big year


The obsessed birders in the audience (you know who you are) will be familiar with the “Big Year” concept—essentially, a relentless effort to spot as many species as possible in a given place in one year. Birders will do Big Years (or Big Months or Big Days or Big Whatever Time Period) just about anywhere, and very often a serious competitive spark enlivens the proceedings. Rick Obamscik’s 2004 book The Big Year documented three fanatical efforts to win the pan-continental North American Big Year and the coveted American Birding Association championship.

Now a new Bay Area environmental nonprofit is adapting this idea and trying to push it beyond mere observation. The Wild Equity Institute’s version of the Big Year, now in its second biennial run, challenges participants to spot—and help—endangered species in Golden Gate National Parks, a complex of reserves clustered around the Bay Area. Some 36 endangered animals, birds, and fish live in the park. Wild Equity’s competitors are out to see them all—and take action to make sure that future contestants can see them, too. The overall winner gets a $1,000 gift certificate for outdoor gear and, no doubt, massive bragging rights among Bay Area outdoorsfolk.

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