2017-015-KEEN-Yakima River Canyon Bird Fest

Home Browse Search

APPUCATIONQUESTIONS Please answer each question completely,in the order listed,on a separate sheet attached to this application.Please include any supporting data within the response narrative. 1.Please provide a description of your project/event and identify the specific tourism audience/market that your organization will target with these funds.You must include an itemized list of exactly how any grant funds awarded will be utilized. Yakima River Canyon Bird Fest Come bird with KEEN for 3-days during the second weekend of May and discover the natural beauty of Central Washington State!Kittitas County features diverse and spectacular habitats ranging from snow-capped mountains,thousands of acres of public forest,lush riparian corridors and endangered shrub-steppe open space.The Yakima River Canyon is an Audubon Important Bird Area (IBA)with some of the highest densities of passerines and birds of prey in the State,some of them obligates to the shrub-steppe habitat. The Yakima River Canyon Bird Fest will offer expert-led field trips,vendors,extended field trips, lectures and keynote speakers,social events and music,and a plethora of bird watching during early spring!Yakima River Canyon Bird Fest will run concurrentlywith KEEN's 18th Annual Get Intimate with the Shrub-Steppe event.Running these two events concurrentlywill allow birders the opportunity to learn about wildflowers,geology,keystone species like Bighorn sheep and endangered salmon.Partnerships with the Yakima Training Center (DOD)will allow a rare glimpse into protected Sage Grouse leks (nesting sites)on government property. Please note:This grant request is not seeking any funding for Get Intimate with the Shrub- Steppe (GISS).Run entirely by volunteers and with very low costs,GISS is a well-established and complimentary event for Bird Fest. The Yakima River Canyon is a deep gorge cut into Columbia Basin basalt by the ancient Yakima River.The Important Bird Area includes the river,the steep slopes,and cliffs of the canyon from Thrall Road in Kittitas County at the north end to the confluence of Selah Creek and the Yakima River in Yakima County at the south end.This is the oldest scenic byway in Washington State, established in 1968 and protected mostly in public ownership. With over 1.1 million annual drivers and thousands of birders visiting the Canyon annually,the Yakima River Canyon Bird Fest is sure to be a very well attended event.KEEN anticipates between 500 and 1,000 attendees in our first year.We estimated attendance numbers based on similar bird watching festivals in the state that regularly attract many thousands of attendees,a survey we conducted in 2014,Kittitas County Tourism and Recreation Plan that identifies wildlife viewing as the third most popular activity and among the highest day-trip expenditure category,and WA State SCORP with nearly 60%of tourists engaging in wildlife viewing activities. County-wide Lodging Tax Application P a ge |10