California teenager promotes snags for wildlife

Desi shows how birds nest in cavities in dead trees

An audience of about 50 members of The Southern California Bluebird Club and the Cavity Conservation Initiative had a jaw-dropping guest speaker at their December monthly meeting.  Thirteen year-old Dessi Sieburth, member of the Pasadena Audubon Society, revealed his program to promote dead trees (called snags) for the benefit of birds and other species.   Desi’s audience is often made up of his peers or those in lower grades.  For that reason Dessi created a replica of a woodpecker cavity to illustrate just what unseen wonders can happen inside a dead tree.  “A dead tree is full of life,” he pointed out.  His slide show unfolds the full story.  It provides all that an uninformed listener would want to know about why it is important that people learn ways to safely retain more dead trees.

You may be wondering how it is that Dessi became interested in snags.  Well, when you dream of being an ornithologist, and when you have several years of  bird study under your belt, you already know that different types of habitats are critical for the survival of different species.  And, indeed!  Dead trees provide nesting habitat for about 85 species of birds, not to mention millions of insect prey.

Dessi with Dick Purvis, founder of the Southern California Bluebird Club and Gillian Martin, founder of the Cavity Conservation Initiative

One of Dessi’s many projects to help birds was to build and monitor nest boxes for Western Bluebirds.  He soon learned that though nest boxes are personally satisfying and helpful, dead trees are much more beneficial in the long term because they not only help bluebirds but many other birds and wildlife.  With the support of his devoted parents, Dessi now takes his message to elementary school classrooms, science fairs and other events.   His impressive credentials alone are sufficient to get an audience’s attention.   Among them are two awards: the American Birding Association’s 2015 Young Birder of the Year, and the International Eco Hero Award.   Speaking fees and the sale of his bird photo cards and calendars fuel his projects and bird study trips.   If you want to be further inspired by Dessi’s work, go to: