The Pacific Coast Joint Venture and the Northern Pacific Rainforest Bird Conservation Region

The Pacific Coast Joint Venture (PCJV) is an international partnership originally established in 1991 to ensure the long-term health of wetland ecosystems and their associated birds and habitats. More recently that goal has expanded to all-bird and all-habitats under the vision of the North American Bird Conservation Initiative.

The PCJV facilitates partnerships within the public and private sector to fund and implement habitat conservation projects that carry out the goals of the four major bird conservation initiatives: North American Waterfowl Management Plan, North American Waterbird Conservation Plan, U.S. Shorebird Conservation Plan, and Partners in Flight (landbirds). A management board and state and provincial steering committees guide and coordinate implementation of PCJV activities with numerous agencies, organizations, and individuals. Within the realm of habitat conservation, the PCJV partnership emphasizes the protection, restoration, and enhancement of priority habitats within 18 Focus Areas in Hawaii and coastal Alaska, British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, and northern California.

American Bird Conservancy (ABC) staff in the Pacific Northwest function in a dual role for bird conservation as Northern Pacific Rainforest Bird Conservation Region (BCR 5) Coordinator and as one of two Science Coordinators for the PCJV. In the latter role, ABC staff are responsible for providing leadership to PCJV partners in upland and riparian bird and habitat conservation efforts, and also in developing the quantitative habitat and population objectives to stimulate and support those conservation efforts.

ABC staff have initiated and lead numerous PCJV and BCR 5 projects over the last seven years to support bird and habitat conservation. A few of the more noteworthy ones include: several international projects under the banner of Quercus and Aves, the Reintroduction of Western Bluebirds to northwest Washington and southwest British Columbia, working with private landowners for the Conservation of Cavity-nesting Birds in Ponderosa Pine Forests 4, a regional Inventory of Waterfalls for Nesting Black Swifts, and developing Regional Population and Habitat Objectives for Oak-Associated Birds in BCR 5.