2017-09-19T08:01:59-07:00 2016-12-31 J Lunsford CPA 3590 Cherokee ST NW Suite 304 Kennesaw GA 30144 990 2016-01-01 020648202 Blue Heron Nature Preserve Inc BLUE 4043451008 4055 Roswell Road Atlanta GA 30342 Kevin McCauley Executive Director 2017-09-19 true Jim Lunsford P00568479 7702620745 2016 2021-01-29 14:40:06Z 304813 false false X www.bhnp.org X 2002 GA The Mission of BHNP is to engage and motivate people to experience native habitats in an urban environment, protect and preserve native habitats and their associated heritage, provide a living nature lab for education and research, and advocate for the preservation and conservation of nature in urban communities. 15 15 3 300 0 250328 134209 23540 52106 27 56 89812 118442 363707 304813 0 0 66535 114551 0 15943 94449 128706 160984 243257 202723 61556 178577 236063 31464 27394 147113 208669 The Mission of BHNP is to engage and motivate people to experience native habitats in an urban environment, protect and preserve native habitats and their associated heritage, provide a living nature lab for education and research, and advocate for the preservation and conservation of nature in urban communities. false false 207241 Education Education programs at Blue Heron Nature Preserve continued to grow throughout 2016. Highlights include the expansion of our Summer Camp from 4 weeks to 9 weeks, which more than doubled the number of children we were able to serve. The increased exposure of our camps to the public led to increased demand for full-day camp, so we ran our first full-day camp in the Fall of 2016 and this is now a standard offering for all our school break and summer camps. We also hired three new environmental educators and retained two of our educators from 2015, bringing our education staff to 5 contract educators and a part-time Education Director. Our new education hires allowed us to grow our school and community programs. One educator focuses specifically on Girl and Boy Scout programming, and created badge specific programs for us to offer. We were able to offer our first Girl Scout Badge workshop in the Fall of 2016, and plan for many more in 2017. We continued our relationship with over a half-dozen area schools, and continued to add new schools to our field trip programming including Garden Hills Elementary, Springmont Montessori, and the SAE School. Additionally, we continued to grow and maintain our after school program offerings. Our on-site art after school saw an increase in enrollment, and we continued to support an on-site after school program for children from La Amistad. We continued our after-school work at The Galloway School, and we also continued our homeschool program partnership with the Atlanta Audubon Society. We began a new homeschool program offering for a small group of homeschoolers who learned of us through the Atlanta Audubon Society partnership, and this group met with us 4 times in the Fall of 2016, with plans to continue their programs in 2017. We also assisted with the start of construction on our new Field Education Centers, and anticipate growing the number of people we are able to reach through the use of these centers. We began to use the Emma Wetland Field Education Center in Fall of 2016 for one of our Second Saturday Safari programs, and birders from the Audubon Society joined us to bird the wetlands. This series continues to be popular and our August, October and November offerings filled. A new series for families, our Full Moon Hikes, was also incredibly popular and we had 25-50 participants at each walk we held in the fall. In 2016, there was an education program for children, families, or adults at Blue Heron Nature Preserve in every month of the year. Strategic Plan In 2016, we developed a Strategic Plan to better articulated our mission, vision and values and to establish goals and specific steps for achieving them. As part of the process key stakeholders and partners provided valuable input to help us better understand our value to the community and to identify improvements we can make to better serve our community. The plan identifies 4 main areas of focus as follows: Sustainably activate the Preserve, Executive staff and Board succession plan, Increase awareness and reputation of Blue Heron and Grow financial resources. We have aligned our Board with these goals and were able to achieve some of them during the year. In 2016, we completed an Executive Director succession plan and established more rigorous onboarding, development, and succession processes to cultivate and sustain an engaged and productive staff and Board. We also completed preliminary work on the first phase of our Blueway Trail initiative to activate the Preserve through a complete and connected soft trail system. Amphibian Foundation Partnership During 2016, we welcomed a new environmental partner to the Blue Heron family. The Amphibian Foundation moved into our facilities in the fall. Established in 2016 to protect amphibians and their habitats and building on work begun at the Atlanta Botanical Garden. We supported them to establish laboratory space at the Preserve for their captive breeding program to reestablish wild populations of the endangered Frosted Flatwoods Salamander and the Carolina Gopher Frog. We also provided shared office and educational space for them as well as helped manage funds awarded to them for their work. Their presence here has provided valuable expertise about these important creatures which we have leveraged in both the educational and research parts of our mission. This includes being a key participant in the Atlanta Urban Ecologist program, collaboration for our Camp and school break programming and research into the richness of the Preserves habitats for amphibians through our participation in the Metro Atlanta Amphibian Monitoring Program which they established. We look forward to building this partnership in the coming year. Blueway Trail Initiative As a direct result of the recommendations from the recently completed Strategic Plan we made it a priority implement our Blueway Trails system beginning in 2016. The Blueway trails will help to activate the Preserve through a complete and connected trail system along our waterways which happen to contain the richest and most sensitive habitats. We first hired a soft trail specialist who completed a conceptual plan and cost estimate for the trail system within the Preserve. We then were successful in securing a grant from Park Pride to help fund a portion of the work. We also were able to secure funding through the TSPLOST ballot referendum for a second phase of the Blueway Trail initiative to connect the Preserve to nearby multi-use trails at Chastain Park and PATH400 in Buckhead. In 2017, we will build on this work to raise the necessary funds and to begin the construction of the trail system. 207241 true true false false false false false false false false true false false false true false true false false false false false false false false false false false false false false false false false false false false false false false false false false false false false false false false false false true 12 0 true 3 true false false false false false false false false 0 false false false false false false false false false false X 15 15 false false false false false false false true true false false true true true true false false false false false GA X Kevin McCauley 4049466394 4055 Roswell Road Atlanta GA 30342 X Jay Levin Director 4.00 0.00 X 0 0 0 Kitsie Riggall Vice President 4.00 0.00 X X 0 0 0 Christine Williams Treasurer 4.00 0.00 X X 0 0 0 Betsy Lane Secretary 4.00 0.00 X X 0 0 0 Kim Blythe Director 2.00 0.00 X 0 0 0 Norris Broyles Vice President 2.00 0.00 X 0 0 0 Robert Cook Director 2.00 0.00 X 0 0 0 Brooke Hammonds Director 2.00 0.00 X 0 0 0 Chip Pottinger Director 2.00 0.00 X 0 0 0 Libba Shortridge Director 2.00 0.00 X 0 0 0 Robert Threlkeld Director 2.00 0.00 X 0 0 0 Oran Woodall Director 2.00 0.00 X 0 0 0 Chad Wright Director 2.00 0.00 X 0 0 0 Connie York President 2.00 0.00 X X 0 0 0 Reggie Colbert Director 2.00 0.00 X 0 0 0 Nancy Jones Executive Director 40.00 0.00 X 46400 0 0 Kevin McCauley Executive Director 40.00 0.00 X 35000 0 0 81400 0 false false false 0 134209 134209 Education 52106 52106 52106 56 56 0 0 115284 115284 115284 115284 0 0 0 3158 3158 3158 0 304813 167390 3214 0 0 0 0 81400 71826 6822 2752 0 25000 25000 0 0 8151 7192 683 276 6050 6050 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1813 1813 0 30744 30744 4843 4843 0 0 0 0 7605 7605 5500 3671 1829 Education - Instructor Fees 26893 26893 Fundraising/Development 12915 12915 Printing and Publications 6929 6929 Project Specific Expense 6261 6261 19153 16277 2876 243257 207241 20073 15943 98429 113331 0 0 3500 0 0 0 0 0 0 137942 15210 76648 122732 0 0 0 0 0 178577 236063 26909 1308 4555 26086 31464 27394 X 107052 168542 40061 40127 147113 208669 178577 236063 61556 X false true X false false X 33359 45953 60304 150328 134209 424153 0 75425 75425 75425 75425 75425 377125 108784 121378 135729 225753 209634 801278 56796 744482 69840 75090 82623 89727 115284 432564 0 0 1233842 0.60340 0.59550 X RESTRICTED RESTRICTED RESTRICTED RESTRICTED RESTRICTED RESTRICTED RESTRICTED RESTRICTED 80737 2325 78412 57205 12885 44320 122732 Emma Lane 6531 Security Deposits 19555 26086 304813 304813 304813 243257 243257 243257 Form 990, Part VI, Line 11b: Form 990 Review Process The President of the Board of Directors, the Treasurer and the Executive Director reviews Form 990. Once the President, Treasure and Executive Director have reviewed Form 990 and have determined that it is a complete and accurate representation of the organizations activities for the year the 990 is presented to the full board. Form 990, Part VI, Line 12c: Explanation of Monitoring and Enforcement of Conflicts The Organization requires that each board or staff member compete an Annual Conflict of Disclosure Form each year. Any conflicts noted are addressed by the board at that time. The Conflict of Interest Policy also requires each board or staff member to promptly report any potential conflict of interest to either the Board Chairman or the Executive Director as those situations arise. Form 990, Part VI, Line 19: Other Organization Documents Publicly Available The Organization will provide disclosure of governing documents, policies and financial statements upon request.