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Doing Conservation Together for a Better World 

 
Wendy Weirich, Director of Outdoor Experiences, Cleveland Metroparks, 
Tim Colborn, Ohio Ornithological Society & Member, Western Cuyahoga 
Audubon, and Tom Romito, Member, Western Cuyahoga Audubon 
 
Introduction  

Tom Romito:​​ Hello viewing audience, I’m Tom Romito of Western Cuyahoga Audubon Society.
I’m sitting here at the Cleveland Lakefront Nature Preserve with Wendy Weirich, of the
Cleveland Metroparks, and WCAS Member, Tim Colborn. Welcome to this short interview,
Wendy and Tim.

I’d like to ask you two questions, and the first one is, “What value would you say Western
Cuyahoga Audubon has provided to this part of Ohio in the past?”

Tim Colborn: ​Well Tom, my thought on that is that WCAS organization has been focused on
helping its members understand the value of the natural world and its connection to it. It has
provided opportunities for being out in the wild, enjoying wild places and wild things, among
them birds and mammals, plants and continues to keep the focus on conserving all of those
things for the foreseeable future.

Tom Romito:​​ Tim, could you please give us a couple of examples of those kinds of initiatives.

Tim Colborn: ​Well, from an education perspective, the WCAS speaker series is every month
providing insight and information into some topic related to the natural world. There have been
plenty of conservation efforts as well and their support of the natural places in the northeast
Ohio area, as well as the breeding birds surveys, Christmas Bird Count, citizen science, that
supports the kinds of things that we’re all interested in.

Copyright 2018 Western Cuyahoga Audubon.

Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works.
Western Cuyahoga Audubon Society, 4310 Bush Ave., Cleveland, OH 44109
Email: ​info@wcaudubon.org​ Web: ​www.wcaudubon.org
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Tom Romito:​​ Thanks. Wendy, from your vantage point, as an executive of the Cleveland
Metroparks, how do see what WCAS has added value to the public?

Wendy Weirich: ​I mean in addition to what Tim has already said, it’s a place where people of
like-minds can come together and share their ideas, bring their energies together, create really
great products of it, like the Bird Survey, or things that will be perennial.

The results that came out of that breeding bird survey alone, is something we’re going to reap
for generations to come. It’s information that’s really important for us to have in order to make
decisions, in order to move forward.

I think these like-minds coming together is really powerful and in a world where so many
people are connecting via screens, and the Internet, there’s something powerful about humans
coming together, being together, and then coming up with these ideas where we can get
together and change the world.

Tom Romito: ​Well, my second question is, going forward we want to give WCAS a reason to
continue to exist besides our normal activities of presentations and field trips. So, what value
do you think we could add to the public as time goes forward, Tim and Wendy?

Wendy Weirich: ​I think to build on what we already said, we can do more together than we can
apart. We have to be more than just meetings and field trips, we have to have this purpose of
saving the planet.

It’s not any less than that, it has to be these like-minds coming together to make change, and to
flex our muscles, and to speak so that we can become better informed about the issues, so that
we can vote better, so that we can send the message out to the world about what we believe in
and - that’s what we can do together to be viable going into the future!

Tom Romito:​​ Thanks so much.

Tim Colborn: ​I agree with Wendy, I think this sense of community is paramount. And I think
that through that we can achieve levels of conservation that we haven’t been able to before.

And it’s only through our collective efforts that we can get there, and a structure like the WCAS
and similar organizations can really support that kind of community and those efforts to get us
to a point where we are making a difference - going beyond the education and the activities
that we all enjoy, but to go to conservation activities that will sustain that enjoyment through
the future years to come.

Tom Romito: ​So! It sounds like our mission, as we go forward, is to help the planet better for
birds, wildlife, and the habitat that everybody enjoys.

Well, thank you listening audience, and thank you for listening. We’ll see you on Tuesday,
November 6th at Rocky River Nature Center.

Copyright 2018 Western Cuyahoga Audubon.

Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works.
Western Cuyahoga Audubon Society, 4310 Bush Ave., Cleveland, OH 44109
Email: ​info@wcaudubon.org​ Web: ​www.wcaudubon.org