Jill and Mike Fanning Receive Lifetime Conservation Achievement Recognition

By Linda Winnie

Jill and Mike Fanning were presented with Flathead Audubon’s Lifetime Conservation Achievement Recognition (CAR), at the Flathead Audubon general meeting on November 11, for their many years of devoted service to FAS in support of conservation and conservation education.

For over 25 years, Jill and Mike have served in significant Flathead Audubon leadership roles, where they focused on supporting and participating in FAS conservation activities, especially conservation education. 

Jill and Mike retired to the Flathead in 1993. They quickly got involved in Flathead Audubon and were put in charge of the Whitefish arm of the chapter’s annual fall birdseed sale, with proceeds going mostly to the education program. In 2000 they also became co-chairs of the Membership Committee and after only a few years, Mike developed Flathead Audubon’s local membership program, which has become a significant source of revenue for Flathead Audubon and provided essential funding for our Conservation Education project. Jill and Mike continued as Membership co-chairs for 21 years.

Also in 2000, Jill was elected to the Board of Directors and served there for 18 years. Mike was elected two years later and served for 20 years. Shortly after 2000, Flathead Audubon’s two major conservation activities got started – management of Owen Sowerwine (OS) and the FAS Conservation Education Program. Jill and Mike jumped into both. They volunteered for the first OS Work Day and helped with on the ground work at Owen Sowerine for many years after that. And they quickly got involved in generating the funding needed to support the new education program.

By the time Mike was elected president in 2007, the cost of the chapter’s management of Owen Sowerwine was rising, the cost of the FAS Conservation Education Program was ballooning, and Flathead Audubon’s revenue was falling. Proceeds from birdseed sales were dwindling, and the external funding that had provided more than half the money needed to kick-start the Conservation Education Program and keep it going, had come to an end. To address this situation, Mike became chair of the Finance Committee and started putting many hours into writing grant proposals and seeking out new donors, to keep the Conservation Education Program afloat.

Mike’s commitment to funding the Conservation Education Program continued long after his presidency. He stayed on as Chair of the Finance Committee for 10 more years. He continued searching for new grant opportunities, writing more proposals, and making the rounds of local groups to drum up donations. Mike’s efforts paid off. The funding he generated in those years allowed the FAS Conservation Education Program to continue and flourish, and become the success it is today.

Jill and Mike are both quick to point out that Mike’s presidency was really a team effort, with a lot of the ‘idea work’ and behind-the-scenes labor done by Jill. During this period, Jill also became sales chair, 14 years tasked with procuring and selling items at the Flathead Audubon meetings to help fund the Conservation Education Program. And Jill also did some conservation education of her own, focusing on ways individuals could incorporate conservation into their personal lives. One of her special projects was promoting the use of shade-grown coffee to preserve the Central and South America habitat where “our” neotropical migrants spend the winter months. She wrote articles on the topic for the Pileated Post and talked about it at meetings. She arranged for Montana Coffee Traders to donate shade-grown coffee for the refreshment table at Flathead Audubon meetings, so the coffee at our meetings would be bird friendly. Jill also advocated for pesticide-free gardening and lawn care. She contributed articles to the Post on why this is important and talked about her own application of this approach in her own garden.

In addition, for more than 10 years Jill and Mike have been organizing Flathead Audubon’s annual three-day Tally Lake Warbler Days, where we camp, share meals, gather around the campfire, and go birding together. We thank Jill and Mike for this yearly opportunity to enjoy the amazing variety of warblers and other neotropical migrants that return to our area in the spring, and to renew our commitment to conserving their habitats.