Knoxville Chapter, TOS

 
Knoxville Chapter members at Sharp's Ridge, one of the
area's premier locations for finding migrating songbirds.

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

To view KTOS photo galleries click here.

The Chapter publishes a newsletter, through the biKNOXulars. The current issue is available here. Back issues are available from this list:

Note: The newsletter is in Adobe Acrobat (pdf) format, and requires the free Adobe Acrobat Reader, available here.

Chapter adopts Sharp's Ridge and holds cleanups. Click here for details.
KTOS Celebrates 80th Anniversity. Click here for details.



J. B. Owen Overlook
at Sharp's Ridge dedicated on December 16, 2003. Click here for details.

 


The Chapter provides an annual "J.B. Owen Award" for projects that promote the welfare and conservation of birds in Tennessee. Click here for information on this award.

Interested in leading a chapter field trip? Please complete this form and send it to the KTOS Field Trip Coordinator at the address listed on the form.

Chapter History

The Chapter was organized on Jan. 13, 1924, after a 14-year "incubation period." For 18 years we were known as the East Tennessee Ornithological Society. H.P. and Alice Yoe Ijams bought a home on Island Home Avenue and began developing it as a bird sanctuary. He was a commercial artist with The Knoxville News-Sentinel and designed the cover for The Migrant that was used for every issue up until recently.

With florist Brockway Crouch, the Ijams' organized an Audubon group that pre-dated the founding of TOS, and when that organization formed in Nashville in 1915, Ijams soon began corresponding with TOS founder Albert Ganier.  

Spring bird counts were begun by1921, and a state-wide Fall Field Day was hosted in 1922. First officers at the organizational meeting were Ijams, president; G.M. Bentley, vice president; Paul J. Adams, secretary-treasurer; S.A. Ogden, curator, and members Crouch, C.L. Gibson, Charles Seacress, George A. Knopt and Gus L. Burdett. Elizabeth Ijams was a junior member. Ijams became state president in 1931. His home is still a bird sanctuary.

Current Events

Meetings are typically held the first Wednesday of the month at 7:00 p.m. in Room 117, UT College of Veterinary Medicine (except June, July, and September). We don't meet in July, and the June and September meetings are potlucks at a member's home or local park or nature center.

Please call the KTOS Wild Bird Hotline at (865) 577-4717 ext. 80 for absolute information on where our meeting will be held. To get to the Veterinary Medicine building from U.S. 129 (Alcoa Highway), take the Neyland Drive exit. Turn left onto Neyland Drive, then left at the traffic light onto Joe Johnson Drive and the UT Ag Campus. The Veterinary Medicine building is the first building on the right. Parking is available in several nearby lots. Hope to see you there!

Annual dues are $30 family, $26 individual, $13 high school students (Includes $10 TOS state dues). Members receive the "through the biKNOXulars" newsletter nine times per year and the state publications. Contact our president to join us (info below).

Activities include at least two field trips per month, spring count, fall count, Christmas counts, Midwinter Eagle Survey, special field trips out of the area, monthly meetings with programs, and opportunities to become active in bird-related conservation issues.

One ongoing conservation activity is a cooperative project with the Tennessee Valley Authority to construct and erect Osprey nest platforms on Fort Loudoun, Tellico, and Melton Hill Lakes. Following are scenes of a platform going up on Tellico Lake in March, 2000. Photos by Meredith Clebsch.


Current Officers

President:
Mark Campen, 1309 Adair Dr, Knoxville, TN 37918, Phone (865) 414-5593, E-mail: campen@tnike.com

Vice President:
Mark Armstrong, 1440 Fawn Road, Seymour, TN 37865, Phone (865) 577-5398, E-mail: woodthrush@bellsouth.net

Treasurer:
Marie Oakes, 18 Rockingham Lane, Oak Ridge, TN 37830, E-mail: marieoakes@msn.com

Secretary:
Kathy Bivens, PO Box 8, Rockford TN 37853, Phone 865-983-734 , E-mail: volkathy@yahoo.com

Newsletter Editor:
Ginger Goolsby, 1126 Heykoop Drive, Morristown, TN, 37814, Phone (423) 581-9439, E-mail: vtgoolsby@musfiber.com

Newsletter Editor (Distribution):
Patty Ford, 5400 Crooked Pine Lane, Knoxville, TN 37921, Phone (865) 719-8383, E-mail: pattyford@hotmail.com

Field Trip Coordinator:
Robin Barrow, Phone (865) 297-2572, E-mail: braveladyrobin@gmail.com

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