12/16/2020
For the first time in 50 years, local chapters of birders will not complete the Christmas bird count.
The worldwide effort by the National Audubon Society feeds one of the longest-running citizen science datasets, serving as the foundation for vital climate change research. Inverness resident George Curth, who compiles the data from the Point Reyes count, decided to cancel the event in response to the recent stay-at-home order.
“How could we move forward with a citizen science project pretending that all the science flowing to us from over the web was nonsense? We did a risk analysis and decided it would be better to cancel it, looking forward to next year when everyone will be safe.”