[mou] festival money to go to minnesota bird restoration project

[Jim Williams]

2003 Midwest Birding Symposium Set to Attract Flock of Birdwatchers to Gree=
n
Bay

Best-selling author Kenn Kaufman and TV personalities Don and Lillian Stoke=
s
Will Headline the Featured Speakers, September 11-14

Acclaimed wildlife photographers Joe and Mary Ann McDonald, hummingbird
expert Sheri Williamson, John =ECthe Nature Nut=EE Acorn, best-selling author
and Birder=EDs World contributing editor Kenn Kaufman, and TV personalities
Don and Lillian Stokes will be keynote speakers at this fall=EDs Midwest
Birding Symposium.=20

The festival will take place September 11-14, 2003, at the Regency Suites
Hotel and KI Convention Center in Green Bay. The biennial Symposium was las=
t
held at the same site in 2001.

This year's Symposium will support the efforts of the Nature Conservancy of
Minnesota and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources to reintroduce
the critically endangered Greater Prairie-Chicken to the southwestern regio=
n
of the state. With your help -- and thanks to generosity of both the
Minnesota Prairie-Chicken Society, which will match our contributions up to
$10,000, and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, which will match th=
e
combined contributions -- we hope to raise more than $50,000 for this icon
of the North American grasslands.

Interested? Then don't miss this special presentation:

W. Dan Svedarsky, a recipient of the prestigious Minnesota Award of the
Minnesota Chapter of the Wildlife Society, will give a presentation on
prairie-chicken conservation on Saturday, September 13, in the Auditorium.
=20
Guides will lead birdwatchers on 17 field trips to local birding hotspots
during the Symposium. Attendees will also be offered a full plate of
bird-watching and nature-related presentations and workshops. The array of
topics covered will be wide: bird identification and natural history,
backyard birding, raptors, digiscoping, photography, and the environment.
The Symposium will also gather together birding product manufacturers and
retailers and service providers, enabling attendees to shop and obtain
information in a fun, convenient setting.

Details about the featured speakers:

Joe and Mary Ann McDonald are field correspondents for Nature's Best
magazine whose photos appear regularly in Birder=EDs World and other
magazines, as well as in calendars and other publications.

Sheri Williamson is a director of the Southeastern Arizona Bird Observatory
and the author of the highly praised A Field Guide to Hummingbirds of North
America, the most recent addition to the Peterson Field Guide series.
John Acorn is the host of the television series Acorn, the Nature Nut, a
family-oriented, how-to-be-a-naturalist show that airs on cable on Animal
Planet.=20

Kenn Kaufman is the well-known author of such books as the Peterson Field
Guide to Advanced Birding; Lives of North American Birds; Kingbird Highway;
and the Kaufman Focus Guides Birds of North America and Butterflies of Nort=
h
America.=20

Donald and Lillian Stokes, two of the country=EDs most productive and popular
birding authors and TV personalities, were the creators and hosts of the
very first bird-watching series on public television, BirdWatch with Don an=
d
Lillian Stokes.

Details about the 2003 Midwest Birding Symposium, more information about th=
e
speakers and field trips, a complete day-by-day schedule of events, and
registration forms can be found on the Birder=EDs World website
(www.birdersworld.com). Just look for the Red-headed Woodpecker logo.

You can also get information and make reservations by contacting Kalmbach
Publishing Co.:=20
Web: www.birdersworld.com
Toll-free: (800) 533-6644
Fax: (262) 796-1615
E-mail: customerservice@kalmbach.com
Mail: MBS 2003, c/o Kalmbach Publishing Co., PO Box 1612, Waukesha, WI
53187-1612