In only seven years*, we have reached over 30 thousand people and 451 programs all over the northern Arizona region in venues such as the Grand Canyon National Park, International Sedona Film Festival and Arboretum Flagstaff.
Our Flying Team has touched the lives of thousands of children for STEM Night, Flagstaff Festival of Science, Discovery Camp at the Museum of Northern Arizona and in dozens of classrooms throughout the region.
Prior to his death in 2022, our male American Kestrel, Finley, sat on hundreds of children’s gloved hands inspiring our next generation to care about their natural world and touching their hearts forever. And his successor, Lennox, is working hard to catch up to Finley’s legendary status.
The entire IRFC Flying Team has touched the hearts of 10’s of thousands of people and changed their minds about raptors’ intrinsic value in the world, inspiring them to make the world a better place for them.
In 2024, our male Harris Hawk Leroy, single-handedly reached 5% of the Flagstaff population and 3.5% of the Sedona population. Not bad for a bird weighing a little over a pound!
*Two of those years were during a global pandemic!
OUR IMPACT
Leroy, with Board Member/Volunteer, Sue Ordway, at the Earth Day Event at Bushmaster Park April 2024.
Flagstaff STEM City Celebration 2018 at NAU’s Walkup Skydome
30K+
PEOPLE REACHED
Through our educational programs, outreach, and experiences, adults and children have learned about raptor ecology and conservation issues through up-close personal interactions with our Flying Team. They have learned the history of Falconry and the important role falconers played in saving raptor species we enjoy today.
Nothing gets by Quinn, our female Dark-morph Ferruginous Hawk at Science in the Park during Flagstaff Festival of Science! September 2023.
451+
PROGRAMS GIVEN
We have developed unique interactive programs that cover raptor ecology, environmental policies, falconry and conservation with actions for the public to implement. Our Flying Team accompanies all our classroom programs and outreach events. Additionally, our programs are designed and delivered using science based data and lived experience gathered in a unique ‘boots on the ground’ approach to ecology through the culture of falconry. These are not your typical ‘meet the owl’ intercounters.
Enedina, our female Saker Falcon, inspiring the next generation of falconers!
December 2024: Photo shared by his mother.
4,500K+
CHILDREN REACHED
Every year, we are contacted by parents with children that have an intense interest in falconry and/or raptors looking to empower that passion with our help.
We have reached countless children through our hands-on Raptor and Falconry Experiences, classroom programs and outreach events such as our monthly programs at the Arboretum Flagstaff and the dozens of programs we donated throughout the week of the Flagstaff Festival of Science.
All data as of December 2024