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Hollywood Crows |
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Thursday, 10 April 2008 |
Chautauqua is the most American thing in America! —President Theodore Roosevelt
 COVER ART COURTESY LITTLE BROWN BOOKS
On its Web site, the mission statement of the Bird Chautauqua is listed as, "To enhance appreciation and understanding of the Mono Basin's diverse and abundant bird life and educate the public about this area's value to birds and people."
Chautauqua is an institution that began in the late 19th century to provide higher education opportunities through the combination of lectures, music and other public events. The institution grew from the early-American thirst for self-improvement and education and later evolved into a traveling movement or circuit that became most popular in the rural Midwest.
The Chautauqua circuit flourished in the early 1900s, and traveling Chautauquas featured oratory, drama and music. Famous personalities or politicians, including U.S. presidents, would sometimes speak and admission was cheap. The Chautauqua varied in content, approach, and quality. Typically they were held in an outdoor setting under tents where the public could attend a lecture or performance.
An Iroquois word meaning either “two moccasins tied together” or “jumping fish,” Chautauqua is also a lake, a county and a town in southwestern New York—home of the Chautauqua Institution, wellspring of the national Chautauqua movement.
Today, here in the Eastern Sierra, the Chautauqua is alive and well. During the last few years especially, the Mono Basin’s rich bird life, dramatic natural setting, scientific importance and historical significance have emerged as an ideal location for a bird Chautauqua.
Now in its seventh year, the increasingly popular annual Mono Basin Bird Chautauqua will open registration on Tuesday, April 15, with the event scheduled for June 20-22.
This year’s Chautauqua will feature experts in the natural history and birding worlds, such as John Harris, Cathy Rose and David Wimpfheimer. Local birders and researchers leading workshops at the Chautauqua include Nancy Hadlock, Roland Knapp, Richard Potashin, Lief Weichman and Don Banta. John Muir Laws, author of the hand-illustrated, comprehensive field guide The Laws Guide to the Sierra Nevada, will also present and lead sketching field trips.
Event organizers said the combination of presentations, field trips, workshops, lectures and hands-on activities ensure that all participants will feature something for everyone to dive into during the weekend. The weekend will conclude with a Sunday afternoon picnic and concert at the Mono Lake County Park. This year’s musical guest is Northern California native Rita Hosking, whose bluegrass-tinged songs "convey mountain life in the West with a voice that evokes the power of people and place."
The Mono Basin Bird Chautauqua is organized and sponsored by California State Parks, Eastern Sierra Audubon, the Eastern Sierra Interpretive Association, Friends of the Inyo, the Inyo National Forest, Mono County, the Mono Lake Committee, the National Park Service and PRBO Conservation Science. Workshops and field trips fill quickly. Registration for the Chautauqua is available online through a secure server at www.birdchautauqua.org. Mail-in or fax-in registration forms can also be found on the Web site, along with a complete schedule of the weekend’s events. For more information, call (760) 647-6595.
The Mono Lake Committee is a nonprofit citizens’ group dedicated to protecting and restoring the Mono Basin ecosystem, educating the public about Mono Lake and the impacts on the environment of excessive water use, and promoting cooperative solutions that protect Mono Lake and meet real water needs without transferring environmental problems to other areas.
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 17 April 2008 )
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