KAS June 2025 Picnic Recap
Hello KAS members & friends,
We had a great turnout at our annual picnic with 44 members enjoying some really good BBQ from Prime Time BBQ.
I know that some of you did not get dinner rolls (actually half of you did not). Well, that was my fault. I did not look far enough in the back of the hot food container where they were patiently waiting to be consumed. My apologies.
The weather cooperated. It was actually a very comfortable evening. The temperature was in the high 80s with an occasional slight breeze.
We voted on our 2025-2026 Executive Board members:
President, Mike Lahorgue (I don’t know? He did misplace the dinner rolls.)
Vice President, Wendy Hodash
Secretary, Claire Lahorgue
Treasurer, Margaret Dolan
Remembering Ted Murphy
KAS recently lost one of our founding members, Ted Murphy. In dedication to his memory the Board has decided on purchasing a sign similar to the ones for Hart Park to be installed along the bike path near CSUB honoring Dr. Ted Murphy, President of KAS 2000-2012. Ted also was the founder of F.A.C.T.
The bird selected for this sign is the roadrunner, which is the mascot of CSU Bakersfield.
Brooke Stutz, Bill Cooper and Harry Love along with others shared stories about Ted.
Following dinner, we went on a brief walk to the river bottom and around the park.
We also just sat around and enjoyed each other’s company.
Since we will be taking our summer off as usual, I thought this would be a good time to reflect on our year.
It was a great year!
We had some really great outings thanks to our outings chair, Karen Evans.
We had amazing speakers from within our own membership, along with some from other organizations. Thank you, Claire Lahorgue, our program chair.
Kern Audubon made large strides towards making birds safer with our fishing line receptacles. Harry Love built all of our receptacles and delivered them to be installed. David Schaad and others have been recycling the fishing line that has been deposited into the receptacles.
We started our informational bird signs project at Hart Park, in which a sign may be purchased to be installed at the park to help educate the community and share our love of birds. Thank you, Wendy Hodash, for leading this committee.
KAS brought our educational and informational booth to several events around Kern County, such as Wind Wolves Spring Nature Festival, Science Camp at Panorama Vista Preserve, Cesar Chavez celebration in Keene, and two Earth Days, one at CSUB and one at the Nature Center at Hart Park, along with other events. All booths were made possible with all of you, our volunteers.
Kern Audubon Society was also a large contributor, along with other organizations like the local Kern-Kaweah chapter of the Sierra Club, Kern River Foundation, and others who wish to remain anonymous, in raising $50,000.00 + dollars for the Bring Back the Kern legal action. Jonathan Yates was the driving force for supporting Bring Back the Kern along with our attorney Adam Keats of San Francisco. The action is now on its way to the California State Supreme Court.
Thank you to all for making this possible. The decision will have huge implications.
Along the way we had some great laughs and fun and have made lifelong friends.
I hope you have a great summer.
I’m looking forward to seeing you all in September at our next program meeting.
Thank you,
Mike Lahorgue
KAS President
