Every year, more than 400 birds crash headlong into the windows of East Junior High School, not realizing they’re flying into solid glass. The school, and its 38 windows, sits near the Boise Foothills, putting it in the path of birds who don’t realize the glass reflection is really a deadly trap.
Students like Charlotte Meng and Akshara Nataraj wanted to stop these collisions, so, along with the Golden Eagle Audubon Society and a grant from the City of Boise’s Youth Climate Action Fund, they launched Project Skyward, leading to a 95% decline in bird-window collisions.
We wanted to know more, so Charlotte Meng, the Project Skyward Project Implementation Manager at East Junior High and a student reporter at the Timberline Paw Print, Akshara Nataraj, the Project Skyward at East Junior High Survey/Data Coordinator, and Cynthia Wallesz, Executive Director of the Golden Eagle Audubon Society joined Idaho Matters to tell us all about the project.
