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Saving Birds through Coffee

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WCT’s Growing Bird Friendly® Coffee Coalition

Bird populations in the U.S. and Canada have declined by 29% — almost 3 billion birds — in just five decades. Such a rapid loss signals a widespread ecological crisis and the inability of our ecosystems to support the rich levels of biodiversity they once did. The root cause of this tragic avian decline is habitat loss. Aside from development and urbanization, unsustainable conventional agriculture plays a major role in habitat degradation. Because many of our birds lead trans-hemispheric lives, dividing their year between temperate and tropical biomes, we must consider the origins of our agricultural products as far as Latin America to save migratory birds.

Coffee, one of Earth’s most valuable tropical export crops, is cultivated across 27 million acres. Traditionally a shade-loving tree, coffee naturally thrives in the understory of diverse tropical forests. In 1972, a sun-tolerant variety was introduced for near-sighted production gains. Today, three-quarters of the world’s coffee farms grow sun coffee in the wake of rainforest clear cuts. Destroying the habitat renders these sun-coffee farms devoid of ecosystem services (like naturally fertilizing leaf litter), and makes synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides a necessary evil.

To conserve tropical habitats and protect migratory songbirds, scientists with the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center developed a certification for coffee in the late 1990s called Bird Friendly®. This certified coffee is grown under a shade canopy of native trees, shrubs, and other plants that provide critical refuge for migratory and local birds as well as other wildlife of the tropical forest. The certification is the environmental gold standard in sustainable coffee farming because it uses a third party Bird Friendly® certification agency to inspect the farms for a stringent list of criteria, which also contributes to fighting climate change.

Last year, WCT formed the Bird Friendly® Coffee Coalition to increase awareness of and demand for Bird Friendly® coffee through educating and encouraging local roasters, merchants, and the public. As more consumers demand Bird Friendly®, more farmers will want to do the right thing, which in turn helps to conserve and regenerate tropical bird habitat. Thanks to the efforts of one exceptionally dedicated volunteer, Kirsten Snyder, who has immeasurably compounded the efforts of our limited staff, we now have twelve partners including local roasters, cafés, stores, and bird conservation organizations!

Gryphon Coffee Co. is based in Wayne with two other thriving café locations in West Chester and Philadelphia. Once they learned about Bird Friendly® coffee and visited our bird banding station at Rushton Woods Preserve, the owners were excited to join our mission. They enthusiastically developed a Bird Friendly® certified coffee to add to their line, called Blackburnian Brew, in honor of one of our most beautiful warblers that is known to overwinter on Bird Friendly® coffee farms. This medium roast is now available for purchase at all three of their cafés as well as on their website.


Kimberton Whole Foods is a popular and influential chain of eight markets in Berks, Bucks, and Chester Counties. Kimberton management decided to offer Bird Friendly® coffee at all of their store cafés with Gryphon as the sole supplier! Rich Mattis, owner of Gryphon Coffee Co., said, “I now have a desire to learn more about the specific requirements of each (bird) species and more about the specifics of a healthy ecosystem. Bird Friendly® now has a place in the equation for all of my purchases, and I’m pleased I’m creating demand for it.” He has begun conversations with old suppliers and new ones, even teaching some of the suppliers about Bird Friendly® certification. Rich is looking forward to expanding his line of Bird Friendly® coffee, and he and his wife are now counseling Central American coffee farm investors on the critical importance of Bird Friendly® farms.

The Coffee Scoop is a second generation roaster in Pipersville, PA that imports over $100,000 in coffee beans each year. Owner Bethani Wright speaks fondly of her hard-working parents who started the business from the family farm she grew up on. They loved visiting local cafés in search of the best cup of coffee and because they couldn’t find that perfect cup, they started roasting their coffee. Bethani’s dad worked to become a Master Roaster, the milk house of the farm was converted to the roast house, and in 2005 The Coffee Scoop launched! It became the artisanal pioneer of Fair Trade Organic coffee in Bucks County and surrounding areas.

“As long as I can remember, the love of birds runs deep in our family. Both of my parents taught me about birds. I still have the bird book they gave me decades ago, and it is rarely put back on the shelf,” Bethani reflects. “Roasting is not a job. It’s a passion and responsibility of which we must intentionally steward.” Since she took over her parents’ business in 2020, she has been seizing every opportunity to move towards ethical sustainability, so Bird Friendly® was a natural fit. Bethani smiled, “I would like to believe that I’m making Dad proud as I continue his amazing legacy. I picture my dad giving me his wink as I now partner with WCT’s Bird Friendly® Coffee Coalition. The Coffee Scoop’s first Bird Friendly® coffee, called Featherweight, is now available for purchase through their website and at Kimberton Whole Foods markets.

Tomorrow’s Coffee has been added to our rapidly growing list of partners. Kelsey Illuzzi-Koval and her husband founded the company after learning about Bird Friendly® coffee with their small children during a trip to Disney World. In addition to their affinity for coffee, they are nature lovers. As parents, they want to preserve Earth’s beauty and wonder for generations to come, and so Tomorrow’s Coffee was born.

It is heartening to know that every one of us has the power to make an impactful difference for birds and our planet by simply being mindful of the coffee we hold in our mugs each morning. Every cup counts; make yours Bird Friendly®!

Connecting Students to Bird Conservation

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By Caitlin Welsh

The bird banding net lanes at Rushton Farm. Photo by Blake Goll/Staff

Since I was introduced to Willistown Conservation Trust in 2015, it has been a privilege to spend many of my working hours in the field supporting the bird banding program at Rushton.  The time spent walking the net lanes and watching the seasons change over the last two years in particular has made it much easier to stay grounded during a time when it was often easy to find oneself feeling adrift. 

As an educator who primarily engages the public in natural settings, it was especially challenging to connect with our audiences, particularly K-12 teachers and students. However, if there’s one lesson to be learned from the challenges presented by the pandemic, it’s the importance of meeting and engaging with others where they’re at, which is an intrinsic part of good educators’ practice.

I had the fortune to connect with a group of such educators who dedicated time during the pandemic to exploring ways we could help them and their students connect with the natural world.  AIM Academy is a K-12 research-to-practice school in Conshohocken, PA that strives to support students who learn differently, often by using project-based learning strategies and emphasizing 21st century skills.  With students returning to the classroom, Alicia DeVane, Julia Bower, and Cherica Onyango – AIM Academy’s 8th grade science team – were eager to find ways to immerse students in social emotional learning through science education.

  • Ken Leister, County Coordinator for Bluebird Society of PA, and educator Caitlin Welsh at AIM Academy for the bird box building project.
  • The Mobile STEAM Lab truck at AIM Academy

We focused on introducing students to migration ecology with an emphasis on bird-human interactions to help students foster personal connections to local wildlife. Over the course of two weeks, students completed a learning module in which they were able to engage with educators both virtually and in the classroom through presentations, birding on AIM’s campus, and migration mapping activities from Birds Canada that use Motus wildlife tracking data. 

The experience culminated in a project that guided students to creatively promote human behaviors that can support bird conservation, like designing and installing decals to reduce window strikes around the school building, and recording PSAs about preventing interactions between birds and domestic cats.  Activities and other learning resources, as well as an overview of this and other experiences, can be explored in the Educational Opportunities section of the Northeast Motus Collaboration’s web page.

Seeing the ease with which students could activate their empathy through creative pursuits, we were then connected with Kathy Brandon who leads AIM’s Middle School STEAM program where students incorporate art and design principles into STEM disciplines. With the 2021 school year and field season in full swing, Blake Goll, the Trust’s Education Manager, and I took a break from the banding station to work with Kathy’s students and spread the message of bird conservation even farther than the AIM community.

After learning about the Trust’s bird banding program and our work to address the challenges faced by migratory birds due to habitat loss, students had the opportunity to build nest boxes for Eastern bluebirds with guidance from the Trust’s bluebird champion, Ken Leister.  

After building the nest boxes, Kathy plans to mobilize her program and connect with community partners at St. James School, a tuition-free school for underserved student populations in North Philadelphia. Following the AIM’s mission to seek equity and access for all to STEAM Education, Kathy will use AIM’s Mobile STEAM Lab to share cross-curricular learning experiences like the nest box project with St. James Schools’ students and community.  “I really appreciate our collaboration,” Kathy said. “Maybe one bird box at a time we can make a difference for our environment”.

  • Ken Leister and Caitlin Welsh facilitating bird box building with AIM Academy students.
  • Kathy Brandon assisting her students with bird box building.
  • The finished bird boxes!

A Suburban Nature Lover Seeks Legacy Easement to Protect Her Native Plant Oasis

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By Blake Goll, Education Programs Manager and Erik Hetzel, Director of Land Protection

Photos by Blake Goll

Meandering along the cool wood chip paths beneath the varied canopy of beech, oak, and cherry trees, your eyes dance with the dappled light around the myriad understory shrubs­—first settling on this glossy leaved plant, then darting upwards to those feathered shadows that flit and call among the boughs above—and you almost forget that this dynamic nature escape is someone’s backyard.

There are an estimated 40-50 million acres of manicured lawn in the United States today (including residential, roadsides, and golf courses); this represents a significant loss in plant and habitat diversity that is necessary to support wildlife in these spaces. While we historically might have been able to justify this simplified approach to our green spaces, many of us now feel compelled to do more. Unsustainable human population growth coupled with harrowing reports of the planet having lost 30% of all birds since 1970 are a call to action. Fortunately, as Marianne Price’s property proves, with the right planning, the average American yard can easily contribute significantly to insect and bird populations.

It all starts with selecting native plant species to support a healthy food web (i.e., insects!).  A keystone species like a native oak tree, for example, is a major driver of Pennsylvania food webs; 511 species of our native caterpillars use oak trees as their host plant! When you consider that the majority of our songbirds raise their chicks on caterpillars, the value of native plants is clear. By contrast, a nonnative gingko tree supports only about 5 caterpillar species. 

  • Marianne Price

“My husband Karl and I bought this place in 1972 after the previous owner passed away,” Marianne explains. “He wanted the buyer to be someone who would take care of the property for the wild birds he loved so much. He’s the one who began stewarding this yard with native trees. I kept nurturing the trees and planting more, because I wanted to keep my word, and I’ve done just that. Here I am almost at the 50 year anniversary!” she gleams. Marianne has continued to care for this one-acre ecosystem, single-handedly taking on the responsibilities after Karl passed in 2007.

Marianne’s devotion to stewarding the property now extends well into the future, thanks to her commitment to conserving the land with Willistown Conservation Trust. Using a Legacy Easement, which is specifically designed for smaller properties like hers, Marianne approached the Trust’s Land Protection Program earlier this year. Director of Land Protection Erik Hetzel recalls, “I visited her property on a sunny October morning and was greeted by an oasis of nature in a suburban neighborhood. The place was buzzing with pollinators and birds.”

  • Erik Hetzel, Sue Costello and Marianne Price

The terms of Marianne’s easements are relatively simple, focusing on the preservation of native tree species, including vital species like the native oak that supports a myriad of caterpillar and bird species. The Trust’s Legacy Easement program uses a simplified easement model to conserve lands that might not be effectively protected by other means, such as through deed restrictions or covenants between neighboring property owners. This unique program opens the door for landowners with smaller properties to become conservationists in a new way, one that is more accessible. And Marianne’s easement will ensure the lasting stewardship of the habitat that she has nurtured over the last 50 years.

Like legacy easements, part of the reason why Marianne’s little sanctuary is so inspiring is that emulating it is doable. She is a plant enthusiast and has fun experimenting with different species and cultivars that are not all native. Experts say that even if you strive for 70% native plant biomass and allow the other 30% to be other (noninvasive) plants of interest, you can still contribute to the growth of suburban bird populations like chickadees. It does not have to be an all or nothing effort. The average American lawn can easily attract at least 50 kinds of beautiful and interesting birds with the right planning!

With a keen eye for sustainability, Marianne even strives to make her watering practices environmentally friendly.  Although her diverse landscape of hardy perennials, shrubs, and deep-rooted trees requires less water that a typical Kentucky bluegrass lawn, she still needs to water during dry spells. She cleverly collects the used “gray water” from her air conditioning unit, de-humidifier, and even her laundry washing machine! She pumps this reusable water into covered storage barrels tucked around her property for watering.

Finally, when you consider that each hour of lawn mowing generates as much pollution as driving a car nearly 100 miles, it also becomes apparent how a property like Marianne’s demonstrates a more carbon neutral solution to an all-lawn landscape. From saving water and reducing carbon emissions to contributing to biodiversity, Marianne is truly an inspiration to us all — proving that an average-sized suburban landscape can be transformed from a uniform green patch to an alluring conservation oasis. 

Blake Goll | she/her | Education Programs Manager | Blake plays a big role in the Trust’s Bird Conservation Program, as well as the outreach and educational initiatives as the coordinator for Rushton Nature Keepers program.

Erik Hetzel | he/him | Director of Land Protection and Public Grants | As part of our Land Protection Program, Erik handles the acquisition of private conservation easements and public lands to add to our nature preserves.

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Legacy Easements open the door for landowners with smaller properties to become conservationists in a new way.  To learn more about how you can be a part of the conservation movement with a Legacy Easement on your property, contact Erik Hetzel at ewh@wctrust.org.

A Rushton Nature Keeper “Graduate” Restores Historic Bluebird Trail to Willistown

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By Education Programs Manager Blake Goll

Photos by Blake Goll

Almost ten years ago, a little girl named Siana Christaldi and her brother began religiously attending the Trust’s nature programs that were then part of the nascent Junior Birding Club. Siana especially loved the adventures in which she and her family enthusiastically participated: watching the dazzling courtship flights of the American Woodcocks at Rushton Farm in early spring, exploring a local vernal pool for spotted salamanders one rainy night in early April with Education Programs Manager Blake Goll, and even lending an eager hand for local stream cleanups at the Trust’s nature preserves.

Siana’s passion for nature flourished over the years as she continued to participate in Rushton Nature Keepers program that was established in 2018 as the Trust’s holistic approach to environmental education, encompassing major conservation themes of healthy habitat, birds and wildlife, watersheds, and regenerative farming. In 2019, Siana and her family also dove wholeheartedly into the Trust’s Homeowner Bird Box Program—receiving their own bluebird box to monitor in their yard. A bluebird family quickly took up residence, and Siana was hooked. Naming the dad Blueberry and the mom Muffin, she bravely inspected the nest regularly despite having her hair tousled by the chastising dives of the parents.

Siana and her brother Daniel at a Rushton Nature Keeper program in 2018

It was this personal connection to the bluebird box in her backyard that inspired her to build bluebird boxes for her Girl Scout Silver Award project last winter. Siana (now 14 years old) first met with local bluebird box builder, Ken Leister, better known as The Bluebird Keeper; he has built close to 1,000 boxes in the past ten years for homes, schools, golf courses, local businesses, and nonprofits like Willistown Conservation Trust. And his boxes are crème de la crème if you are a bluebird; they are equipped with thoughtful features that many commercial boxes lack, such as an extra-large roof and ample ventilation to help prevent the chicks from overheating during hot summer days.

After collecting free scrap wood from a local fencing company, Siana worked with Ken to learn the dimensions and to cut all the parts for ten bluebird boxes. She took these parts back to her building team of two friends and instructed them on how to assemble a “Ken Leister bluebird box.” Siana reflects, “We all had fun learning and building these boxes, and the whole experience felt like a special gift during the Covid-19 quarantine.”

In early spring, Siana worked with Blake to install the ten boxes at a private property in Willistown. This was significant because the farm’s current owner is keen on reestablishing the bluebird box trail that her grandfather, Hardie Scott, had lovingly established in the 60’s. In those days, concern was growing over the declining bluebird populations; threats included non-native competing species like House Sparrows, widespread pesticide use, and habitat loss from development. With the help of compassionate citizens establishing nest box campaigns and well monitored bluebird trails beginning in the 60’s and 70’s, Pennsylvania is once again home to healthy populations of these stunning backyard birds.

Siana helped monitor the bluebird trail this summer with Blake and found that the boxes were also being enjoyed by Tree Swallows, native birds that hunt insects on the wing. Since bluebirds hunt insects by diving into the grass from a hunting perch, they are not a direct competitive threat to Tree Swallows. Consequently, a swallow will generally allow a nearby bird box to be occupied by bluebirds but not by other swallows. As such, the boxes were cleverly paired at a private farm in Willistown to hopefully allow Eastern Bluebirds and Tree Swallows to live and breed harmoniously.

The new bluebird trail now lies vacant under the crisp autumn sunshine in the wide-open rolling hills, wild meadows, and fields of Willistown. The boxes hold the promise of many more broods of baby birds in the spring to come. When the Tree Swallows return to somersault through the honeysuckle-scented air and the bluebirds’ sweet songs bubble forth from the new leaves, Siana’s boxes will again come to life.

  • Siana and her brother Daniel monitoring the bluebird trail this summer. BHG
  • Tree Swallow nest lined with goose feathers

Blake Goll | she/her | Education Programs Manager | Blake plays a big role in the Trust’s Bird Conservation Program, as well as the outreach and educational initiatives as the coordinator for the Rushton Nature Keepers program.

For the Love of Birds

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Join Blake Goll, Education Programs Manager, for a virtual session (video below) that introduced birds through the lens of why we love them.  From their beauty and song that inspires and uplifts us to their incredible migratory feats and daily dramas that leave us awestruck, birds are the perfect gateway to conservation.  They have the power to awaken us to the natural world; what we do for them, we do for the planet and ourselves.

Bluebird feeding on Winterberry by Greg Schneider, Mount Joy, PA Nov 2014 (permission granted)

Blake began the talk discussing why we love birds. First, they come in a dazzling array of diversity found on every continent (10,000 species)! No other life form is this widespread besides microscopic organisms. Birds give us hope with their ultimate freedom of movement and life lived in the present. They represent resiliency having been around for 150 million years longer than we have. Birds are beautifully adapted living dinosaurs!

Birds help us engage with nature. In fact, bird-watching has soared since the pandemic. “It’s quite meditative to watch another life form go about its day,” said Ms. Adanero, 23. “It’s like another way of practicing mindfulness.” (https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/29/science/bird-watching-coronavirus.html).  Jonathen Franzen opined, “They are our last, best connection to a natural world that is otherwise receding.”

Blake went on to say that birds are intelligent and emotional. For example, you might assume Mourning Doves are dull and dumb, but according to wildlife rehabilitator Julie Zickefoose, they are incredibly intelligent and communal. In her book, “Baby Birds”, Julie describes a tender moment in her garden when one of her doves that she raised and released came back to sit right by her in the dirt while she went about her garden chores. The young bird even occupied itself in her company by building itself a “play nest” on the ground.

Other examples of bird intelligence and emotion include crows giving gifts to humans who feed them regularly, or crows entertaining themselves by “sledding” down a roof on a plastic lid! Another example Blake gave was the Barn Owl, known to be monogamous and devoted to their mates. The book “Wesley the Owl” goes into great detail of the intimate relationship an owl developed with his human caretaker over the years.

Another reason people love birds is that they are clever and resourceful. Take the House Wren for example. This little brown bird has deliberate reasons for all its fussing about our yards during the breeding season. Even the little white spider egg sacs that they love to weave into their stick nests has a purpose: these sacs contain the baby spiders of a predatory jumping spider! The spiderlings feast on mites in the nest that could otherwise kill the wren chicks if left unchecked.

Watch the rest of the recording to learn more about why we love birds, why birds are important, what is happening to birds today, and how we can all help birds thrive. This talk was a private event for Radnor Hunt Club on February 10th, 2021. The attendees’ questions follow the presentation.

(Note: The recording begins with music and PowerPoint slides until Blake’s audio comes in around 1 minute 13 seconds.)

OUR NATURE PRESERVES

Our nature preserves are open to the public 365 days per year from sunrise to sunset, providing natural places that offer peace and respite for all. Willistown Conservation Trust owns and manages Hartman Meadow, Ashbridge, Kirkwood, Kestrel Hill and Rushton Woods Preserves. We maintain these lands to preserve and enhance … Learn more about our nature preserves.