Holiday Season 2016-17

Dear Folks,
I am sorry about missing sending out a Holiday Letter last yearI was just swamped in December and January. I
thought maybe Id make it a Valentines Day letter, then a St. Patricks Day or Easter letter, even a Bastille Day letter, a
Labor Day letter but I never got out of the mire. So finally, I am taking the time tonight, the day after New Years to
finally write a letter to explain these last two years.
Now I called my situation a mire, but it really is a good mire, that has more to do with not having enough hours
in the day to do everything that needs to be done, but most of that is good stuff, just time consuming. Actually, this
business is really about a good thing that happened or good things really.
It all surrounds my being President of Detroit Audubon (we dropped the Society as antiquated) and new
developments there. First of all, we moved our operations to an office in Detroit right next to Wayne State University.
Although we had talked about investigating the possibility of moving to Detroit, we really did not seriously move on it
until we were told by the City of Southfield that we had to vacate our free office on 9 Mile Road within 30 days (turned
out to be bad information, but it got us moving). So, I had to put in lots of hours scouting possible locations in Detroit
and in the suburbs. I had heard vague things about East Michigan Environmental Action Council owning the former First
Unitarian Church building and renting out space to non-profits. Turns out they had a vacancy and finally two vacancies
by the end of it. It turns out that the building is now what is called a non-profit hive housing several non-profits, mostly
in the environmental justice field. It comes with access to the parlor for board meetings, and use of other common
spaces when there are community events we can be part of, or if it one of our own events we can rent the spaces at a
discount. We were finally able to get all of our supplies and equipment out of storage, including all of our files and
books. However, it was a very divisive issue on the board with some board members fighting that move tooth and nail.
I had to research and refute out-and-out falsehoods like that the new facility had no lighted exit signs and was not up to
fire codeI took photos of every exit sign- there had to be 15 or 16 of them total, and got a copy of the Fire Department
certificate of passing fire code inspecting the most recent only a couple months prior. The board began considering
this in January but did not finally vote to not move, but to open a second office at that location at our April meeting. All
during that time the East Michigan Environmental Action Council kept us first on the list for a vacancy. They really
wanted us to move in--- what other landlord would wait 4 months while you made a decision? Unfortunately, we lost a
board member, who was in favor of the move, but was fed up with the rancor. For a while we had two offices, but the
Southfield office was not used except by our bookkeeper maybe 3 days per month. The board finally decided that
having two offices as confusing and unnecessary so we now have one office home and it is in Detroit!
We also finally decided to dip into our reserves, and reduce the hours of our three-day per week office manager,
so we could hire a part-time Program Coordinator (the former manager decided she didnt like the arrangement and
quit after two weeks). We had a number of outstanding candidates for Program Coordinator, but among them Sara
Cole, with two teaching certificates, a background in art and science, and masters degree from the University of
Michigan School of Natural Resources stood out. She had also worked doing education programs at the Kellogg Bird
Sanctuary near Battle Creek, and had written bird education curricula for the Smithsonian and also a Hummingbird
Curriculum for another national bird organization. She had also worked as an educator at the University of Michigan
Dearborn Environmental Interpretive Center. Sara began April 17, 2015 so at that time I wound up having a second fulltime unpaid job as essentially Executive Director of Detroit Audubon, now supervising a professional employee. Sara
and I both networked as much as we could. Folks in the environmental community and in the community generally
were thrilled that we have moved back to Detroit and were ready to be partof Detroits Green Renaissance. Partnering

opportunities just began sprouting up everywhere. The first came from a visit to the Belle Isle Nature Zoo, which we had
been a partner with when it started but which had languished without professional staff. At one time, we were possibly
going to have staff member at the Nature Zoo, so I stopped in to talk to the naturalist there to see if they might have
space they could rent us for an office. They didnt any space to spare, but one of the naturalists told us they really could
use us as a partner for their summer nature day camp to teach about birds one day a week for the 8-week duration of
that camp. That was Saras first gig!
She also developed seasonal programs for our birding spot on the Detroit Riverwalk (4 spotting scopes and an
outdoor exhibit panel), and developed partnerships with the Detroit Childrens Museum (which is part of the Detroit
Public Schools) to produce education kits to go out to hundreds of kids each per year. She also coordinated our end of
the partnership with the local metropark systems to monitor grassland bird populations to generate baseline data
before habitat improvement were done, so that changes in bird populations could be documented. I took on surveying
one of the transects at Oakwoods Metropark once per week for the entire month of June. And the list goes on and on
and on. Sara created a new website for us that was easier to update even daily, and much easier to navigate. Sara also
took over editing our newsletter as well.
Sara told us in early fall that she was pregnant and expecting a baby in January. After some serious thought, she
decided to resign at the end of December to become a full-time mom for a while but agreed to stay on as a board
member, chair of our education committee, and a valued volunteer. I was in despairhow could we ever find such an
incredibly talented and creative person to follow in her footsteps. Sara insisted we hire her replacement so that they
would have at least two weeks of overlap so she could essentially train her replacement to seamlessly take over. We
again had a several good candidates but again there was one standout, Terra Weiland, who became our second Program
Coordinator and is still in that positon today. We again lucked in fining a person who has an incredible resume of
experience and passion for birds and kids that just oozes out of every pore. Terra had worked as an educator/outreach
person for both Massachusetts Audubon and New York City Audubon, graduated from Middlebury College in Vermont, a
college that sets everything in an environmentally sustainability theme, and had also worked the Bronx Zoo doing flight
research with birds on the effectiveness of bird-safe glass, and for Harvards field station doing research on dragonfly
flight. Terra not only built new partnership but was able to implement work with the partnerships that Sara created,
including one with an incredible inner city school, the Ronald Brown Academy. So, from planning partnerships we moved
into actually conducting several school and youth programs. Our Young Birders Club event in late October was standing
room only, and parking was hard to find. What a great problem to have!!! Terra continued to make our presence
known at tabling events, which she made into activity hubs that just drew kids and adults in like crazy, and if she found a
teacher, she was ready to offer our services to do in-class programs or field trips. Most teachers took her up on her
offers!
One person who applied for the Program Coordinator positon a little late looked too good to pass up. Her name
is Erin Rowan, and she had moved to the area with her new husband who hails from Wyandotte. She has extensive
experience in bird banding and bird research, having not only banded birds but coordinated the banding program for the
Bird Population Institute for all of North America and the Pacific Islands, she had also banded birds on the island of
Saipan and in Yosemite National Park. She seemed to fit perfectly for the next positon we wanted to hire, a Research
Coordinator. I approached her with an opportunity to become a volunteer in our Black Tern research in marshes in Lake
St. Clair in and around Harsens Island. The volunteer who spend days and weeks each summer banding and doing the
lion-share of the research told us that he could no longer volunteer in the program after the 2016 season and had
limited time to put in that season. Erin rescued the program agreeing to put in 2-3 days every other week through the
summer, 12-14 hour days, doing the Black Tern research, learning how to operate a boat, and band terns (her
experience had been primarily with songbirds) but she pushed ahead, learned the nuances of tern banding and research
and did us proud. Meanwhile Terra organized an educational/fund-raising cruise to see the terns with some incredible
food and mocktails that she created (A Lake St. Clair Spritzer, I believe is what she offered). Sara contributed some
delicious east Indian food that she made for vegetarians, but everybody ate it and loved it!!! Terra and Erin also put on
two education programs on terns at local libraries.

Terra had taken on some of the necessary office work, especially when we lost our bookkeeper. It was
becoming too much. I approached our Executive Committee and then our board, to dip a little deeper into our reserves
to hire a part-time Research Coordinator/Office Administrator When I looked at Erins resum again, I found that she
had been an assistant office administrator for another non-profit. We didnt even advertise this position, we hired Erin
as quickly as we could. She started October 5. So now we have two part-time employees, as well as an accounting firm
straightening up our books so we can be ready to hire our own bookkeeper again, and we have a fund development
consultant too. The first goal will be to solicit funds to solidify our staffing baseto make both Erin and Terra full-time,
which those positions really require, and to hire a full-time coordinator for our third mission areapolicy and advocacy.
With the coming assaults that on environmental protection policies that seem to be on the near horizon, we need that
positon more than ever right now.
I have also been leading 2/3 of our almost 30 field trips per year (we need to work on expanding our volunteer
base too), writing articles, prospecting for new board members. From a low of 11 board members, we are now up to 19
board members and finally we have a racially diverse board as well. We have committees that are starting do some
incredible work including Conservation which a new board member chairs. They are not only speaking out about loss of
habitat due to mowing native grasslands locally, but also are creating native grasslands in vacant lots in partnership with
neighborhood groups, including training some of the kids to lead their own bird walks!!!
In April of 2016 we co-sponsored a showing of the film The Messenger, as part of the Detroit Free Press annual
documentary film festival. I highly recommend it!!! I convinced to let us participate in the panel discussion afterwards
with the film=maker. In fact, I convinced them to let me and our Safe Passage Committee Chair, Rob Duchene, both be
on that panel.
Last year with all the hubbub of moving to a new office and having professional staff for the first time, we just
did not have time to plan our usual annual conservation conference. We made up for that when we held our 2016
conference with the theme, Detroit: Exploring Its Wild Side, on Nov. 5 at the Belle Isle Nature Zoo. Dr. Guy Williams,
CEO of Detroiters Working for Environmental Justice, was our keynote speaker; there were panels on greening Detroits
undeveloped land, managing native grasslands, speakers on the return of the Peregrine Falcon and Bald Eagle, and also
students from Lindemann Elementary School in Allen Park told us about their sky art project depicting a Kirtlands
Warbler that could only be seen from the air! They told us all about what they learned about this endangered species
that is close to going off the endangered list, then presented me with a ceramic plaque of the Kirtlands they had made
for our office. Very cool!
We were to have an awards dinner that night but we postponed it until Feb. 12 because of low registrations--too much for one day we think and too expensive. We will do it at my church, Central United Methodist which cost
much less than the high-end restaurant we were going to use. Our overhead cost went down by more than half!
Looking forward to it as out top award winners are Dr. Mona Hannah Attisha, the Flint doctor who exposed the lead
poisoning of Flints water supply and its effect on children. We will also honor Dr. Mark Edwards, the U of Virginia
professor who has demonstrated the link of the lead problem in children to the water supply. Other awardees include
Rashida Tlaib, former state respresentative who now works for the Sugar Law Center in our same office building (Cass
Commons). She helped organize protests against PetCoke piles along the Detroit River and is always on guard to make
sure that her former district, which is the most polluted in the state, does not suffer more abuse. The Greening of
Detroit is our organizational conservationist of the year, and Wild Birds Unlimited Grosse Pointe our Conservation
Business of the Year! Come to this exciting eventtickets are only $40 (see www.detroitaudubon.org)-- you wont
want to miss it.
We are also starting up our monthly programs again, this time at the Belle Isle Nature Zoo on the first Thursday
of the monththis Thursday Erin Rowan will present her program on the Birds of Saipan, then on February 2 my friend
Bruce Szczechowki will present his program on the Birds and Ecology of East Africa. Both start at 7 p.m. Please join us if
you can!!!

Of course, that is my unpaid full-time job, my other jobs are two part-time teaching positions at Macomb and
Wayne County Community Colleges. I have taught 3-4 courses in each of their three terms (winter-spring, summer, and
fall), mostly introductory Biology and sometimes Environmental Science as well. Keeping up with grading with my
expanded duties at Detroit Audubon has been more than a notion.
I also again participated for one day in the annual Kirtlands Warbler Census. As Ive told you before, I am told I
am the longest serving volunteer on that census. Id like to go up for the whole week in June, but with my work load, I
was only able to manage one morning Still good to be involved. I also continued to represent myself and Detroit
Audubon on the Kirtlands Warbler Alliance Board whose mission is to promote funding and awareness of the Kirtlands
so that habitat management and cowbird control (this bird is a nest parasite that almost drove the Kirtlands too
extinction) continue once the species is down-listed to Threatened from Endangered in the near future.
It was strange this spring not be part of the Chancel Choir which I have been singing with for about 12 years
now. I had classes on Wednesday evenings so could not make rehearsals and for our two interim choir directors that
was a deal-breaker. Since September I have been back in the Chancel Choir and enjoying our easy-going, but very
musically adept new organist and choir director Daniel Dillingham. No evening classes so I can still rehearse with the
choir. I think hed let me stay even if I couldnt make Wednesday nights. We are in a rebuilding phase, so if you love to
sing, and are in the Detroit area, wed love to have you.
I continued my work with Centrals Green Team but have not had as much time to devote to it with my busier
schedule. Last fall Michigan Interfaith Power and Light (MI-IPL) gave me one of its Outstanding Earth Stewards Awards,
a trophy with a globe that spins around by solar power! How cool is that? MI-IPL is an interfaith organization of likeminded folks, churches, synagogues, mosques, colleges, and other religious institutions that have banded together to
purchase alternative energy, buy energy saving appliances etc. I was on the founding boardbut could not continue to
make the daytime meetings which were held in Lansing at the time. Great organization!!!
With so much on my plate I gave up my volunteer job as editor or our church newsletter. I enjoyed editing it for
about 6 years, but I just no longer have the time, so passed the baton to a new editor. (Glad they found one).
Musically, I have not been to many concerts this year but four events stand out: Went with my brother again to
see the Detroit Symphony Orchestras concert and fireworks to celebrate July 4th at Greenfield Village. Then it was
Holler Fest in August which also is the one sure time I get to spend with good friends Tracy and Matt from Kalamazoo
(Tracy and I were housemates and classmates in grad school at U of M). What an incredible lineup they have every year
and the vegetarian food is to die for!!! We camp there the whole weekend and have the greatest time. With three
stages, it can be difficult to decide where to go at any given hour of the day or night.
In September I went to the Michigan Dance Heritage Fall Weekend. The music was just incredible as usual, this
time from a French-Canadian band. I hadnt been dancing in a while and found at the first break my knee was hurting. I
tried one more dance but the knee just couldnt do it. There really Is not much place for observing if you are not
dancing, and I couldnt bear the thought of just watching for the rest of the weekend, so I left after breakfast the next
morning (Saturday) and had to give up leading the nature hike on Sunday which I usually do I did lead the owl prowl on
Friday, but nobody showed uprain might have had something to do with it. Have not had time or money to have that
knee checked out yet. I did go to a New Years dance and it didnt hurt but felt very stiff. It seems to be the muscles
above the knee not the joint itself that is the problem. This getting older is not for the meek.(By the way it rained so
hard on the way home I had to get off the freeway in Auburn Hills right near Great Lakes Crossing. Took the opportunity
to visit the aquarium, which was a nice experience. Certainly different to visit a for-profit museum in a mall, but the
exhibits were pretty well done, and I liked the push for folks to become environmental stewards with specific actions
suggested.
And December 17 I again coordinated Merry TubaChristmas-Detroit. Despite the dire weather predictions (it
really was not so bad) we had 35 tubas and about 90 audience members, both down from the past but still respectable
considering. We also finally got Dennis Nulty, the principal tubist for the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, to join us. He

conducted one piece and then played a duet with his protg on Frosty the Snowman. Daniel Dillingham, our new
organist, played an extended introduction to Hark the Herald Angels Sing and then played our huge 70-rank organ to
accompanying the tubas on the rest of piece! He also conducted What Child is This. I sang both Good King
Wenceslas and Santa Wants a Tuba for Christmas after which Santa arrives and we give him a tuba!!! I now have all
the verses to Good King Wenceslas memorized. That song makes no sense if you dont sing all the verses. We sing it
right before the offering for our homeless program at Central. We already have a flyer up about our 2017 concert which
will be Saturday December 16, 2017 at noon, so you call have plenty of notice to make plans to be there!!!! (Next year
will be our fourth year with local conductor, Markita Moore, a trumpet player who know owns and plays a tubashe
participated in 5 Tuba Christmases this year!! Ours was the sixth!
I am not going to get into the political scene very much this time other than to say the situation seems very scary
to me, a very dark time that seems to be drawing out the worst in many of us, not the best. I will do what I can to resist
but there is just so much to resist that it is hard to know where to start. I think maybe one of the best quotes I know for
facing this time is from John Wesley, the founder of Methodism admonishing his flock to:
Do all the good you can
By all the means you can
In all the places you can
At all the times you can
To all the people* you can
As long as ever you can.
-----John Wesley
In what for many seems a dark time, we must be lights in that darkness, standing with those who are being
pushed to the side or worse. I believe it was Confucius who once said, It is better to light one candle than to curse the
darkness, and St. Johns near the beginning of his gospel wrote: In the Word was life, and that life was the light of
humanity, a light that shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. You and I must be the lights
nowthe more lights the less darkness, and we must give energy for that light to each other.
May the new year bring you peace, and joy, strength to resist when necessary, and a light to hold and care for,
to make sure it never goes out. May we all share and spread that light until we emerge from night into the dawning of a
new day, however long it may take to get there. With Gods help (if you believe in God) and with each other we can
make it be so.
Happy New Year!

Jim
*Id include not just people but all of creation!
P.S. My Christmoose/Epiphany Party will be Saturday Jan. 14 form 5 p.m. on. Sorry for the late notice. See flyer
attached or on Facebook. I was going to have the party this weekend, but with Macomb classes starting Monday, I had
too much to do to get ready for that. Hope you can come!
P.P.S. As Mark Twain, Ben Franklin, and Pascal are reported to have written: If I had more time, Id have written you a
shorter letter.