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OBA Lifetime Membership Awards

The Oregon Birding Association awards lifetime memberships to people who make significant contributions to the Oregon birding community and to ornithology in Oregon.

The current OBA lifetime members:

Chuck Gates is a retired Biology teacher from Central Oregon. He has served on the Board of Directors of the Oregon Field Ornithologists (now the OBA) and was a founding Board Member of the East Cascades Audubon Society. Chuck was a regional field notes editor for Oregon Birds magazine for many years, and also wrote seasonal field notes for the East Cascades Audubon Society’s newsletter. He currently manages birding checklists for each of Oregon’s 36 counties and is the the creator and editor of an online, state-wide birding site guide that lists over 1200 birding locations.

Mike Patterson is a private contractor specializing in ecological consulting, wildscape assessments and inventories primarily for land trusts and government agencies on the Oregon North Coast. He worked as a science teacher in public schools for about 15 years, then used the birth of his daughter as an excuse to leave full-time teaching to form his own small business. Mike semi-regularly waxes philosophically on matters related to local Natural History.

Jeff Fleischer has been managing the ECAS Winter Raptor Surveys for 15 years, recruiting hundreds of volunteers to visit 300 sites looking for any raptor they can find, on routes throughout Oregon, southern Washington, northern California, and Idaho.

Paul Sullivan does a tremendous amount of work for OBA and Oregon birders, including leading field trips and compiling the annual Oregon listing results.

Mary Ann Sohlstrom has been OBA President, Treasurer, board member, and bookkeeper.

Alan Contreras is one of the founders of Oregon Field Ornithologists, now the Oregon Birding Association. He is the author of several books published by Oregon State University Press, including Afield and Birds of Oregon. He edited Oregon Birds journal for several years.

Phil Hicks has scanned nearly all of the past issues of Oregon Birds journal and placed them online.

Dan and Anne Heyerly were awarded life memberships for all of their hard work over the years for OBA.

Owen Schmidt edited Oregon Birds journal for several years, has served on the Oregon Bird Records Committee, and hosts the monthly Birders Night in Portland.

Harry Nehls contributed many years of service to the OBA and Oregon birders, including doing field notes, classes, weekly Rare Bird Alerts, and being the Oregon Bird Records Committee secretary for decades.

Calliope Crossing Update: Learn about the changes that were made to the vegetation and trees at this popular birding site north of Sisters, in this article from ECAS.