RTPI Welcomes New Chief Operating Officer
RTPI welcomed Joni Blackman as their new Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at the turn of the New Year. A longtime resident of the Jamestown area, Joni has over 30 years’ experience in leading and managing not-for-profit organizations. She served as executive director of the Fenton History Center for 14 years and is currently board president of the James Prendergast Library Association. Joni has also served on the board of the Das Puppenspiel Puppet Theatre, Chautauqua County Visitor’s Bureau, Reachout Ministries, Inc., and her current community involvement includes future...
Read MoreThe Migratory Connection
Join us at RTPI on Thursday, June 11 at 7:00PM for a free public event – The Migratory Connection: RTPI’s Tropical Conservation and Education Programs by RTPI President Twan Leenders. Find out where your favorite warblers and hummingbirds hang out when they are not in your backyard and be amazed by the other tropical birds they share their wintering grounds with. Meet some of the rarest frogs on our planet and see what RTPI is doing to help save them from extinction. Explore the exotic wildlife that calls the jungles of Costa Rica and Panama home – and see how some of it visits us on a...
Read MoreCocobolo Nature Reserve Education
Our tropical field season is coming to an end and, even though it is snowing outside in Jamestown right now, we are gearing up for field work here. The latest findings from our work in Panama and Costa Rica will be revealed soon as we work through data. but I can tell you already that there is all sorts of exciting news to report on. In the mean time, I wanted to share this picture, taken by Laurie Doss, during a February trip to Cocobolo Nature Reserve with students and staff of the Marvelwood School in Connecticut. Not only were the students actively involved in monitoring and banding...
Read MoreSuccessful 1st Survey
I am very happy to report that our team comprised of RTPI staff and JCC faculty and students did not find Hemlock Woolly Adelgid (HWA) on any of the 200+ trees we surveyed at South Valley State Forest! Although the temperatures were chilly, we had a beautiful sunny day to be out in the hemlock stands trudging our way through the knee deep snow. Prior to our survey we ran our student surveyors through background information about this deadly invasive bug threatening the area’s hemlock trees. We went over look-alikes and our field protocol, then headed out the door to our destination....
Read MoreTropical research and conservation season coming soon!
The tropical research and conservation season is coming up soon for the Roger Tory Peterson Institute of Natural History and its staff, affiliates, students and interns. RTPI staff carries out several active research and education initiatives in Central America. We coordinate student research programs in Panama and Costa Rica, run active banding stations in those countries to study migratory birds on their wintering grounds and carry out important conservation research on some of the most endangered amphibian species in the region. You can find more information about some of our programs...
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