Close to 80 members of the Harvard Woman’s Club and the Garden Club of Harvard convened at a joint meeting Monday, March 5, to hear Wayne Petersen, director of important bird areas for Mass Audubon, talk about the local bird population. After an impressive potluck buffet lunch in the parish hall of St. Theresa’s, Petersen introduced the four main programs supported by Mass Audubon: the Coastal Water Bird Program; the Breeding Bird Atlas; the Birds to Watch Program; and the Important Birds Area (IBA) program.

The IBA concept was developed in 1985 by BirdLife International as a model for bird conservation. By 2000, 3,400 IBA sites were identified in Europe. Mass Audubon launched the initiative for Massachusetts in 2001.

An IBA is a site that provides essential habitat to one or more species of breeding, wintering, and/or migrating birds. The goals of the program are to identify key sites that contribute to the preservation of significant bird populations or communities; to provide information that will help land managers evaluate areas for habitat management and/or land acquisition; to activate public and private participation in bird conservation efforts; and to provide public education and community outreach opportunities.

Some of the IBA areas mentioned were our own Oxbow National Wildlife Refuge, the Assabet National Wildlife Refuge, Mt. Auburn Cemetery, Mt. Greylock, the Quabbin Reservoir, Monomoy, Cape Cod, and the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge. Seventy-nine IBAs were approved in Massachusetts as a result of planning and research by Mass Audubon and a volunteer technical committee.

Habitat degradation is probably the biggest threat to birds here and in South and Central America, where many birds spend the winter, Petersen said. As an example, he pointed to the role of coffee in habitat degradation. Coffee is second only to oil in terms of value as a commodity. Given that value, tropical forests are being cleared to provide area for sun-grown coffee plantations. This completely eliminates the upper story and mid-story canopy many birds rely on. He noted that shade-grown, fair-trade, organic coffee tastes better, is readily available, and is one easy way of helping support the habitat that so many of our northern birds rely on in their migration to warmer climes during the winter.

Currently the IBA program is working to develop strategies to help insure that critical habitats are protected through ecological management practices, and advocating for land protection, according to Petersen.

More information on IBAs can be found on the Mass Audubon website at www.massaudubon.org.