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 Sunday, March 24th 2013 1-4 pm Black-backed Woodpecker Meet, OCW, Rapid city.
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PHAS MARCH MEETING:

BLACK-BACKED WOODPECKER
Sunday, March 24th, from 1-4 pm

at - SDGFP's Outdoor Campus West (OCW),
4130 Adventure Trail, (off of Sturgis Road),
Rapid City

        Prairie Hills Audubon Society is sponsoring a meeting in Rapid City on the Black-backed Woodpecker in the Black Hills & also about the petition to list it under the Endangered Species Act.
    Doors of SD Game Fish and Park's Outdoor Campus West open at 1:00 pm so please allow 15 minutes for folks to arrive, socialize and seat themselves before meeting starts. Meeting is open to the public.  A pre-meeting brunch and/or post-meeting dinner may be planned.  Contact Nancy for more information on eating together (787-6779).

PETITION TO LIST BHs Black-backed Woodpecker as T & E  
        In May 2012 four groups petitioned the US Fish and Wildlife Service to list the Black Hills and the Oregon-Cascades/California populations of the Black-backed Woodpecker as a Threatened or Endangered (T & E)  species under the Endangered Species Act.  Petitioners contend the small, isolated Oregon-Cascades/California and Black Hills populations have been recognized in the scientific literature as genetically distinct from the large, contiguous, northern boreal population and in both cases this genetic distinction is sufficiently large that it is consistent with distinction at the level of subspecies; however if not yet assigned subspecies status, the Woodpecker could qualify as a Distinct Population Segment. Due to the small size of the two populations and the threats, petitioners believe listing is warranted.

 Presenters
Woodpecker Researchers:
         Dr. Mark Rumble is a research wildlife biologist of the Forest Service's Rocky Mountain Research Station and he will be speaking on recent research in the Black Hills on the Black Backed Woodpecker.
  Chris Rota is a Ph.D student at the University of Missouri and he will be speaking on recent research in the Black Hills on the Black Backed Woodpecker.

Petitioners for Woodpecker
      Staff of two of the 4 groups that petitioned the USFWS to list the Black Hills and Oregon Cascades/California populations of Black-backed Woodpeckers are attending.
    Dr. Chad Hanson is the Director of the John Muir Project of Earth Island Institute in California.  Chad is an ecologist and Juris Doctorate who has published numerous scientific studies on forest and fire ecology in western U.S. conifer forests. He is  a research associate at U.C. Davis..
      Dr. Hanson will be speaking about the petition, about the woodpecker, its habitat, and the threats to species. 
Duane Short is staff of Biodiversity Conservation Alliance of Laramie Wyoming.  Duane is a zoologist with particular interests in animal behavior and evolutionary biology.  Short will address/discuss beetle-kill and wildfire as these topics relate forest ecology and the Black-backed Woodpecker.
      
Partially Audio-visual relay
    Mark and Duane will be in Rapid City in person at OCW and Chad and Chris will attend via electronic audio-visual  media.
        Many folks are concerned about fire, insects and/or disease as effects our forests -  so come and  learn about some of the positive benefits to environment from such disturbance events.

 LINKS
The Petition to list the Black-backed Woodpecker can be downloaded at:

http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/species/birds/black-backed_woodpecker/pdfs/BBWO_FESA_Petition.pdf

    For More Information on the petition:
www.biologicaldiversity.org/species/birds/black-backed_woodpecker/index.html

       Other writing of Chad on Black backed Woodpecker
http://www.johnmuirproject.org/pdf/BBWOConservationHanson.pdf
 
        Watch Chad on U-tube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltlGkDIXu6E


  One of Mark Rumble's research papers on the Woodpecker can be downloaded here.
http://www.fs.fed.us/rm/pubs_other/rmrs_2008_bonnot_t001.pdf

        And other research  by Mark downloaded here:
http://www.fs.fed.us/rmrs/profiles/?last=Rumble&first=Mark


======================================================================== Monday, March 25th 2013 NPCN's Biannual Meeting, OCW, Rapid city.
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The Northern Plains Conservation Network  (NPCN) meeting is all day meeting & will be held at the Outdoor Campus of South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks.  What is NPCN? NPCN is a network of more than 25 organizations working together to conserve the wildlife and habitat of the northern plains.   Prairie Hills Audubon Society is a long term  participant in NPCN.  Come and meet lots of staff/volunteers from many conservation organizations who have traveled from 5 states and 2 provinces for this meeting. 
visit
 http://www.npcn.net/,
http://www.npcn.net/index.php/pages/vision,
http://www.npcn.net/index.php/pages/about,

For more information contact: NPCN Coordinator Dawn Montanye at dawn.montanye@gmail.com or visit http://www.npcn.net/, You may also contact Nancy Hilding (787-6779), locally for info.


============================================================================Tuesday-Thursday, March 26-28, 2013 NAFWS Great Plains Regional Conference,  Rapid City
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 Tuesday-Thursday, March 26-28, 2013 Native American Fish and Wildlife Society Great Plains Regional Conference, Ramkota Hotel & Convention Center, Rapid City, SD. The conference registration fee is $95 which includes  Wednesday banquet and  Tuesday luncheon. I have been advised that for partial attendance at the event, the fee can be pro-rated. Agenda and registration sheet are on line. For more  information http://www.nafws.org/events/regional-events.html,  or
rskates391@hotmail.com or swilliam@nafws.org