Driftless area birds will be the topic of a discussion on Tuesday, Feb. 7, in the new Gays Mills Community Center, at 7 p.m.

Local birder Maggie Jones will talk about birds that live here year-round, as well as those that migrate here each year to breed. Good quality forest bird habitat is becoming more fragmented, which lessen forest birds’ chances to breed successfully, but this trend can be reversed.

Jones will discuss how forests can be preserved, enhanced and increased as landowners become more aware of good stewardship practices for birds and other wildlife. These practices can include preserving land for future generations with conservation agreements or conservation easements. A conservation easement allows the landowner to preserve a particular use or non-use of the land and stays with the deed of the property in perpetuity. Jones recently established a conservation easement on her property and will talk about that process.  

A slide show will focus on birds of prey and Jones will discuss how raptors and other birds make their living. She will also have some live raptors to show. The Kickapoo Woods Cooperative (KWC) is hosting the program, which is free and open to the public.

Maggie Jones is a master falconer, who has worked as a wildlife rehabilitator for 10 years. She was a founding board member and past president of the Wisconsin Wildlife Rehabilitator’s Association.

Jones has a deep interest in the diverse ecology of the Driftless Area and has been doing presentations about birds for more than 20 years.

The new Gays Mills Community Center is at 16381 State Highway 131 on the west side of the highway in the newly developed area of town. This seminar will be one of the first events to be held there after the building has opened. The building houses village offices, an expanded public library, and a commercial kitchen where food entrepreneurs can produce their products for commercial markets.

 For more information contact Lila Marmel at 608-624-5269 or by email at sunmoon@mwt.net. 

Light refreshments and coffee will be provided by the KWC.  The Kickapoo Woods Cooperative’s mission is to provide forestry education, management and marketing services to residents of the Kickapoo Valley and neighboring watersheds to help improve the forestry resource of the region.