Few donors are interested in funding maintenance and repairs essential to keep the Preserve operational but not seen as direct conservation outcomes. So when Jake Able reached out to  Manager of Kern River Preserve, Reed Tollefson, to see what he could do to help Kern River Preserve, Reed gave him some tough options to fund raise or do some difficult field work.  We were blown away by his generosity as he did both.  

The Preserve had some facilities in need of a major upgrade.  Old electrical service needed to be removed from a building slated for demolition and moved to the Office/Visitor Center.  The new installation needed to be upgraded, elevation surveyed and permitted.   Jake made a donation to cover the cost of lots of professional work to do this by Next Phase Electric and  Neems Surveying. 

Jake wasn't done there though.  He then spent a day rooting out the invasive weed purple loosestrife under pretty tough conditions along the South Fork Kern. Crawling through brush and slogging through high vegetation just for the pleasure of pulling weeds on your day off is not for everyone.  

Since then, this engineer from Bakersfield and Kern Audubon member has been back to provide field labor to remove invasive weeds, clean up trash and repair range fence.  He is up for any kind of work, so Reed throws the tough stuff at him. 

We could not do our work to protect birds without volunteers and donors like Jake, especially those who are willing to fund less glamorous projects and are so grateful to volunteers and donors like Jake whom we feel extremely lucky to have found. Thank you very much Jake! 

#Gratitude