Chapter History

Four Starlings seen in Tempe and 1 at McDonalds.

Echo Park Dam bill to go before House.

These two entries are from the June 1954 Roadrunner, precursor to the Cactus Wrendition. Maricopa Audubon Society was a year old.

There were two sightings of an individual Great-tailed Crackle at Ramsey-Hazlett Pond. June 1955.

Things have changed, and stayed the same. We are still a chapter interested foremost in birdwatching, education and conservation. Thanks to Jack Wetmore for archiving the early newsletters and to Bob Witzeman for compiling, scanning, categorizing and augmenting with news clippings, this important and fascinating chapter history is now available on our website. Hardcopies are also available.

By the way, McDonalds refers to McDonalds River Ranch, 43rd Ave. and Buckeye.

The 1958 Christmas Bird Count tallied 900 Starlings in Maricopa County, a veritable invasion from the 4 seen 5 years earlier. Echo Park was a controversial dam site on the Colorado River in what is now Dinosaur National Monument, Colorado. Strident opposition to this ill sited dam eventually convinced the Bureau of Reclamation to abandon the project. The BoR went on to construct another highly controversial dam on the Colorado River, Glen Canyon.

It is quaint to read about Broad-winged Rodent hawk, White-headed Fishing hawk, Short-winged Bird hawk, Duck hawk, Sparrow hawk, Pigeon hawk, Marsh hawk and Common Gallinule. Can you identify these species? Well, that last one has come full circle. More sobering was all the news items, letters to the editors and articles delineating the unceasing march of development and our courageous. altruistic and indefatigable MAS members' relentless struggles to oppose the most egregious of them including Orme and Cliff Dams, the Mt. Graham telescopes, the flooding of Willow Flycatcher habitat and the nascent fight against the Resolution Copper Mine.

If you find items of particular interest, contact us and we'll post them on this page.