Hawk Mountain Sanctuary Association

“Stephen edge and deborah edge have a family relationship.”

“The business manager, president, and executive committee perform an initial review of the form 990. The entire board is then given the opportunity to review the form 990 before the return is filed.”

“Directors, officers, and key employees complete an annual questionnaire. The conflict of interest policy is consistently monitored by the executive committee. Family and business relationships are mentioned in the conflict of interest policy as sources of potential conflicts. Conflicted individuals recuse themselves from any decision-making involving the conflict.”

“The board of directors determines the compensation of new officers by seeking out comparable positions at like-sized non-pofit organizations, with a focus on conservation organizations, to ensure compensation is within fair market range for the industry. The compensation review process for top officials is determined subsequent to the determination of the overall annual fiscal budget. The president establishes the overall annual budget, and compensation adjustments are then determined based on the overall budget with specific salaries approved by the board.”

“The governing documents, conflict of interest policy, and financial statements are available upon request.”

“The acopian center helps to foster the research, both on- and off-site, by sanctuary scientists and its collaborators globally and provides a headquarters and meeting place for other conservation groups to exchange information. It also functions as the center for hawk mountain's international traineeship program, which has trained more than 410 interns from 76 countries worldwide. In the last fiscal year, hawk mountain celebrated the first 15 years at this world-class facility, which enabled the sanctuary to double the number of trainees, and to expand all research programs. In addition, more than 40 hawk mountain research associates now include scientists from cornell and princeton universities, as well as scientists from elsewhere in north america, south america, europe, africa, and asia. Since 1992, hawk mountain's research staff and its collaborators have contributed more than 290 technical publications, reviews, theses and dissertations to the scientific literature. The sanctuary is a lead partner in the raptor population index (rpi) project, working with hawkwatch international, birdlife canada, and the hawk migration association of north america (hmana) to assess the conservation status of north american raptors. The rpi goal is to monitor raptor populations on a continental basis, based on migration counts and other data. Hawk mountain offers its expertise at no charge and conducts data analysis for the project, thus providing a large snapshot on the status of raptors across the continent. Conservation training since 1976, hawk mountain's conservation science internship program has trained more than 410 young conservationists from 76 countries on six continents. Upon their return home, trainees continue to work with us as partners and help to move forward hawk mountain's mission to conserve birds of prey worldwide. Partially through endowment but also funded in part by general operations, the best and brightest young conservationists come to hawk mountain at absolutely no cost. Trainees are selected exclusively upon personal merit and the conservation need in their area-never on individual ability to pay. The sanctuary also actively supports alumni work, including raising funds and offering technical assistance for their associated organizations. Examples include providing tools to help start migration counts, helping to launch critically needed research projects or by helping to fund workshops in the places where it is most needed. Training also is offered as summer field experiences for north american undergraduates, and leadership-level internships are designed for young professionals who are in the early stages of a promising conservation career. All internships at hawk mountain sanctuary are provided free of charge. Hawk mountain is growing this program by now engaging with the most promising and fully-vetted trainees as hawk mountain graduate students and/or post-docs, many of whom are supported by an accredited college and/or a private funder. Land and facilities building use and maintenance as well as land stewardship activities operation of hawk mountain's physical plant of 2,500 acres and six buildings depends upon a staff of three and many volunteers. With visitor safety and satisfaction being the highest priority, staff must provide continuous maintenance on the 8-rnile trail system including monitoring storm water runoff and invasive plant removal, adding new hand or safety railing where necessary, and re-grading roadways and trails as needed. Facilities include the visitor center (public), the acopian center for conservation learning (science and training), the education building (education), a maintenance shed and raptor enclosures, two three-sided adirondack shelters and an eight-site tent-only campground, and three staff residences. For safety purposes, at least one staff member is on site and on-call at all times, 365 days a year.”

“Free services visitor center open daily at no charge, 9 a.m. To 5 p.m. Bird feeding and wildlife watching windows informal interpretation at scenic overlooks, spring and autumn raptor migration count database online q&a for any raptor question via email mentoring for trainee alumni and partner organizations conservation science traineeships offered to all selected candidates at no charge through endowment and general operations visitor parking services during busy autumn weekends greeter services at the trail entrance by volunteers free trail maps for all visitors free educational resources online free spanish translation of educational resources, many already available online free use of library by any researcher or member by appointment free information on native plants and their benefit to wildlife more than 500 free weekend programs during spring and autumn free referral services for wildlife rehabilitation numerous resources at no charge available at www.hawkmountain.org, including the daily raptor count during spring and autumn and american kestrel webcam. Wings of wonder raptor gallery offered to the public at no charge exhibits on birds of prey open daily at no charge scientific journals published by hawk mountain available at no charge via pdf free image gallery available for any publicity or educational use to promote the hawk mountain mission free photos and updates available via various social media avenues including facebook and flickr.”