Audubon, Library to host falcons presentation

ROSEBURG, Ore. – The Umpqua Valley Audubon Society and Roseburg Public Library invite the public to “Recovering the World’s Fastest Bird of Prey: Adventures with Peregrine Falcons” presented by Bob Sallinger at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 24.

Sallinger has been working to protect birds across Oregon for more than three decades. He is currently the director of Bird Conservation Oregon, an organization he founded in 2023. Before that, Sallinger worked as conservation director at Audubon Society of Portland, where his responsibilities included overseeing local, state and federal policy initiatives, litigation, community science initiatives and the busiest wildlife hospital in Oregon.

Among Sallinger’s favorite projects over the course of his career is spearheading efforts to protect peregrine falcons in the Portland metro region. Peregrine falcons -- the fastest animals on Earth when diving at speeds of more than 200 miles per hour -- were driven nearly to extinction in the 1950s and 1960s by the use of the pesticide DDT.

Sallinger began working with peregrines in the early 1990s when they still were critically endangered and has continued over the course of his career, and they have made an incredible comeback.

Sallinger has a biology degree from Reed College and a law degree from Lewis & Clark Law School. In 2023, he was awarded the Oregon Chapter of The Wildlife Society’s David B. Marshall Lifetime Achievement Award.

Learn more about Bird Conservation Oregon on their website at www.birdconservationoregon.org.

The program, which will be held at the library located at 1409 NE Diamond Lake Blvd., is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Roseburg Public Library staff at 541-492-7050 or library@cityofroseburg.org.

To learn more about the Umpqua Valley Audubon Society, visit their website at www.umpquaaudubon.org.