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COMMUNITY SERVICE: We believe we have met the City Council's mandate over the five years we have been in residence here. Our permanent education birds have grown in number from 13 birds of different species to 34 birds of 22 species from pygmy owls to eagles. We spend over 100 days each year making educational presentations in the community, with off -site presentations in schools, service clubs, senior centers and campgrounds, booth displays at events from science fairs to the County Fair and Eugene Celebration each year, and field trips to our nature center growing from 18 in the first year to close to 80 a year currently. Attached are the annual reports we file with the US Fish & Wildlife Servicewhich details the educational work we have done using our birds over the last five years. Although it is impossible to count, CRC has provided an opportunity to easily a hundred thousand area residents to see and learn about our rich northwest natural heritage - from pre - school to university students, cub scouts to church seniors, Audubon Society to Wild Bird Center birding groups. The Visitors & Convention Bureau arranged for us to be interviewed for a BBC radio travel program; our birds have been in two movies and a Discovery Channel program; SelectCare chose us for a commercial demonstrating what `caring' can accomplish; and we've hosted visiting rehabilitators from Mexico, Australia, and Greece, as well as many parts of the US. In our five years here, we have received for rehabilitation almost 1000 birds, primarily birds of prey, and have been able to return 50% of them back to the wild. Volunteers and interns from all walks of life have assisted in our work, from college interns to middle school students doing `service learning' and mentorships projects. We have had one intern, with local relatives with whom she could stay, come from Oberlin College in Ohio, and we get inquiries from colleges all over the US which we cannot accommodate until we build intern quarters. Some of the community projects in which we have been involved include: a University of Oregon landscape architect student did her senior project on a site plan for the facility; Eagle Scout projects (building two cages, fencing the side of the property above the Ridgeline Trail to keep loose dogs out, building trails leading to display cages, painting the pump house, clinic, and visitors' center); teaching Saturday Academy classes through the University of Oregon Talented and Gifted Program; Roosevelt middle school mentorships and service learning projects; high school job shadows; scout troop work parties doing such things as landscaping, bulb and tree planting, leaf raking; Committed Parters for Youth work parties; St Vincent de Paul family group tours; NW Youth Corps /Americorps presentations and work projects building one large cage and trails; Home Builders Association volunteers gave two days of labor on building a large display cage; Lane County Department of Corrections community service workers have put in hundreds of hours. We have hosted WISTEC summer class field trips, while Eugene and Springfield community centers, as well as YMCA after- school, holiday, and summer camp programs make CRC a regular part of their activities. One of the most personally rewarding experiences for me was presenting our work to a group of at -risk middle school students from Looking Glass, who returned within two days with posters and fliers they had designed of their own volition describing our work. Their involvement and attention was incredible; when I was discussing how sad it was for these wild creatures to be in a cage, one student turned to another and said it would be like being in Skipworth for the rest of your life. This group will be returning this coming month for a work party. Working with at -risk youth has always been one of my goals for the nature center - but only after we are far better staffed than currently. It feels very important to expose kids so disassociated from their own society to the cycles of life and death and the seasons which is so much a part of work with wildlife. There is a very successful program in New Mexico called Talking Talons which works with at -risk children, having them clean cages and do other work around the birds, and then give a presentation to their peers, with a small hawk, falcon or owl on their glove - all, of course, under very close supervision. email: raptors @efn.org www.efn.org/— raptors Cascades Raptor Center is a 501(c)3 non -profit organization (Federal ID No. 93- 1038827) dedicated to wildlife rescue and public education to enhance appreciation, respect, and stewardship of the natural world.