Borough to honor Earth Day Mayor for the Day

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Corrie Folsom-O’Keefe

NAUGATUCK — Corrie Folsom-O’Keefe will be honored Saturday as Naugatuck’s Earth Day Mayor for the Day.

Folsom-O’Keefe, an ornithologist, is the bird conservation programs manager for Audubon Connecticut, the state office of the National Audubon Society, a press release stated. She has a master’s degree from Connecticut College, and her thesis examined the effects of surrounding landscape on the abundance and breeding success of shrubland birds in powerline corridors. She has conducted field work involving birds in Belize, the Bahamas, Nova Scotia, the Farallon Islands and Connecticut.

As bird conservation programs manager for Audubon Connecticut, Folsom-O’Keefe leads the Audubon Alliance for Coastal Waterbirds and also manages Stratford Point. The alliance assists the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection’s wildlife division and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service with the management of the Piping Plover and other beach-nesting birds.

Locally, Folsom-O’Keefe was a member of the Gunntown Group as it formed in the mid-1990s. She is still involved with the group, the release stated.

Folsom-O’Keefe will be recognized during a program Saturday at 10 a.m. at Gunntown Passive Park & Nature Preserve on Gunntown Road. She will also lead a bird walk as part of the program.