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Count Publication--LENGTHY
- To: carolinabirds@duke.edu
- Subject: Count Publication--LENGTHY
- From: SHAHIDRAD@charleston.net
- Date: Sat, 30 Dec 2000 19:35:43 -0500 (EST)
- Date-warning: Date header was inserted by SMTP00.InfoAve.Net
- Sender: carolinabirds-owner@acpub.duke.edu
Dear Carolinabirders,
I am including a letter from Audubon's Frank Gill that may shed a little
more light on the controversy surrounding the CBC publication.
Ann Shahid
Francis Beidler Forest
Harleyville, SC
December 22, 2000
Season's Greetings to all CBC Compilers and Regional Editors!
As we move full speed into the weeks of the 101st CBC field effort, despite
the weather and the holiday challenges, I want to thank each of you for your
leadership and your good feedback to the information in the compiler's
packets. Thank you for your positive and constructive comments during this
period of growth and change of the venerable Christmas Bird Count.
When I joined Audubon as Director of Science 5 years ago, I had a single
personal purpose and corresponding mandate from John Flicker, the new
President of Audubon, namely to insure a prominent place for birds and
citizen science in the Audubon agenda. The CBC program, one of our largest
and most complicated, was approaching its 100th anniversary, was the
obvious focus of my attention.
I know that many of you have questions and concerns about the changes
underway. We have met with compilers around the country to answer your
questions and hear your concerns. I have learned a lot. It would be wrong
for me to try to revisit all the past decisions, controversies, and debates.
Change isn't easy, but it is necessary. Here I try to clarify the
challenges and changes underway.
The first challenge is to understand the staggering dimensions of the CBC.
Geoff LeBaron single-handedly works directly with 1800 Compilers and 33
Regional Editors, plus thousands of individuals and hundreds of reporters
interested in the CBC. The rule of thumb in management is to restrict one's
direct reports to few than 10. Geoff manages 20 times that, without
complaint. He answers your questions, takes your advice, and hears your
concerns. This is a daunting task. On top of that Geoff manages the
mountain of data entry, compilation, and publication, with little help. You
know how hard it is to do this for one count. Geoff compiles all of them.
Thanks Geoff.
Managing the enormous, continent wide CBC enterprise also costs real money.
My summaries of the CBC budget in the last two compiler's packets have been
well received and apparently appreciated. Participants and compilers alike
should know how their contributions are being used. The controversial
participant fees/contributions have been and still are an essential,
reliable subsidy of the program. Bottom line, we rely on the contributions
to keep the CBC healthy in a standard nonprofit environment. We also raise
a lot of money to support the full costs of the CBC.
Missing from some of the recent discussion is full appreciation of the
availability on-line of the full CBC data set through BirdSource, and the
cost of doing this. We have invested a lot of money (over 2-3 million
dollars and counting) into computerizing CBC into a modern, full access
database,. This is money that we raised from individuals, corporations, and
foundations who shared our vision of the value of citizen science for
conservation. We will continue to invest more to realize the full potential
of the CBC's and of your volunteer contributions.
Most of you entered your data "On-Line and On-Time" last year. Even more
will do so this year. Your direct on-line data entry helps control our
costs, makes your count data available to all faster, and ensures accuracy.
Now, anyone can explore the electronically published CBC results from
anywhere anytime through the BirdSource website [http:www.birdsource.org].
Most heartening is the excited enthusiasm I hear almost daily from students,
birders, CBC veterans, and ornithologists alike. An industry of scientific
analysis and discovery about our early-winter bird populations is starting.
One recent example from Robin Shoal a graduate student at The Evergreen
State College in Olympia, Washington, and a life-long birder: "I'm
interested in changes in populations of wintering water birds in the Puget
Sound. Using Christmas Bird Count data from your excellent website, I've
come up with results that indicate a significant decline in Western Grebe
populations over the past 20 years. The grebes' numbers appear to be
declining throughout the Sound, but particularly in the southern region."
The chorus of excited compliments greatly overshadows the complaints about a
computer future for CBC's. For the first time the full value of the CBC
results to ornithology, to conservation, to trip planning, is available to
you and everyone else. I urge you to explore the website tools. Click on a
count or encircle several on the "Map Analyzer" tool and ask what are the
trends for your favorite species.
The CBC enterprise is growing. This poses new challenges. Good folks
start new counts each year. Also leaders of counts that have not been sent
to Audubon in the past, now are asking how to integrate their data into the
BirdSource system. We face the challenge of growth in the number of
participating CBC counts by at least 25% in just a few years. Combined with
hundreds of more counts joining the enterprise in the U.S., not to mention
anticipated growth in Latin America, the CBC database will be a central
feature of citizen science ornithology.
Then there is the issue of how best to publish the data. This issue now
challenges all institutions that can provide more information faster through
the Internet. What is the future of hardcopy publication versus electronic
publication-the web is just a new form of disseminating information. We
ourselves are wrestling with this challenge for the venerable CBC volume of
"American Birds". Based on the comments I have received these past few
years, a strong majority of birders and ornithologists question the value of
the printed volume in its current form, given the availability of these data
in more usable form on the Web.
In my view, all options are open. I lean to using limited funds including
participant contributions to maximize the scientific and conservation value
of the CBC data, and to publish cogent summaries and analyses of these
data-what we have learned from our winter citizen science efforts. Again
the weight of opinion is to move forward with a different publication. Among
other things, use of the CBC on-line definitely is draining interest in
subscriptions to the volume, which are at an all time low. We are weighing
the options and value your thoughts.
Thanks again for all you have done for science and conservation. Thanks for
helping us change for the better. And best wishes for the holidays and your
Christmas Bird Counts this winter.
Frank Gill