience, and conserve birds, other wildlife and their habitats. To encourage and support environmental education in New Mexico. |
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Introduction
Newsletter
Field Trips/Program
Audubon in New Mexico (Join!) |
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The Central New Mexico Audubon Society (CNMAS) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation headquartered in Albuquerque, New Mexico, devoted to the protection, preservation, and enjoyment of the environment, with a particular emphasis on birds. CNMAS is a chapter of the National Audubon Society and serves members in central New Mexico. Click on the following for our Board of Directors.
CNMAS presents a program open to the public on the third Thursday of each month at 7:15 PM at St. Timothy's Lutheran Church (211 Jefferson St. NE, Albuquerque, NM 87108), one block east of the intersection of Washington and Copper. Occasionally we deviate from that schedule and location, so contact us to confirm a date you are interested in (or for other information).
Visitors to Albuquerque are strongly encouraged to visit the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge (about 1.5 hours south of Albuquerque) and the Rio Grande Nature Center (just east of the river at the end of Candelaria in Albuquerque). Those with more time to bird are encouraged to purchase the New Mexico Bird Finding Guide at the Rio Grande Nature Center or in advance through NMOS.
Also of interest to visitors is Petroglyph National Monument on Albuquerque's West Side.
CNMAS sponsors about two field trips per month. Everyone is welcome on field trips, Audubon members and nonmembers, novice and experienced birders, alike.
Here are two of the abstracts of Science Fair projects of recipients of awards from CNMAS:
Mercedes Reuel -- This study’s soul purpose is to purify water using nothing but light. Brackish water is a commonly found source of water, but it can’t be used due to its impurities. In areas like the Middle East water is becoming an endangered commodity due to a large population. Even in New Mexico brackish water is being uncovered. The question is what is it good for? This study is focused on finding a way to purify brackish water by heating it with a solar oven and collecting the vapors in a separate vessel. For the time being only the engineering part of the experiment has been completed. The constant (purified water) has been tested through this apparatus and water was successfully collected in a separate vessel. This project will continue after the solar oven has been enhanced to collect more water. After the apparatus collects a sufficient amount of water, brackish water will be tested.
Samantha Heimgartner -- The preservation of seeds has many applications such as supplying a village with new crop seeds after a natural disaster has destroyed a harvest, maintaining a genetic stock in case of extinction and storing seeds for future journeys to colonize space. Therefore, it is important to investigate how best seeds can be preserved. This study investigated whether seeds can survive the cryogenic temperatures of liquid nitrogen, grow and produce future generations. The experimental group of seeds was frozen in liquid nitrogen and the control group was not frozen at all. The first generation seeds showed 90.63% survivability in the experimental group and 93.75% in the control group. The experimental group showed 96.55% pollen formation and 96.67% in the control group. No leaf deformations were observed. Then, using pollen collected from each groups’ mature plants, the experimenter pollinated within each group, harvested and planted the resultant seeds. In the second generations, the experimental and control groups both showed 96.88% viability and 100% pollen formation. No leaf deformations were observed. The Student T-test confirmed that the differences in viability, pollen formation, and leaf deformation were not statistically significant. These results support the hypothesis that the second generation plants will be as viable as the control plants and will have as many individuals producing pollen as do the control plants, however they do not support the portion of the hypothesis that stated the progeny of the seeds frozen in liquid nitrogen will have more deformed leaves as compared to the control plants.
Ryan's family is most grateful for your generous gifts and matching contributions. With these funds, and in anticipation of earnings and future donations, Central New Mexico Audubon Society has established a permanent endowment "to give testimony to the living legacy of what Ryan gave to all of us as family, friends and community." It will be invested so that its proceeds will fund at least one youth or youth leader scholarship per year, with consideration for the next awardee beginning in fall 2008 for the award to be given in 2009. Application for award can be made via the form located here. More information about submission deadlines and dates of awards are located here. If you have any questions, please contact Helen Haskell at this link.
The endowment is permanently open, which means that people can contribute whenever and by whatever means, including bequests, year-end donations, etc. Donations should be sent to Central New Mexico Audubon Society, with "Ryan Fund" denoted in the "for" line. As noted above, Central New Mexico Audubon Society is a 501(3)(c) nonprofit corporation, and all contributions are fully tax-deductible.
CNMAS publishes a quarterly newsletter, The Burrowing Owl, which details the birding activities of interest in the area. Click the image below to view the current issue of the Owl in Adobe Acrobat (PDF) format. An archive of our newsletters is also available.
Photo by David Powell
The Chapter's field trips and programs and those of the Albuquerque "Thursday Birders"
can be viewed at the:
Current Field Trips/Program Schedule of Central New Mexico Audubon Society and of the Albuquerque "Thursday Birders".
The following NAS chapters and unaffiliated Bird Clubs in New Mexico make up the New Mexico Audubon Council:
New Mexico hosts one of the National Audubon Society's first State Offices, located at the Randall Davey Audubon Center at the end of Canyon Road in Santa Fe. You can reach the Randall Davey Audubon Center by clicking here.
Our chapter is proud to have adopted the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge under the National Audubon Society's Audubon Refuge Keepers (ARK) program. The Refuge is a must see for any birder visiting the area, particularly during winter when it is home to thousands of ducks, snow geese, Ross' geese, and sandhill cranes, as well as a variety of other species wintering and/or passing through. The Refuge is also a fine example of how government can do a good job protecting wildlife.
Our chapter is also proud to support the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge. The refuge grounds are ordinarily closed to the public, but a visitor's center is now complete and open daily. The refuge is involved in assisting in Mexican Wolf reintroduction to the southwest and is a vital source of long-term ecological research.
To join our chapter and the National Audubon Society, click Join Audubon, and enter chapter code C9ZQ510Z where indicated.
If you are as upset as we are about trends in governmental removal of protection for birds, other wildlife, and their habitats, please take a moment to employ one or more of the following: