OBCI Events
We are looking for partners to support an Ohio keep Cats Indoors Campaign! Are you interested in participating in this campaign? Please let us know! We hope to have an initial meeting in January 2007. Please contact us, if you would like to participate.
Who We Are
Who are we? Here is more information on some of the folks who keep OBCI running!
Paul Rodewald
OBCI Chair
Paul Rodewald is an Assistant Professor of Wildlife Ecology in the School of Environment and Natural Resources at Ohio State University. He teaches classes in wildlife habitat management, wildlife ID, and research in avian ecology. His research addresses the ecology, behavior, and habitat relationships of landbirds using migratory stopover areas near Lake Erie and urban landscapes surrounding Columbus. Paul is a Co-Director of the Ohio Breeding Bird Atlas II and has served as the Chair of the Ohio Bird Conservation Initiative since early 2004.
Julie Shieldcastle
OBCI Vice-chair
Julie Shieldcastle is the Executive Director of the Black Swamp Bird Observatory, which is engaged in research and intensive long-term monitoring of bird populations and public education efforts. During the 1990s she was the Chair of the Ohio Working Group of Partners in Flight, a group concerned with the effective conservation of landbirds in Ohio and a precursor to the all-bird conservation efforts of OBCI. She was instrumental in organizing early efforts to establish OBCI.
David Scott
Executive Council Member
David P. Scott is the Wildlife Research Administrator for the ODNR, Division of Wildlife. He served as Project Leader for Upland Wildlife Research from 1992 to 2003. David has worked on numerous conservation projects including, steering committee member for Ohio Working Group of Partners in Flight, founding member of OBCI (along with BSBO & Audubon Ohio), chairman of the Eastern Management Unit Dove Technical Committee (2004-2006), and co-chair of the National Mourning Dove Task Force (IAFWA).
Mike Reynolds
Co-Chair Conservation Planning and Research Committee
Mike Reynolds is a Wildlife Research Biologist at the Waterloo Wildlife Research Station in Athens, Ohio. He has participated in studies to estimate survival and the effects of hunting on Ruffed Grouse, Wild Turkey, and White-Tailed deer. He has recently assumed the role of Forest Wildlife Habitat Coordinator and will work to implement forest focus area and forest habitat tactical plans on public lands in Ohio. Mike represents the Division of Wildlife on the Cerulean Warbler technical working group and steering committees of the Lower Great Lakes/St. Lawrence Plain (BCR 13) and Appalachian Mountains (BCR 28) Bird Conservation Regions.
John Ritzenthaler
Outreach and Education Committee Co-Chair
John Ritzenthaler is Director of Habitat Conservation for Audubon Ohio and coordinates the Important Bird Area program for Audubon in Ohio. He has been with Audubon since 1985, for fourteen years as Environmental Educator at Aullwood Audubon Center and Farm in Dayton, Ohio. Since 1994 he has served as Adjunct Instructor of Ornithology at Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio.
Peter Whan
Outreach and Education Committee Co-Chair
Peter Whan has a degree in recreation and wildlife and has been working at the Edge of Appalachia for 16 years, five years as an employee of the Cincinnati Natural History Museum and 10 years with The Nature Conservancy. He worked as field biologist in Massachusetts at the Manomet Bird Observatory and surveyed 310 square miles of territory for the original Ohio Bird Atlas for ODNR, one year as a naturalist in the Florida Everglades and 3 years with the Conservancy as the Director of Preserves for the South Fork/Shelter Island Chapter in Long Island, New York.
Suzanne Cardinal Suzanne worked with OBCI from 2005 to 2007. She received a B.S. from The Evergreen State College and an M.S. in Biology from Northern Arizona University. She spent six seasons studying the endangered Southwestern Willow Flycatcher in Arizona and Nevada, she banded birds at numerous banding stations from Alaska to upstate New York, and she has worked on other conservation projects throughout the country.
Former OBCI Coordinator
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