IAE receives Award from the Wildlife Society

by Tom Kaye — last modified Feb 28, 2013

The Oregon Chapter of the Wildlife Society recognizes IAE for contributions to habitat conservation at their 2013 meeting

Each year the Oregon Chapter of the Wildlife Society presents a Conservation Award to recognize individuals, city or county agencies, corporations, or conservation organizations for demonstrating ongoing, positive wildlife conservation or advocacy efforts. This year the group gave this award to the Institute for Applied Ecology for major contributions towards recovery of Fender’s Blue butterfly and habitat enhancements that benefit many rare Willamette Valley species, including Western Meadowlark, Streaked Horned Lark, and Taylor’s checkerspot butterfly.

The award was presented by Mindy Trask, a chapter board member. Matt Blakeley-Smith accepted the award for IAE in place of Executive Director Tom Kaye, who was kept from coming by the flu. Matt read this statement from Tom Kaye:

“It is a wonderful honor to be given this award for our work toward habitat conservation in Oregon. Conservation of native species and habitats is our mission, and we take it seriously. We sometimes hear that restoring rare species and landscapes is too hard, too costly, and too prone to failure. At IAE, we disagree with that.

“By combining restoration with research and education, we’re finding restoration techniques that work. Species can come back, populations will grow, habitats heal. It can take significant effort, but we’re seeing Fender’s Blue butterfly use the habitats we’ve restored and Western Meadowlarks nest in former agricultural fields seeded to native vegetation.

“Of course, if the projects we conduct are a success, it is due to many partnerships with other agencies and organizations, such as the US Fish and Wildlife Service, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board, Natural Resource Conservation Service, Bureau of Land Management, The Nature Conservancy, Watershed Councils, and many others.

“On behalf of IAE’s staff and board, thank you for recognizing our work.“

The award was presented with a plaque inscribed with:

For major contributions towards the recovery of Fender’s blue butterfly and habitat enhancements that benefit many rare Willamette Valley species, including western meadowlark, horned lark, and Taylor’s checkerspot butterfly.

IAE thanks the Oregon Chapter of the Wildlife Society for their support and good will toward our organization and the conservation projects we conduct. Thank you!