Please donate to the Raptor Resource Project!

What does the Raptor Resource Project do? We are a 501c3 that specializes in the preservation of falcons, eagles, ospreys, hawks, and owls. In addition to bringing you the Decorah Eagles, Great Spirit Bluff Falcons, and other birds of prey, we create, improve, and directly maintain over 50 nests and nest sites, provide training in nest site creation and management, and develop innovations in nest site management and viewing that bring people closer to the natural world. Our mission is to preserve and strengthen raptor populations, expand participation in raptor preservation, and help foster the next generation of preservationists.

As a nonprofit environmental organization, we depend on donors, research, and our other programs for our entire budget. With your tax deductible contribution to the Raptor Resource Project, we can:

• Continue updating to high definition digital cameras in Decorah and elsewhere.
• Provide one of the world’s largest public wildlife education programs to countless classrooms through our unequaled Ustream channels, interactive chats, facebook page, and blog.
• Reboot our kestrel nestbox program. In addition to placing boxes, we plan to monitor, band, and report on kestrel populations as part of the American Kestrel Partnership. Eden Prairie Girl Scout Troop 14286 is providing 12 boxes for installation this year. 
• Begin a diurnal raptor banding and observation station. Master bander and board member Dave Kester will be in charge of this effort and he is raring to go!
• Partner with landowners, private businesses, and government agencies to monitor and band peregrine falcons at over 40 sites. This year we plan to add collection and identification of prey and prey remains to our work.

These things all take money. We have $188,700 budgeted for 2017. Our expenses look like this:

• Staff and contracts: $130,000. This includes salaries and compensation for camera installations, maintenance, and climbers for camera work and banding. Since September of 2016, we have had four major installation projects: one at Decorah, one at Decorah North, one at Fort St. Vrain, and one at Xcel Energy's Allen S. King plant in Oak Park Heights, MN. Our falcon surveys will start later this week, weather permitting. 
• Camera-related expenses: $40,500. This includes our new HD cameras, internet access, computers, video archiving equipment, and related supplies: installation and cable tools and hardware, cable, encoders, software, lumber, solar panels, wireless radios, and all non-staff or contract costs related to purchasing and installing camera systems. 
• Research-related expenses: $9,000. This includes transmitters, trapping supplies, and data costs, climbing equipment, banding equipment, bands, spotting scopes. permits, and autopsies. We also set some money aside to run a diurnal raptor banding and observation station. 
• Other/Miscellaneous costs: $9,000. This category includes gasoline, electricity, travel-related costs, equipment fabrication, and propane so we can heat the shed!

Our income is generated primarily by donations from viewers of our various cams, and we sincerely appreciate your generosity and support of the Raptor Resource Project mission. Would you please help us make a difference with your donation? You can donate via Paypal by following this link or mail a check to:

The Raptor Resource Project
PO Box 16
Decorah, IA 52101

Thank you so much for your support and we hope you enjoy watching in 2017!