CEHV Associate Director Kate McFarland was an invited panelist at the 2021 Council of Ohio Audubon Chapters (COAC) fall gathering, an annual event for active members of Audubon Society chapters within the state. 

McFarland, who serves on the board of Columbus Audubon, joined three other board members for a panel on the topic of how to recruit board members from younger generations. Drawing from her own experiences, McFarland emphasized the need to create contexts in which young people are exposed to birds and nature and thereby have the opportunity to learn to value them. She stressed the importance, for example, of small-scale habitat restoration projects on campuses or other locations frequented by young people who might otherwise have had little exposure to wild birds and their natural habitats. She explained that she herself was inspired to volunteer for local bird conservation efforts in part due to the appreciation of Ohio's avifauna that she developed while biking past the university's Olentangy River Wetland Research Park (on her way to her job as the CEHV Associate Director).

McFarland also writes on conservation-related topics for Columbus Audubon's Song Sparrow newsletter. Some of her articles are also available online here.

Cover photo: Great Egret (a.k.a. the Audubon Society logo bird), credit: Kate McFarland.