Article published January
14, 2005
By Tobias Young, Press
Democrat
The Point Reyes Bird Observatory is moving to Petaluma.
The organization, which now calls itself PRBO Conservation Science, has evolved during its 40-year history into an organization with a staff of 125, an annual budget of $6 million and a paid membership of 4,000.
PRBO is buying land for a $5.3 million headquarters that may open next to Shollenberger Park late this year.
"We're very thrilled to be moving to Sonoma County," executive director Ellie Cohen said.
The group's mission is to work for conservation of birds, wildlife and ecosystems, using scientific research and outreach.
The organization does most of its work throughout the western United States but conducts studies and projects as far away as Alaska and Japan.
Ted Eliot, a former ambassador to Afghanistan who lives in Sonoma, previously served nine years on the PRBO board. He called it the top independent ornithological research institution in the country, saying the organization will prove to be important for the community.
"It's a big deal," Eliot said. "It's a feather in Sonoma County's hat."
The institution had been looking at moving its headquarters to San Francisco or elsewhere in Marin County after dealing for decades with cramped cabins, isolation and unreliable Internet access at Stinson Beach.
Cohen said the staff will miss the inspiring scenery, but finding a home in Petaluma - thanks to a tip on a parcel and lobbying by the Madrone Audubon Society of Sonoma County - will provide a setting close to wetlands that are more accessible for the public, other scientists and PRBO clients.
The organization will keep its Palomarin Field Station, visitor center and other facilities, including intern housing, at Point Reyes National Seashore.
PRBO also operates field stations for studying the Farallon Islands, Mono Lake, Vandenberg Air Force Base and San Clemente Island. Those studies are in partnership with federal land-management and military agencies.
Biologists and scientists with PRBO are already working close to Petaluma.
For the past five years, biologists have led groups of students through Shollenberger Park to teach them about shore birds and migratory waterfowl that take refuge in the city-owned wetlands park.
PRBO will built its headquarters to face the park, connecting via a footbridge to a popular recreation path that circles wetlands at the park. A small visitor center will be available, Cohen said.
PRBO also is involved in the expansion of a wetlands project on San Pablo Bay that is eventually expected to reach from Hamilton Field in Marin County to the Napa River, making it second only to Florida's Everglades National Park in size, Cohen said.
The organization does 65 percent of its work for state, federal and municipal governments, as well as nonprofit groups like the Nature Conservancy, helping to create statistics on the number of birds and other wildlife in certain ecological areas.
The organization's work includes studying salmon in the Cosumnes River near Sacramento, tagging white sharks with satellite tracers and studying birds and sea life at the Farallon Islands, obtaining data on species such as herring in San Francisco Bay to help set fishing quotas, responding to oil spills to assess damage and evaluating the changes caused by climate change in the Bering Straits. Cohen said the organization has been growing at a pace of 15 percent annually because of an increased demand for measuring the success of tax dollars spent on wildlife conservation.
Carolyn Johnson, vice president of the Laguna de Santa Rosa Foundation, said she considers the PRBO a scientific organization as opposed to an environmental organization.
"The research they do is really important in helping us understand what might be going on with different bird populations, why some bird populations are declining," she said.
With its move to Petaluma, the organization is expected to expand its studies of wetlands along the Petaluma River and San Pablo Bay, Cohen said.
The organization has raised $1.2 million in an $8.3 million fund-raising campaign to pay for the new 20,000-square-foot facility, improve existing facilities and create a $2.5 million endowment to provide a permanent source of funding for maintenance and utility costs.
The organization hopes to start moving into the new facility in November, where 65 of its employees, including those in a Novato office, are planning to relocate.
On a walk through Shollenberger Park on Tuesday with one of his two his black Labradors, senior PRBO scientist Bill Sydeman named a half-dozen birds in the wetlands, ranging from black-necked stilts and pie-billed grebes.
Sydeman, who already lives in west Petaluma, said it will be a great setting for the new headquarters.
"This is fairly ideal," he said.
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