Nature’s Art Eagle Summit inspires future projects

By CHARLIE BUTERBAUGH

Crowded seminars and busy sidewalks were signs of success at Narrowsburg’s fourth annual EagleFest, and yet what took place afterwards was a first for Narrowsburg.

Just as in past years, volunteers helped the festival rise to greatness, including folks from the Narrowsburg Chamber of Commerce, the Narrowsburg Fire Department, the Delaware Valley Arts Alliance, the National Park Service and the Delaware Valley Job Corps.

When the day was over, a summit dinner was held at Dave’s Big Eddy Diner for the scientists, raptor experts, ecologists and conservationists who had led educational programs at the festival. The gathering of minds at Eagle Summit sparked fresh ideas and collaborative projects.

For example, Barbara Yeaman of the Delaware Highlands Conservancy met a couple that just bought 12 acres in the area. The couple now plans to consult Yeaman about responsible forestry before they build their house.

Dr. Keith Bildstein, director of conservation science at Hawk Mountain Sanctuary in Kempton, PA, invited EagleFest founders and organizers John and Yoke DiGiorgio to help with the development of a new website for the sanctuary. The DiGiorgios will donate photographs for the site.

They also plan to collaborate with Dr. Lawrence Niles, chief of endangered and nongame species at the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, who is working to preserve a controversial eagle’s nest on a river shoreline near an impoverished section of Camden, NJ.

These projects fulfill the mission of Nature’s Art LLC, an organization that the DiGiorgios founded to support local and regional projects focused on conservation.

“Nature’s Art is committed to having more of this kind of event,” John DiGiorgio said last weekend.

The summit also gave the experts time to talk about their recent discoveries. Peter Nye, leader of the endangered species unit at the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, was able to talk to Dr. Brian Watts of the Center for Conservation Biology at the College of William and Mary. The summit presented the rare opportunity for scientists from disparate regions to talk about their work.

Further, the summit and similar events in the future could lead to great things for Narrowsburg’s role in the network of biology, wildlife conservation and environmental science in the entire Delaware River valley.

The DiGiorgios have begun to plan the Nature’s Art Eagle Summit Series, a varied schedule of events that will build on the energy harnessed at the January 15 summit. The schedule will include education in the community and conventions for scientists at the helm of raptor and wildlife habitat study in the river valley.

“Wouldn’t it be great if we could have these types of summits here periodically, with guest speakers coming throughout the year,” DiGiorgio said.

The Eagle Summit was the first of its kind in Narrowsburg, the eagle capitol of New York State.

“This is the perfect place for it,” DiGiorgio said. “It’s about the people. It’s about the community. It’s about biologists in tri-state areas working on all issues of conservation and ecology,” he said.

Hopefully, scientists throughout the country will be willing to participate at future events in the summit series.

For more information contact John and Yoke DiGiorgio through their website, naturesartllc.com.