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New Grant for Operation RubyThroat
- To: carolinabirds@duke.edu (CAROLINA BIRDS)
- Subject: New Grant for Operation RubyThroat
- From: BILL HILTON JR Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History<hilton@hiltonpond.org>
- Date: Thu, 21 Mar 2002 14:28:07 -0500
- Sender: carolinabirds-owner@acpub.duke.edu
21 March 2002
"OPERATION RUBYTHROAT: THE HUMMINGBIRD PROJECT" RECEIVES MATCHING
$35,000 GRANT FROM PHILLIPS PETROLEUM & NATIONAL FISH AND WILDLIFE
FOUNDATION
For immediate release
Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History in York, South
Carolina, has received a matching grant in support of "Operation
RubyThroat: The Hummingbird Project." The $35,000 joint
award--$17,500 each from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation
(NFWF) and Phillips Petroleum Company--will enable the Center to help
public and private school educators incorporate Operation RubyThroat
activities into their standards-based teaching curriculum.
Operation RubyThroat is a cross-disciplinary initiative that uses the
Ruby-throated Hummingbird as a tool to excite young people about
learning in the sciences, mathematics, humanities, and other subject
areas. Through the project, K-12 students establish hummingbird
observation areas, collect data about hummingbird behavior, and share
their findings with peers in the U.S. and Canada. During Operation
RubyThroat's Year One (2001-2002) start-up, the Center is especially
targeting teachers and schools in the Carolinas and New York and
making site visits for special hummingbird presentations.
NFWF and Phillips Petroleum jointly award matching funds in support
of conservation projects worldwide, including the "Phillips Flyway."
Their collaborative grant brings the total funding for Operation
RubyThroat's Year One (2001-2002) to $78,000.
Operation RubyThroat was created by Bill Hilton Jr., a hummingbird
researcher who in 1982 also founded Hilton Pond Center
(http://www.hiltonpond.org). He has studied Ruby-throated
Hummingbirds for nearly 20 years and is one of a small group of
scientists permitted by federal and state governments to capture and
band wild hummingbirds.
"We have many goals for Operation RubyThroat," Hilton said, "not the
least of which is to open the eyes of students to the wonders of
nature in their own backyards. Everybody loves hummingbirds, so we
can use them as a 'hook' to stimulate learning in virtually any
discipline, especially science. Through the project, students also
will become more aware of environmental factors that affect
hummingbirds and this, in turn, will lead them to establish or
protect habitats needed by hummingbirds, other wildlife, and even
humans themselves."
Hilton said that in Year Two (2002-2003) the project will expand to
include all 38 states in which Ruby-throated Hummingbirds occur
during migration or the breeding season. Then, in Year Three the
project goes international by involving schools in Canada (where
ruby-throats also breed) and Mexico and the seven countries of
Central America (where these hummingbirds spend their non-breeding
winter months).
Operation RubyThroat was first unveiled in 1999 as centerpiece of its
own Web site at (http://www.rubythroat.org). The photo-rich site is a
compendium of information about hummingbirds, including
teaching/learning activities, hummingbird facts, and hints on
feeding, planting for, and attracting hummingbirds. The Web site has
won several wards and has been recognized for content excellence by
USAToday, The Washington Times, Academic Press, and Eisenhower
National Clearinghouse for Math and Science Education.
Operation RubyThroat is affiliated with The GLOBE program, a U.S.
initiative sponsored by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA), National Science Foundation (NSF), National
Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA). GLOBE (http://www.globe.gov) provides a
Web-based mechanism for receiving student-collected data about
atmosphere/climate, hydrology, soils, and other natural phenomena.
Operation RubyThroat's Special Measurement protocols align with those
of GLOBE, and allow students in GLOBE schools to observe and report
several categories of data on Ruby-throated Hummingbird ecology,
behavior, and migration. They'll also be on the lookout for
color-marked hummingbirds and with unusual plumages (albinos, etc.),
and watch in the central and eastern U.S. for vagrant winter
hummingbirds species from the western U.S. and Mexico.
The joint grant from NFWF and Phillips Petroleum provides a partial
match to funds already received from The Christensen Fund, Foundation
for the Carolinas Impact Fund, Perky-Pet Corporation, and individual
and small business donors across the U.S. For more details about the
new grants and other support for Operation RubyThroat, visit
http://www.hiltonpond.org/GrantAwards01.html .
#####
--
BILL HILTON JR., "The Piedmont Naturalist"
Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History
1432 DeVinney Road, York, South Carolina 29745 USA
hilton@hiltonpond.org, (803) 684-5852, eFax: (503) 218-0845
Please visit our web sites (courtesy of Comporium.net) at
http://www.hiltonpond.org and
http://www.rubythroat.org
"Never trust a person too lazy to get up for sunrise or too busy to
watch the sunset." BHjr.