From Risk to Resilience: Saving Birds at the Sandra Stetson Aquatic Center

Stetson University’s Sandra Stetson Aquatic Center is a two-story, 11,000-square-foot facility located just outside of DeLand. The building features expansive views of Lake Beresford and is surrounded by natural vegetation and an educational hiking trail. The property grounds have been used as a Christmas Bird Count site for quite some time, and they feature innovative green infrastructure demonstrations for addressing water quality impairment, such as native plant stormwater buffers, a rain garden, and floating wetland mats.

Unfortunately, the building’s unique architectural design also includes a large area of highly reflective glass windows. Reflective windows, especially when adjacent to vegetation and trees, often create a mirror-effect for birds, which can cause the birds to mistakenly fly into the glass. The reflective glass windows at the Aquatic Center have been no exception to this mirror-effect, and bird collisions against the facility windows have consistently been observed since its construction. Recent research asserts that strikes against glass account for well over 1 billion bird deaths per year in the United States alone.

To address these continuous bird collisions, an “Audubon in Action” grant was awarded by the National Audubon Society in the fall of 2024, which enabled patterned dot-grid Feather-Friendly window markers to be installed on the north-facing side of the upstairs of the building in spring 2025. However, bird strikes and disorientation continued on the south and west-facing sides of the building, and in at least two cases, collisions occurred during birding events held at the site in 2025. A second grant was awarded to the West Volusia Audubon Society in 2026, in partnership with IWER, to complete the installation of patterned window markers on the south and west-facing windows of the Aquatic Center, thus reducing strikes by increasing visibility for migratory and resident birds. Because certified Feather-Friendly installers were not widely available, Stetson contractor, Elite Tinting Company Florida, LLC, stepped up to the plate to take on the role of installing the window markers. Elite Tinting Company is now moving towards Feather-Friendly certification, giving this local business a highly competitive edge.

We are thrilled that this thriving partnership has paved the way for an opportunity to take bold steps towards conservation, education, student engagement, and community-building.