March 1, 2009
Bird-of-Mouth
The Newsletter for Burning Hawk Wines
Dear Friends,
It’s not often that you can enjoy a glass of wine and be of service to the world at the same time. This was the simple connection behind the creating of Burning Hawk Wines. And each month we continue to make progress with your involvement:
In this edition we:
• Announce a focused, one-month fund raising initiative
• Take you behind the scenes of the creation of the Burning Hawk Wine label
• Announce the winner of our recent newsletter naming contest
• Introduce you to the threats posed by communication towers to birds
Please purchase Burning Hawk wine this month. It is your involvement and partnership as “Causetomers” that makes the difference for organizations and projects such as the Rocky Mountain Raptor Program (RMRP).
The entire team at Burning Hawk extends our thanks to you for reading this newsletter. If you have questions, ideas or requests please call us at 707.836.5492 or send us an email.
The Burning Hawk Team
Got Fervor? Sip Wine & Fund the Rocky Mountain Raptor Program
10% of March Proceeds Fund this Remarkable Organization
The team at Burning Hawk Wines appreciates “Fervor” when it comes to the organizations and initiatives we support. So for the month of March each sip of philanthropic wine you choose to enjoy will directly support Rocky Mountain Raptor Program which is “fervently dedicated to rescuing, rehabilitating and releasing injured birds of prey, including Eagles, Owls, Hawks and Falcons”.
 We first learned of the RMRP when EDM International approached us to partner with them to donate the inaugural vintages of Burning Hawk wines to the recent RMRP’s “Second Chance at Freedom” Gala and Benefit Auction. The auction of these collector’s edition wines, signed by acclaimed winemaker Marco DiGiulio and founder Nick Papadopoulos, will provide a tremendous boost to the RMRP. Note: As founding customers and supporters of Burning Hawk it is critical for you know that you are as responsible for this contribution as much as anyone.
For the month of March, 10% of your Burning Hawk wine order will fund the Rocky Mountain Raptor Program. For orders of 3 cases or more Burning Hawk Wines will contribute 15% of the total net sales. This fundraising drive ends midnight on March 31st.
Use code RMRP1 and make your purchase of philanthropic Burning Hawk wines now.
About the Rocky Mountain Raptor Program
After reviewing the work of RMRP, here are a few of the reasons for lending a wine-glass-holding hand to this important organization:
• The RMRP’s manages an advanced Hospital and Medical Care Facility for treating injured birds of prey, including Golden Eagles and other raptors injured by power lines.
• The RMRP leads a remarkably successful Birds of Prey Educational Programs that reach thousands of children annually.
• Through this work the RMRP has developed a National Reputation for Innovation for their treatment methods, cage design, volunteerism, community involvement, and youth development.
For more information please visit www.rmrp.org. Also, we are grateful for the many hours of advice, passion and ideas that our advisor Rick Harness of EDM International has contributed. Rick is the leader of the Mongolian Saker Falcon initiative we are working hard to support.
Back to Top
Behind the Scenes with Burning Hawk’s Label Designer
Since our inception, we’ve received requests from many of you for more information more about what went into creating the amazing Burning Hawk wine label and in particular, who was responsible for perfectly translating the Burning Hawk vision onto the bottle.
In this video, crafted by the talented team at JProlific Communications, we introduce you to designer Mike Currie, one of the finest label designers in the wine business.
Before clicking further we’d like to take a moment to acknowledge and thank Justin Whitaker of JProlific Communications. From the beginning of our initiative, Justin has been tremendously giving of his time and many film making talents. Thanks Justin! Please take a moment to visit JProlific’s website.
Back to Top
BirdFreak Names Newsletter “Bird of Mouth” and Wins Vino
Story Talon…Live Wire…Hawking Wine…These were just a few of the creative contributions submitted by you in our recent newsletter naming contest. It was tremendously difficult to choose. However after much thought, one idea roosted a bit higher than the rest (in our humble opinion). We are pleased and excited to announce that Eddie “The Bird Freak” Callaway wins two bottles of Burning Hawk wine for naming our newsletter “Bird-of-Mouth.”
Eddie, one of the main bloggers at birdfreak.com, has been a passionate fan and supporter of Burning Hawk since our inception. He has provided creative cause-marketing ideas, purchased wine to share with family and friends and even conducted the first ever photo shoot of Burning Hawk wines in the snow! Congratulations Eddie. And thank-you for leadership, creativity and philanthropy!
As a gesture of thanks to everyone who participated, we extend those of you who emailed (or in Jacqueline’s case Facebook IM’d) ideas a 20% discount on your next order of Burning Hawk wines. Please call Nick Papadopoulos at 707.836.5492 to place your order.
Back to Top
ISSUE ALERT: Communications Towers Threaten Birdlife
Cellular and communications towers provide many obvious benefits. But there are numerous areas where their development and construction can spark community conflict and threaten birdlife. Today we are going to briefly introduce you to the broad issues relating to the siting and construction of communications towers and then focus in on what scientists and advocates are learning about threats to birds.
Prior to founding Burning Hawk Wines, Nick Papadopoulos worked as a business, land use and natural resources consultant. One of the projects he worked on was to better understand conflicts associated with the development of telecommunications towers in communities around the US. For this work he and his colleagues Merrick Hoben and Kate Harvey from the Consensus Building Institute were honored with the 2006 Mark H. Green Award for their work which shared insights and collaboration practices for minimizing the negative impacts of cellular and telecommunications tower developments. For more information you can read Downed Lines: Best Practices for Improving the Way Telecommunications Disputes are Handled.
But the impact that this work didn’t include is that certain communications towers pose a major threat and risk to birdlife. Millions of birds are killed. Here is some background developed by the team at the American Bird Conservancy, not-for profit organization whose mission is to conserve native wild birds and their habitats throughout the Americas.
• The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimates that between five and 50 million birds are killed in the U.S. each year after being attracted by the lights on communication towers, and colliding with the tower’s structure or guy wires during night migration.
• Most incidents happen in poor weather with low cloud during the spring or fall. In at least one instance, several thousand birds were killed at a single tower in one night.
• At least 231 species have been affected, with neotropical migrants making up a large proportion of all species killed.
• Approximately 80,000 communication towers in the U.S. are required by the Federal Communications Commission to be lit, either because they are more than 199 feet tall, are in the immediate vicinity of an airport, or are situated along a major highway.
• More than 7,000 new towers are being constructed each year to meet the demand for cellular telephone and digital television networks, and this is expected to continue increasing in the foreseeable future.
For more information on this issue, the solutions and what you can do please visit ABC’s webpage on The Mortality Threats to Birds.
Back to Top |
