“Great Birding on a Great Lake” is the 2020 WSO Convention theme, and the convention planning committee is planning an active and educational conference in Two Rivers.
“We’re going to offer a few new options for next year’s convention and take advantage of the fact that we’re on Lake Michigan,” said Nancy Nabak, convention chair. Field trips, the hallmark of a WSO convention, will be offered at skill levels from beginning to advanced, with early and late start time options, and may include kayaking (West Twin River) and biking options.
“We know birders want to be out there in mid-May, so we’re hoping to offer a variety of choices for them, depending on their adventure and comfort level,” Nabak said.
The community of Two Rivers is happy and honored to be hosting this important bird-focused event. Jason Ring, executive director of the Manitowoc Area Visitor and Convention Bureau, and Roger Russove, executive director of the Two Rivers Main Street program, are both members of the planning committee. They’re working to ensure that attendees get a rich flavor of what the community has to offer while birding there.
The 2020 convention will be held Thursday to Sunday May 14-17. Among the other convention partners are the Woodland Dunes Nature Center and the Lighthouse Inn and Conference Center on the shore of Lake Michigan.
The convention committee announced last month that the keynote speaker for the convention banquet will be Dr. Ben Zuckerberg, associate professor in the Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Zuckerberg, whose UW lab has found overwhelming evidence that wildlife populations are responding to climate change, will discuss what future actions are suggested by data gathered from breeding bird atlas work.
Two Rivers has three stops on the Lake Michigan segment of the Great Wisconsin Birding and Nature Trail: Woodland Dunes, Point Beach State Forest, and Two Rivers Harbor and Neshotah Park.
Woodland Dunes, designated an Important Bird Area by the Wisconsin Bird Conservation Initiative, contains more than 1,500 acres of hardwood and conifer forests, wetlands and prairies located between Two Rivers and Manitowoc. It features seven miles of hiking trails, and its 14 ridges and swales are home to or important stopover habitat for neo-tropical songbirds, Monarch butterflies, bats, amphibians, mammals and more than 400 plant species.
--This is one of several timely articles in this month's Badger Birder newsletter; don't miss out on the latest birding and conservation news. Become a WSO member today! https://wsobirds.org/support/become-a-member--
