Gary Lee
by Madonna Luers

Gary Lee, Spokane Audubon board member since 2013, considers himself a relatively new birder. “I grew up in a small logging town in northern California’s redwood forest, so loving nature and the outdoors was always in my blood,” he said, “but I didn’t really know birdwatching was a ‘thing’ for most of my life.”

Gary first joined Audubon in December 2011 when he read an article in the Spokane newspaper about the Christmas Bird Count and thought it sounded like a fun way to learn about birds. At that point, he says, his kids were grown and his days of facilitating their involvement in extracurricular school activities were over. It was time to choose his own recreational pursuits.

Gary was born in Ukiah, California in 1958. After high school he joined the U.S. Air Force to see the world and get an education on the G.I. bill. (He lived in Europe for three years and traveled through 20 countries.) He considered becoming a wildlife biologist, but he loved financial management and ended up with a B.A. degree in accounting and finance from Sonoma State University, followed by his Certified Financial Planning (CFP) designation from the College for Financial Planning.

As a CFP he built up his practice and his investment advisory firm in northern California, as he and his wife Cathy raised their young family. But by the mid-90’s, the growth in California made traffic and commuting “terrible”. They wanted to buy land in a quieter place so they started looking around the west for a more suitable home for their family. In 1996 they moved to the Spokane area for its smalltown feel but with urban amenities, including access to air travel so that Gary could continue to meet with California clients as needed.

Even though he’s still running his financial advisory business full-time, Gary says that he joined the Audubon board when asked because he believes in giving back to an organization that provides him the benefit of a “bird education.” He has helped the board invest money for better returns with the goal of covering chapter expenses, like field trip liability insurance and educational outreach materials, from interest income. Ideally, he says, the chapter might build a foundation that could be a funding source for bigger projects, such as wildlife habitat protection. Gary is also the chapter’s program chair, lining up presenters for monthly meetings, a role that fits with his job schedule and has helped him meet many birding experts.

His first international birding trip was to Costa Rica, where he was amazed by the diversity of species – he saw 452 species in a couple of weeks. Last year Gary, Cathy and their daughter traveled to Africa for a do-it-yourself trip through several national parks to see the countryside and all its wildlife – an adventure that he shared with the chapter in a meeting program last fall.

Gary often combines business trips to California with birding, once adding a six-week road trip from California east through Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and all the way to the Outer Banks of North Carolina during bird migration.

“I started birding so late in my life, and I’m still so busy with work, that I know I won’t ever see all the species that I’d like to through travel,” he said, “so I’m now in the habit of watching YouTube birding videos from exotic places on-line during my lunch hour. In that way, I’m up to almost 8,000 of the world’s some 10,000 bird species!”