Our mission
To preserve and improve the remaining habitat of birds and other wildlife, restore historical habitat, and educate the public, with emphasis on children, providing vision to all about our unique Nevada environments.
Who We Are
Lahontan Audubon Society (LAS) was founded in December 1963 by Fred Ryser, John Davis, and Marge Sill. LAS started the Truckee Meadows Christmas Bird Count that same year, and has collected over 50 years of data for that original count circle, as well as creating several other area Christmas Bird Count circles.
LAS is a non-profit organization serving all of northwestern Nevada and represents a membership of about 1,300 conservation-minded individuals and families. Many of our chapter’s members are dedicated birders. Others just enjoy viewing the birds they see in their yards and at their feeders. We are conservationists, hikers, birders, and educators. And we share our experiences and values with others through a variety of nature-oriented programs.
LAS is dedicated to helping restore, preserve, and improve habitat for birds and other wildlife, to providing education to children and adults about birds and their habitats in Nevada and adjacent areas of California, and to helping the people of northern Nevada enjoy, appreciate, and protect our local wildlife and their habitats.
LAS is a fully independent 501(c)3 non-profit organization.
What We Do
Lahontan Audubon Society seeks to foster knowledge, appreciation, and enjoyment of birds and the natural world, and to be a significant resource for our communities through our education, environmental recreation, and conservation programs. Northern Nevada has many threats to lands and habitats that are essential to birds, other animals, and people. LAS wants to make a positive difference for the future of wild places and the creatures that live there.
We involve people through recreational birding, extend their horizons through education activities, and engage them in conservation actions from counting birds to working with local, state, and national policy makers.
Our primary activities include guided birding trips for the public and for students field trips, school groups, site clean-ups and improvements, annual bird identification classes, and participation in the annual Christmas Bird Count. We publish occasional position papers on key Nevada conservation issues, and we participate in or partner with various Nevada conservation agencies and groups.
Our flagship conservation effort is our Nevada Important Bird Areas program, part of a hemispheric program to identify and preserve key bird habitat areas.
ABOUT OUR NAME AND LOGO
Lahontan Audubon Society takes its name from ancient Lake Lahontan, an extensive late Pleistocene lake that covered a large portion of the western Great Basin about 12,700 years ago. The only modern remnants of ancient Lake Lahontan that exist today as perennial lakes are Walker Lake and Pyramid Lake.
Anaho Island at Pyramid Lake supports one of the two largest nesting colonies in the western U.S. of the American White Pelican, the bird that Lahontan Audubon Society chose as its mascot and logo. One of the largest birds in North America, with a 9-foot wingspan, the American White Pelican soars gracefully over long distances on its broad white wings edged in black. American White Pelicans use their distinctive large pouched bills to scoop up fish from shallow waters. Over 8,000 pelicans return to Anaho Island each spring to nest. To feed themselves and their young, the pelicans fish the delta of Pyramid Lake for spawning runs of Pyramid Lake fish and also travel over 70 miles from their island nesting colony to fish shallows lakes in Lahontan Valley and Stillwater National Wildlife Refuge.
Lahontan Audubon Society takes its name from ancient Lake Lahontan, an extensive late Pleistocene lake that covered a large portion of the western Great Basin about 12,700 years ago. The only modern remnants of ancient Lake Lahontan that exist today as perennial lakes are Walker Lake and Pyramid Lake.
Anaho Island at Pyramid Lake supports one of the two largest nesting colonies in the western U.S. of the American White Pelican, the bird that Lahontan Audubon Society chose as its mascot and logo. One of the largest birds in North America, with a 9-foot wingspan, the American White Pelican soars gracefully over long distances on its broad white wings edged in black. American White Pelicans use their distinctive large pouched bills to scoop up fish from shallow waters. Over 8,000 pelicans return to Anaho Island each spring to nest. To feed themselves and their young, the pelicans fish the delta of Pyramid Lake for spawning runs of Pyramid Lake fish and also travel over 70 miles from their island nesting colony to fish shallows lakes in Lahontan Valley and Stillwater National Wildlife Refuge.
Pelicans in Flight Photo: Cindy L. Fullwiler/Audubon Photography Awards
