Shorebird conservation and research awards given to ICFC team members!

August 16, 2024 — At the conference of the Western Hemispherica Shorebird Group in Sackville, New Brunswick, the Allan Baker Lifetime Achievement Award for Shorebird Conservation was given to Patricia M. Gonzalez, Shorebird Program Coordinator at ICFC (shown holding the plate in the left image).

The late Allan Baker was ornithology curator at the Royal Ontario Museum and become deeply involved in the conservation of migratory shorebirds when large declines were being documented throughout the flyways of the world in the late 1990s.  Beginning in 1995, he partnered with Patricia and other colleagues to promote and build ties among the people living at the main sites used by the rufa Red Knot (Calidris canutus) throughout the Western Atlantic Flyway.  Dr. Baker helped inspire ICFC's Shorebird Initiative.

Patricia Gonzalez has for decades coordinated conservation and research teams working to protect shorebird wintering and staging sites in Argentina and more recently in Uruguay. She advises provincial and federal governments in Argentina, and participates in cooperative work with teams in Argentina, Chile, Peru, Brazil, Uruguay, French Guiana, USA and Canada. She trains rangers, coordinates conservation projects and is active in public outreach, garnering much attention to shorebirds and their needs. For her pioneering work in shorebird flyway protection, in 2000 she was the first recipient of the Pablo Canevari Award for Shorebird Conservation awarded by Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences.

At the same ceremony, Erica Nol (holding the plate in the right image) received the Lew Oring Lifetime Achievement Award for Shorebird Research, in recognition of her outstanding research on shorebirds in Canada (British Columbia, Ontario, northern Manitoba, Northwest Territories, Nunavut), Cuba, Brazil and Venezuela.  Erica is a trustee member and, with her biologist husband Chris Risely, a long-time supporter of ICFC.  Erica is just now retiring as biology professor at Trent University.  She did her PhD under Allan Baker, studying the American Oystercatcher.  Erica's second research focus is the conservation of songbirds.  Erica has won numerous awards for her research, but especially prizes this one.

Congratulations, Patricia and Erica!