Audubon News

Newsletter of Prairie Hills Audubon Society of Western South Dakota Inc.

July/August, 2022

Prairie Hills Audubon Society’s (PHAS) assessments are an early step. There are 21 assessments on
JULY MEMBER’S ZOOM MEETING: 21 topics. BHNF set a comment deadline of August 1st, but
Black Hills National Forest (BNHF) late comments will be accepted & studied. Help PHAS
review and comment on BHNF Forest Planning - to join
Forest Plan Revision Assessments
our BHNF study group contact Nancy Hilding.
Thursday, July 28th, 6:30 pm-9 pm MT For information on BHNF Forest Plan Revision
Assessments visit our events + alerts web page –
A Zoom meeting on BHNF Forest Plan https://phas-wsd.org/event/black-hills-national-for-
Revision Assessments with Lou Conroy of the est-seeks-comments-on-forest-plan-revision-draft-
BHNF as speaker is scheduled. The Norbeck assessments-by-aug-1-2022/
Society and the Black Hills Group of the Sierra Prairie Hills Audubon Society’s (PHAS)
Club will co-sponsor the Zoom meeting with AUGUST MEMBER’S MEETING
Prairie Hills Audubon Society (PHAS). Tour Black Hills Raptor Center
We use the same Zoom codes every month at our Sunday, August 28 at 1:00 PM
monthly meetings, which are normally held within the See the birds up close and personal!
last 7 days of the month - links also posted to web-site. Black Hills Raptor Center address is: 15256
Zoom hyperlink: East Highway 44. It is 4 miles past Rapid City
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85433920233?pwd=Qmx Regional Airport, on the north side of the high-
YUDMvMGRrNW9yRmVON3VPU0dRZz09 way. Drive yourself or meet to carpool at Knecht’s
Ace Hardware parking lot at 12:30 pm MT
Meeting ID: 854 3392 0233, Passcode: 534620 (Corner of Omaha and West Boulevard). Call Jim
One tap mobile Petersen at (605) 939-4995 for more information.
+16699006833,,85433920233#,,,,*534620# Chapter members can bring guests!
US (San Jose), The Black Hills Raptor Center (BHRC) is a
+12532158782,,85433920233#,,,,*534620# five-acre nature preserve, currently involved in a
US (Tacoma) multi-million-dollar campus building program in
Telephone option - dial by your location (as far as support of their program to rescue, rehabilitate,
we know numbers all work in Western SD) but and release injured raptors.
you must enter ID & passcode to gain access For over a decade they have done thousands of
+1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose) , +1 253 environmental education presentations in the
215 8782 US (Tacoma) , +1 346 248 7799 US region using their “raptor ambassadors”, birds that
(Houston), +1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago) have disabilities that preclude them from being
Meeting ID: 854 3392 0233, Passcode: 534620 released to the wild.
Prairie Hills Audubon is proud to support the
Find your local number (international): work of BHRC in protecting these magnificent
https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kbb9dO0PBV birds. Take this opportunity to get a rare inside
look at the inner workings of this excellent organi-
The Forest Plan Revision is very important —it sets goals,
objectives, rules & maybe a sort of zoning, under which the zation, and see if you might like to get involved
forest will be run for up to 30 years. Eventually an with the collaboration between our two opera-
Environmental Impact Statement will be done, but the tions!
page 1
 Prairie Hills Audubon Society (PHAS) is a Chapter of the National Audubon Society. We are run by volunteers & always need
more!. Our territory is much of West River SD. Nancy Hilding President, nhilding@rapidnet.com, 605-787-6466; Helen
McGinnis - Treasurer, hissyhelen38@gmail.com, Doris Respects Nothing - Secretary, drn.6501@gmail.com, Jedediah Beadle -
Field-trip chair, jedediahbeadle@gmail.com; Jim Petersen - Vice President, nfearndesire@gmail.com, Web site : http://phas-
wsd.org/, PHAS Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/phas.wsd/ , Blog: https://phas-wsd.blogspot.com/

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Prairie Hills Audubon Society (PHAS) Relationship
to National Audubon Society (NAS)
PHAS has been a chapter of the National Audubon
Society (NAS) since 1994. When you join the NAS, if you live
in our territory (much of western SD), you are automatically
given a membership in PHAS.
We are a volunteer run SD Non-profit 501c3 corporation.
We operate on a very small budget. When we started as a chap-
ter NAS’s policy was to award chapters $5.50 per each “joint
member”. In early 2000s this changed & the NAS decided to
give chapters $2.25 per member, as fixed on that date. Thus
each year PHAS submits paperwork to NAS in January & gets
back $565 dollars in the spring as an annual fixed NAS grant.
We are allowed to have “chapter-only” members. They pay
dues of $20 (normal) or $10 (low-income) for membership &
just belong to PHAS & not NAS. We keep all their dues money.
The $565 stipend is too low to support 5 or 6 postal mailed
newsletters per year to the entire membership plus other annual
costs. PHAS has been blessed with extra money via donations
and direct “chapter-only” membership — that money has pro-
vided the cushion to send the postal newsletter to the “joint” &
“chapter only” members” for almost 20 years. We currently
have 251 jointly shared members with the NAS (that includes
28 members whose dues are outstanding for 3 months or less).
Because we don’t have enough member’s e-mail addresses,
we have been postal mailing newsletters.
NAS provided us with e-mail addresses for 80 of the 251 NAS
joint members - that is 31% & phone numbers for 46 joint mem-
bers or 18%. Many people have cell phones not landlines. We
repeatedly ask for phones & e-mail addresses in newsletters,
with little response. Please send your e-mail/phone contact info
to phas.wsd@rapidnet.com, with words “member info.” in sub-
ject. If you want texts or other, let us know. If you don’t send
your e-mail address and/or phone - 69% of NAS “joint mem-
bers” likely won’t be hearing directly from us as much.
This is the first & perhaps the only postal mailed PHAS
newsletter of July 2022-June 2023 fiscal year.
At our July 6th Board meeting, the Board evaluated our fis-
cal resources/expenses & decided that without greater in-flow of
donations or “chapter-only’ membership dues, we can no longer
afford bi-monthly newsletters in 2022-23. Our fiscal year starts
July 1st. Last year we spent $839.35 on newsletter printing &
mailing. There were 3 newsletters & 2 postcards with a range in
cost of $139-$193. In 2022 there are cheaper media options.
PHAS has other ways to communicate with you. We send
out a digital copy of the newsletter & also “PHAS News” to
members we have e-mails for. We also send out “Enviro
Events” (much less frequently) to members & contacts we have
e-mails for. We have 7 subject matter list serves with ‘google-
groups.com, two of which are: PHAS-birds & PHAS-events.
We have 3 internet media sites. The web site is most up-to-date
& has most info. on events/alerts. http://www.phas-wsd.org -
https://www.facebook.com/phas.wsd/ -
https://phas-wsd.blogspot.com/