| The President’s Hoot by Richard H. Baker, Ph.D. January 2009 |
Let’s reflect together on our friendship and membership in our Audubon chapter, whose mission is…. To preserve and protect the animals, plants, and natural communities in Indian River County through advocacy, education, and public awareness.
Take a moment to acknowledge that we are all interconnected, to not only each other, but to our larger community, the people who serve us in many capacities, and our government…the local commission, public officials who look after our welfare and arrange to provide us with our basic needs of water, power, safety, and rights. We appreciate everyone’s efforts to work in community, helping each other. We thank you for all your contributions and support for Audubon throughout the year.
We readily see how we are also connected to the plants around us, the animals in our forests…the alligators, the raccoons, the rabbits, the bobcats, the magnificent birds that are abundant here…the bald eagles, the osprey, the blue jays and cardinals, the great egrets, the snowy and cattle egrets, the great blue and the night herons. What we do daily, impacts these animals and habitats and every other human in our community as well as around the world…what we do to this water, our lands, our trees makes a difference to us and to all living creatures.
We have learned and may we continue to learn and share with others how we can make less impact…conserve more energy, reuse and generate natural processes without harming life around.
All of us need to participate. I guess my resolution for the next year is to find one more new person to get involved in making a difference, and hope that you each might find one too…that would be a revolution! There are so many issues out there some we do not even know about. We need advocates for preserving our water, green spaces, protecting our agriculture and food supply, becoming more energy efficient.
May you all enjoy this season and to be living in this country where democracy decides change of power, where we have amazing resources to achieve great things. I look forward to working with you in 2009 and wish you the best in the new year.