Stikine River Birding Festival Receives 2017 Mindful Birding Award

7 February, 2017                                

PRESS RELEASE

INFORMATION CONTACTS:

Brandon Breen                                                Marla Morrissey
​mindfulbirding@gmail.com                              marlamorrissey@gmail.com
Ashland, Oregon                                             Ashland, Oregon
612-910-6502                                                  805-801-4021

For Immediate Release:

Stikine River Birding Festival

Receives 2017 Mindful Birding Award

The United States Forest Service (Wrangell Ranger District) and Wrangell Convention and Visitor Bureau are the recipients of a 2017 Mindful Birding Award for their efforts to promote ethical birding guidelines and bird conservation through their Stikine River Birding Festival that will be held in and around Wrangell, Alaska from April 27th-30th, 2017.

Stikine River Birding Festival has demonstrated a commitment to ethical birdwatching behavior by adopting and adhering to a code of birding ethics marked by clarity, specificity, and restraint. The festival distributes its code of ethics to field trip leaders and attendees to provide guidance on how birders can achieve safe and gratifying birdwatching experiences without altering the ability of birds to behave naturally. Additionally, the event publishes its ethics online for a wide distribution.

Stikine River Birding Festival offers a variety of birdwatching field trips that will connect participants to nature through the splendor of birds. By strengthening participants’ connections to nature, and by providing guidance on ethical birding and nature conservation, the Stikine River Birding Festival is serving as a model for other birding festivals and helping attendees become even stronger messengers for and supporters of conservation for birds and people.

Mindful Birding is a charitable project of the Morrissey Family Foundation that presents ethical birding guidelines from around the world, and offers awards to birding festivals that demonstrate improved or superior ethics. The project has three goals: (1) increase awareness among birders of ethical birding guidelines, (2) increase the conservation contributions from America's birdwatchers, and (3) encourage a practice of mindfulness among birders. To learn more, view past award recipients, and browse ethical birding guidelines, visit the website: www.mindfulbirding.org