The current Cherokee Heights Middle School chimney. *Photo by Brenna Marsicek/SoWBA*

We are happy to share a positive update about the chimney habitat at Cherokee Heights Middle School in Madison. As you know, the school was approved in the 2024 referendum to be demolished and rebuilt to better suit the needs of the students there. That would include destroying the chimney that hundreds of Chimney Swifts regularly roost in each night during spring and fall migration.

With your help, we've advocated to provide a replacement "faux" chimney that is designed specifically for Chimney Swift use, and that would be attached to the new school. The new school is intended to be built on top of the current soccer field, and would be built while the old school still stands and functions.

Now the exciting part: Madison Metropolitan School District has publicly committed to collaborating with Southern Wisconsin Bird Alliance to build a faux chimney at the new school, based on the guidance and best practices that are known to benefit swifts. We are using construction templates from other successful sites with large chimneys like this, particularly one in Manitoba. It is our intent to keep a watchful eye on this project and weigh in on behalf of bird conservation. This includes making sure that the old chimney will remain on site and functional until the new chimney is available for swift use. We will be working closely with MMSD in the coming months and years to bring this to fruition, and monitor Chimney Swift use.

Thank you so much for your support on this effort, and for talking to your neighbors, elected officials, and MMSD to advocate for swift conservation. If you would like to send a note to MMSD to thank them for their commitment, you can do that here: https://www.madison.k12.wi.us/about/2024-referenda (scroll all the way to the bottom of the page to fill out the contact form).