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APPLICATION QUESTIONS <br />Please answer each question completely, in the order listed, on a separate sheet attached to <br />this application. Please include any supporting data within the response narrative. <br />Please provide a description of your project/event and identify the specific tourism <br />audience/market that your organization will target with these funds. You must include an <br />itemized list of exactly how any grant funds awarded will be utilized. <br />Yakima River Canyon Bird Fes t <br />Come bird with KEEN for 3 -days during the second weekend of May and discover the natural <br />beauty of Central Washington State! Kittitas County features diverse and spectacular habitats <br />ranging from snow-capped mountains, thousands of acres of public forest, lush riparian <br />corridors and endangered shrub -steppe open space. The Yakima River Canyon is an Audubon <br />Important Bird Area (IBA) with some of the highest densities of passerines and birds of prey in <br />the State, some of them obligates to the shrub -steppe habitat. <br />The Yakima River Canyon Bird Fest will offer expert -led field trips, vendors, extended field trips, <br />lectures and keynote speakers, social events and music, and a plethora of bird watching during <br />early spring! Yakima River Canyon Bird Fest will run concurrently with KEEN's 18th Annual Get <br />Intimate with the Shrub -Steppe event. Running these two events concurrently will allow birders <br />the opportunity to learn about wildflowers, geology, keystone species like Bighorn sheep and <br />endangered salmon. Partnerships with the Yakima Training Center (DOD) will allow a rare <br />glimpse into protected Sage Grouse leks (nesting sites) on government property. <br />Please note: This grant request is not seeking any funding for Get Intimate with the Shrub - <br />Steppe (GISS). Run entirely by volunteers and with very low costs, GISS is a well-established <br />and complimentary event for Bird Fest. <br />The Yakima River Canyon is a deep gorge cut into Columbia Basin basalt by the ancient Yakima <br />River. The Important Bird Area includes the river, the steep slopes, and cliffs of the canyon from <br />Thrall Road in Kittitas County at the north end to the confluence of Selah Creek and the Yakima <br />River in Yakima County at the south end. This is the oldest scenic byway in Washington State, <br />established in 1968 and protected mostly in public ownership. <br />With over 1.1 million annual drivers and thousands of birders visiting the Canyon annually, the <br />Yakima River Canyon Bird Fest is sure to be a very well attended event. KEEN anticipates <br />between 500 and 1,000 attendees in our first year. We estimated attendance numbers based on <br />similar bird watching festivals in the state that regularly attract many thousands of attendees, a <br />survey we conducted in 2014, Kittitas County Tourism and Recreation Plan that identifies <br />wildlife viewing as the third most popular activity and among the highest day -trip expenditure <br />category, and WA State SCORP with nearly 60% of tourists engaging in wildlife viewing activities. <br />County -wide Lodging Tax Application P a g e 110 <br />