Conservation Advocacy Programs

Literally every day, political decisions are being made - particularly in Congress, the White House, and government departments and agencies - that impact birds and their habitats. That is why ABC has a team of policy professionals with significant legislative experience at senior levels. With this expertise, ABC draws together the partnerships and resources needed to meet the challenge of improving federal policy and boosting existing resources for programs that are crucial for maintaining healthy and abundant bird populations.

The sad fact is that most of the beautiful and diverse species of birds we love and wish to share with the next generation are declining at an unprecedented rate. Habitat loss is certainly a major factor, but equally significant are threats that safeguarding land will not prevent. They can only be stopped by effecting changes in federal or state policies. For example, as many as 50 million migratory birds - representing 230 species - are being unnecessarily killed at communication towers and at poorly sited and designed wind turbines in the United States every year, and the number of these structures is growing. Millions of other birds are exposed to pesticides that either kill them outright or impair their ability to fly, forage, or successfully breed. Tens of thousands of fish-eating birds, such as Great Blue Herons, Belted Kingfishers, Caspian Terns, and Double-crested Cormorants, are persecuted annually at the hands of aquaculture interests. And, in the middle of the newly designated Northwest Hawaiian Islands National Marine Monument, ten thousand Laysan Albatross chicks die painfully every year from lead poisoning on Midway Island National Wildlife Refuge, the largest breeding island for this globally threatened species. There are dozens of policy issues that have a population-level effect on birds, including global climate change, mountain top mining for coal in the Appalachian Mountains, seabird by-catch from longline fisheries, over harvesting of horseshoe crabs in Delaware Bay, and stray and feral cats that kill hundreds of millions of birds annually. New threats arise each year.

Furthermore, government sources of funding play a vital role in bird conservation successes but competition for funds within the government is fierce. For example, a multitude of bird species benefit from the conservation programs of the Farm bill, but yearly appropriations for these programs have been slashed in favor of boosting direct commodity subsidies. Another example is the chronic under funding of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's conservation programs, hampering the agency's ability to implement Endangered Species protection and other vital bird conservation programs. ABC and its wildlife partners work with lawmakers to show the critical importance that these wildlife conservation programs play in enhancing native bird species abundance across America.