The Theodore Roosevelt Bird Sanctuary has good news to announce. They have appointed a new director, Marilyn England following the tragic death last year of Mary Richard, the sanctuary's former director. They are also in the process of reintegrating with the National Audubon Society.

Marilyn is a lifelong resident of Long Island with deep roots in Long Island's environmental community. This background will serve her well as she works to expand the role of the sanctuary in Long Island conservation issues, especially the protection of important bird habitats.

"The Theodore Roosevelt Sanctuary is already renowned for its outstanding environmental education programs," said Marilyn, "So expanding our vision to include hands-on habitat conservation work to preserve nature in our own backyard is a natural."

Prior to coming to the sanctuary, Marilyn worked for the National Audubon Society's Living Oceans Program, building grassroots support for marine conservation. She is an ornithologist by training, with extensive field, teaching and research experience. She earned her undergraduate degree at SUNY Stonybrook, and her M.S. at Long Island University/CW Post Campus.

Among her accomplishments, Marilyn developed and taught a conservation-based ornithology course at Southampton College which remains a mainstay of that institution's Biology Department, has been instrumental in the preservation of fragile natural areas on Long Island through her untiring efforts on behalf of birds and other wildlife, works with endangered Roseate Terns as part of a regional population study to determine the status of these declining seabirds, and runs a banding station that monitors the status of neotropical migratory songbirds (birds that breed here, and winter in the tropics). Marilyn's long-term study of the breeding biology of Northern Harriers ( a Long Island hawk of marshes and grasslands) remains the only in-depth work on this state threatened species in the northeast.

But, it is the realization that "without education there can be no conservation" that is the driving force behind her excitement at returning to the sanctuary, where she had previously worked for several years in the mid-1980s. "The work that we do here is the bottom line for what will literally mean the difference between life and death for some of the world's most beautiful creatures," said Marilyn. "It is a privilege to be here."

The Theodore Roosevelt Bird Sanctuary was originally given to the National Audubon Society. They turned the day to day operation to the three local NAS groups: the Huntington Audubon Society, the Lyman Langdon Audubon Society and the South Shore Audubon Society and a community component - a board of directors which managed the site and sanctuary members. The original board of directors had equal representation from the three chapters and the community, said Jay Teyan, who was the interim/acting director of the sanctuary until the new appointment, and now is the assistant director.

The day to day operations will be similar, it just means they will be part of a larger network and have access to better research and a better outreach and more clout in supporting environmental causes.

"We are still in the process - a slow change - but, we will have more of a connection statewide, and for fund raising and educational development since we will be part of the network working throughout the state," said Mr. Teyan. The sanctuary has always been a part of the NAS, the buildings and the grounds belong to them - now the management will return to NAS.

"It's a very positive thing for the sanctuary," he said.

On July 1, the management of the sanctuary passed into the hands of the State Audubon office. "This will have many advantages for all concerned," wrote Alice DelBosco in killdeer, the newsletter of the Huntington Audubon Society. "Our staff will receive better salaries, better benefits and more opportunities. The personnel committee which has worked long and hard will no longer be needed and will happily disband.

"But most of the functions the board has performed will still be required. They will continue to be taken care of by many of the same people who are now board members. Instead of having the title of director, they will be serving as committee members. Volunteers will be needed for any number of things. Work party days will be occasions for get-togethers as well as for grooming the grounds. Membership will be maintained. Fund raising and development will become more important than ever as we enter the capital campaign to make Mary's dream of a new Nature Center a reality."