Category Archives: Fermata

Society for the Conservation and Study of Caribbean Birds (SCSCB) Lifetime Achievement Award

Conservation, , , , , ,
SCSCB's Howard Nelson, Holly Robertson, and Lisa Sorenson with Ted Eubanks' Lifetime Achievement Award
SCSCB’s Howard Nelson, Holly Robertson, and Lisa Sorenson with Ted Eubanks’ Lifetime Achievement Award

There are few regular meetings that I am not willing to miss. The biannual SCSCB conference is one that I try to make come hell or high water. Conservationists and educators from around the Caribbean meet every two years to discuss Caribbean birds and what needs to be done to ensure their futures.

Due to my wife’s surgery, however, I had to cancel my trip to Grenada to take part in this year’s gathering. However, this morning I received an email from Lisa Sorenson, SCSCB Executive Director, letting me know that the organization had awarded me a lifetime achievement award in absentia. What a pleasant (and timely) surprise! Thanks to Howard Nelson, Lisa Sorenson, Holly Robertson, and the SCSCB family for this amazing honor. You will never know how much this means to me and my family.

Here is the award citation given by Lisa Sorenson at the meeting.

We are honoring Ted Eubanks for his tireless work in helping the Society develop the Caribbean Birding Trail Project. Ted has spent much of his career studying and promoting experiential tourism and outdoor recreation as sustainable approaches to community revitalization and conservation. Ted is also a certified interpretive planner and trainer through the National Association for Interpretation. His expertise in the field of environmental interpretation has been particularly instrumental in advancing the Caribbean Birding Trail’s goal of telling the story of the Caribbean’s vast natural and cultural resources.

Ted has attended 3 SCSCB regional meetings, giving plenary talks and workshops on bird and nature tourism at each one, including a workshop to develop the CBT at our last meeting in Freeport, Grand Bahama. Over the past 12 months he traveled with Holly Robertson and myself to three Caribbean countries to launch the CBT at seven sites. From this he has provided us with an interpretive strategy for the sites and for the entire region, plus many other valuable tools that we will need moving forward. This includes taking thousands of photos that capture the essence of the Caribbean, writing numerous articles for the CBT blog, and getting us established with social media and the website.

Ted has donated countless hours and days of his time helping us achieve the level of success that we have today, and for that we want to honor him.

Ted Lee Eubanks
9 August 2013

Summertime

Birds, Fermata, Presentations, Recreation, Research, Travel, ,

Red-billed tropicbird, Great Bird Island, Antigua, by Ted Lee Eubanks
Red-billed tropicbird, Great Bird Island, Antigua, by Ted Lee Eubanks
Summertime, and the living is easy? Hardly. Summer is the season for field work and for bringing projects to completion.

This summer I have visited Antigua & Barbuda on two occasions. The first visit (in spring, actually) consisted of a week of constant field work. I returned in late June to conduct a two-day workshop on avitourism in the region. With this workshop the project is complete.

Here are links to the various materials related to the project. We thank our client, the Environmental Awareness Group, as well as countless friends and supporters in the islands, for their help and aid in this important project.

Avitourism in Antigua & Barbuda (Final Report)
Antigua & Barbuda Photo Gallery (Images)

An article about our work in Antigua & Barbuda will be published on the Nature Travel Network blog soon, and we will post a link to the article as soon as it is live.

Ted

Paths to Cross

Fermata, News, , , , , , , , ,
Custer's Meadow, Shoal Creek, Austin, Texas by Ted Lee Eubanks
Custer’s Meadow, Shoal Creek, Austin, Texas by Ted Lee Eubanks

January is the month for writing. The time is perfect. The holidays are completed, clients lazily make their way back to the office, and I get to avoid the cold north. I try to stay on the road during the warm months, and when Christmas arrives I start the tedious process of collecting and collating all of my thoughts and work in the reports that are required. I have spent most of this month ensconced in my office, failing away at the keyboard while my two cats watched approvingly.

The reports are done. The drafts for the first phase of the Caribbean birding trail interpretive plan, the Nebraska Sandhills Journey interpretive plan, and the ecotourism strategy for Kansas are all in circulation. Today I finished the final presentations for my workshops at NCTC next week, and I am making travel plans to return to Kansas for work on the byways later in the month. Yes, there is pride that comes with accomplishment. I try not to linger long in self-satisfaction, though. To be perfectly honest, a month in the office leaves me stir crazy.

I thoroughly enjoy the field work, I confess. There is nowhere I would rather be than out rather than in. But I have learned to appreciate my writing time as well. I do like to see the finished product, that magical moment when text, design, images, and insight come together in something singular.

I also found time this month to continue working on efforts to conserve Shoal Creek in Austin (my home). I created a blog for that effort several months ago. A number of stakeholders have joined me in creating a new organization, the Shoal Creek Conservancy, and the blog has been retooled to fit the needs of the organization. I enjoy this volunteer effort, and my time along the creek has opened my eyes to the incredible resource that it represents.

Fermata is well into its second decade, and I marvel at what we have accomplished over those years. More importantly, though, I am anticipating the next project, the next challenge. There is never a moment for rest in this business. Contracts are finite, and the demands of life are eternal. Hopefully our paths will cross during this new year.

Ted Lee Eubanks
29 Jan 2013