Nancy Evou-BAY COUNTY AUDUBON SOCIETY 2024 CONSERVATIONIST OF THE YEAR

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Nancy Evou was presented the Bay County Audubon Society’s 2024 Conservationist of the Year Award at our September 9th membership meeting.

Nancy is an affiliate at the NOAA Fisheries Science Center. Nancy generously shares her professional expertise with local volunteer organizations. She is the Lead Surveyor, Stranding Coordinator, and Education/Outreach Director for the Bay County Turtle Watch Program which recently recognized her for 30 years of service. As lead surveyor, she has the most experience identifying sea turtle nests. She is part of an elite team authorized to tag green and loggerhead sea turtles. She also volunteers with the Gulf World Marine Institute and Zoo World.
 

Nancy was also committed to treating injured avian coastal species.  We first became aware of her many conservation activities when she attended a BCAS sponsored Pelican Rescue Workshop in 2018. She invited BCAS to cohost another Pelican rescue workshop with Turtle Watch. This workshop was well attended and resulted in her creating a social media-based phone tree and generating an action plan for rescuing injured birds. Last year’s efforts from June 2023 to January 2024, resulted in the rescue of 29 hooked or entangled Pelicans as well as several other species.    Her outstanding accomplishments and continued commitment to caring for a wide sprectrum of coastal wildlife make Nancy an ideal recipient of our annual Conservation Award.

Norman Capra, Chairperson of the Bay County Audubon Society proudly presents the Conservationist of the Year award to Nancy Evou. 

Pam and Joan

Every donation helps!

BCAS PAST PRESIDENT PAM OVERMYER (RIGHT) PRESENTS A $500 CHECK TO JOAN PAPROCKI, OWNER OF BIRDS GONE WILD, LLC. JOAN IS ONE OF THE ONLY BIRD REHABBERS IN THE AREA. BCAS HELPS SUPPORT HER EFFORTS IN BIRD REHABILITATION WITH AN ANNUAL DONATION.

LAIDLAW PRESERVE

The Beulah A. Laidlaw Preserve is 272 acres of land in Washington County, about four miles north of Vernon and west of State Route 79. The Preserve is owned by Florida Audubon Society has a Memorandum of Agreement to manage and oversee the property. There are complications on access across private lands, so the property is only open to the public or to Audubon’s membership by appointment with one of the keyholders if the gate is locked. Ed Keppner and Neil Lamb wrote an Adaptive Management Plan for the Preserve in June 2009 and have updated the Plan periodically as part of the ongoing work at the Preserve. Dawn Barone is the Preserve Manager with assistance from Neil Lamb and numerous volunteers. We have received various grants for projects such as boardwalks, a pole barn shelter, and other amenities. The management plan is designed to promote wildlife through enhancement of the natural topography of swamp, bog, uplands, and clearings that support a rich and diverse flora and fauna. Three signature species of the Preserve, the Swainson’s warbler, flame azalea, and gopher tortoise, are present in good numbers on the property.

An Eagle Scout Project and another Boy Scout Project by Troop 562 of Santa Rosa Beach, FL provided benches for the shelter and an outstanding photography blind overlooking the central bog and beaver pond. The trails and points of interest are sign-posted and mapped for use. Management strategies include clearing old man-made trails and game trails to allow easier access while at the same time maintaining more of the edge habitat that supports the species richness of the property.

Brush piles created by the clearing are intentionally and strategically located to offer harborage and shelter to many species, especially over-wintering sparrows. Winter mowing of meadows instead of using fire maintains the open areas that are so critical to many species. Purple martin nest boxes, wood duck nest boxes, and Eastern bluebird nest boxes have been installed and are
being used.

A barn owl nest box is located in the shelter in the hope of attracting a barn owl. Trail cameras are used to augment daytime sightings and have proved most informative about the gopher tortoise activities, wild turkeys, active movements of the alligators around the property (using our cleared trails!), river otters, beaver, bobcats, Eastern woodrats, armadillos, raccoons, deer, and opossum.

AUDUBON ISLAND NESTING MATERIAL

Our chapter has a long history of involvement with this small spoil island next to Port Panama City in St. Andrew Bay. The island is the only nesting place for brown pelicans in Bay County and it is a critical nest location for the entire western Panhandle. Besides the 300+ brown pelicans, several hundred laughing gulls, great blue herons, and a few other species nest on the island. Various storms over the past few years have washed away much of the vegetation on the island, so through the initiative of Dr. John Himes of the FL FWC, some volunteers hauled boatloads of tree branches out to the island for use by the brown pelicans to build nests among the rip-rap and jumbled concrete. The pelicans grabbed the branches even as they were being unloaded.