May 22, 2019
By Bob Fowler
Roane State staff writer
CROSSVILLE, TN - Roane State's Cumberland County campus is a site to help preserve bluebirds in Cumberland County.
The City of Crosville has named the bluebird its official bird, and a similar proposal will go before the Cumberland County Commission. Residents and Roane State officials launched an effort to help the formerly endangered species by giving them homes suitable for raising families.
There were an estimated 20 million bluebirds in 1900 but that count had plummeted to about 2 million in 1960, said Don Hazel, vice president of the Tennessee Bluebird Society. The bird head count has rebounded since then, thanks in part to ongoing restoration efforts, including the placement of specially designed birdhouses.
The birds prefer "open, grassy areas as opposed to woods," Hazel said. The colorful creatures are also territorial, so nesting boxes have to be spaced widely apart.
Roane State’s Cumberland County campus is home to 11 nesting boxes for bluebirds.
Roane State staff facilitated the placement of 11 of the wooden boxes on its 42-acre grassland campus off Cook Road near Interstate 40. Hazel said campus director Holly Hanson welcomed the proposal, and maintenance supervisor Darrell Christmas coordinated the endeavor.
"I look forward to the bluebirds finding new homes on the Roane State Cumberland campus," said Holly Hanson, campus director. She said the undertaking is "part of the community effort to help ensure the bluebirds will continue to thrive."
Hazel said students at the Tennessee College of Applied Technology-Crossville built 40 bluebird boxes for the project.
Other locations in Cumberland County for the nesting boxes include six area golf courses, the Obed River Park, Meadow Park Lake and the Pleasant Hill community.
Hazel said 84 residents were recruited to take turns monitoring the boxes once weekly - removing insects and evicting invasive non-native birds – throughout the bluebird nesting season, which goes from April through August.
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