Docents for Malibu Creek State Park pick up the torch for the Cavity Conservation Initiative

Every wildlife conservation program, like the Cavity Conservation Initiative, dreams of naturalists like Peggy Burhenn to incorporate its mission in their home territory.   Last fall at Eaton Canyon Nature Center in Pasadena, CA, Peggy attended a presentation given by Gillian Martin about the value of dead trees to habitats. Peggy immediately knew that this was a concept she wished to promote at Malibu Creek State Park where she works.

With help from a new, mailable teaching kit funded by Fund for Wild Nature and Pasadena Audubon, Peggy created a program for 30 docents with whom she works.  She wrote to say “It was a great success!”

Here is a photo taken at the event.  The slide on the screen shows how kids can earn our Mr. Edison Wildlife Tree Warden embroidered patch which was made possible by the Edison Company.   In case you’re wondering, Mr. Edison is the program’s popular woodpecker mascot.  His identity was inspired by the critical role woodpeckers play in creating nesting cavities in dead trees which other small cavity-nesting birds later inherit.

We applaud Peggy for her environmental education efforts and proudly count her and her docents among our dead tree advocates!  We look forward to more reports about the outcome of their efforts.