The Top 40 Conservation Projects in the Americas

Protecting Habitat

Long-whiskered Owlet. Photo © ECOAN

1. Acquire old-growth forest and wetlands on the Long Beach Peninsula in Washington State to protect the endangered Marbled Murrelet and a variety of plants and animals.

2. Acquire additional habitat and support cloud forest habitat management and restoration at the Abra Patricia Reserve in Peru to protect the endangered Long-whiskered Owlet, Ochre-fronted Antpitta, and Yellow-tailed Wooly Monkey.

3. Expand the Blue-billed Curassow Reserve in Colombia to protect the only habitat in the world for the Curassow and to provide significant wintering habitat for migratory songbirds and raptors including Canada and Bay-breasted Warblers and Swainson’s hawks.

4. Create the first protected area for the endangered Niceforo’s Wren through the acquisition of high quality dry forest in Colombia.

5. Acquire inholdings and support management of the white sand forests of Alpahuallo-Mishana National Refuge in Peru to protect the endangered Iquitos Gnatcatcher.

Golden-winged Warblers. Photo © Michael Patrikeev NatureServe

6. Acquire and improve management of lands for the protection of the Honduran Emerald in the Aguan Valley, Honduras.

7. Secure permanent conservation easements on agricultural lands in the Cerulean Warbler Corridor in Colombia to provide important wintering habitat for Cerulean Warblers and more than 20 additional neotropical migratory species including Golden-winged, Tennessee, Black-and-white, Mourning, Canada, Blackburnian, and Black-throated Blue warblers.

8. Create four new Private Conservation Areas in the High Andes managed by indigenous communities to protect endangered Polylepis forests and Royal Cinclodes, and Ash-breasted Tit-tyrant.

9. Create Municipal Protected Areas in Bolivia to protect the endangered Red-fronted Macaw.

10. Acquire important wintering habitat of Golden-cheeked and Golden-winged warblers and other priority species in oak and oak-pine habitat in Costa Rica, El Slavador, and Mexico.

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Planting Trees

Cerulean Warbler. Photo © Ohio Dept of Natural Resources

11. Plant more than 80,000 native trees from the Appalachians to the Andes this year with the support and participation of dozens of conservation groups and local communities to improve critical bird habitat at more than 15 protected areas.

12. Reforest abandoned minelands in the heart of Cerulean Warbler breeding territory in Kentucky, Virginia, and Pennsylvannia as part of the Appalachian Regional Reforestation Initiative.

13. Create and support 15 plant nurseries operated by local communities in five countries to provide native tree saplings to support reforestation efforts. Significantly, many of the tree nurseries also grow and provide food and medicinal plants important to local communities.

14. Reforest critical habitat for the Marvelous Spatuletail in Peru.

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Improving Habitat

15. Improve habitat throughout the entire range of the Northern Bobwhite in partnership with private and public landowners and conservationists. Other grasslands species that will benefit from this work include the Prairie Warbler and Yellow-breasted Chat.

16. Create new nesting and foraging habitat in the Pacific Northwest for declining cavity-nesting birds including the Flammulated Owl, Lewis’s Woodpecker and Williamson’s Sapsucker.

Palila. Photo © Jack Jeffrey

17. Protect important breeding habitat for the Golden-winged warbler in Pennsylvania by working with public landowners on habitat management for this declining species.

18. Install or repair 53 miles of ungulate proof fence to reduce grazing on critical breeding habitat for the endangered Palila and other declining Hawaiian forest birds.

19. Build a ranger station at the newly designated “La Placa” National Park in the Dominican Republic and supporting urgently needed forest guard patrols in La Placa and adjacent Bahoruco National Park to protect the endangered Bay-breasted Cuckoo, La Selle Thrush, Hispaniolan Crossbill, and Red-legged Robber frog. These two parks also provide important wintering habitat for an astonishing 30 neotropical migrants including Bicknell's Thrush, Prairie and Swainson’s Warbler.

20. Stop vehicle traffic from accidently crushing the nests of endangered Peruvian Terns in Paracas National Reserve.

21. Remove introduced, non-native Golden crownbeard from Midway Atoll where it is severely impacting the breeding success of Black-footed and Laysan Albatrosses. 40% of Black-footed Albatrosses and 70% of Laysan Albatross breed on Midway Atoll.

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Raising Significant New Funding Resources for Bird Conservation

22. Raise $80 million dollars of critically needed funding for migratory birds - warblers, thrushes, orioles, flycatchers, hummingbirds, and hawks - through the early reauthorization of the Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation Act (Western Hemisphere).

Laysan Albatross . Photo © Clipart.com

23. Raise $300 million dollars of new funding for our National Refuge System to address the growing problem of invasive species through the passage of the REPAIR Act by Congress.

24. Increase funding for Sec. 6001 (wildlife impacts planning and mitigation) of the transportation reauthorization bill, and improve its effectiveness for bird conservation.

25. Pressure the federal government to honor its commitment to the recently dedicated Northwest Hawaiian Islands Marine National Monument, including pushing for appropriations for lead paint removal, removal of invasive plant species, and remediation of other factors impacting the survival of Midway's albatrosses.

26. Build ecolodges, where appropriate, to help in-country partners develop long-term funding support for globally significant bird reserves including El Dorado (Colombia), Abra Patricia (Peru) and Tapichalaca (Ecuador).

27. Acquire coffee and cacao farms in the buffer zones of globally significant bird reserves to provide income for the management of the reserve and community outreach programs.

28. Provide income to priority bird conservation reserves and projects by marketing the significant carbon sequestration resulting from our land protection efforts.

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Addressing Policy-Based threats to Birds

Northern Spotted Owl. Photo © Clipart.com

29. Protect Spotted Owl and Marbled Murrelet habitat through legislation and regulations to reverse current proposed policies.

30. Stop the unnecessary, annual, deaths of millions of birds killed through collisions with communication towers by persuading the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to make the U.S. Fish and Wildlife recommendations for the prevention of collisions mandatory rather than voluntary for industry.

31. Reduce bird collisions caused by glass and lighting by initiating or supporting “Lights Out” campaigns in major cities and through the promotion of window films designed to prevent bird collisions.

32. Block or restrict EPA's registration of pesticides posing unreasonable risks to birds and the environment.

33. Identify pesticides banned in the U.S. that have pesticide residue tolerances allowed on imported agricultural products, bring these to the attention of EPA, and petition for their cancellation.

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Waved Albatross. Photo © David Wiedenfeld, ABC

Protecting Seabirds

34. Reduce seabird bycatch off the western coast of the Americas to protect albatrosses, shearwaters, loons and petrels.

35. Help create the first U.S. legislation focused on the protection of albatrosses and petrels.

36. End hunting of endangered Waved Albatrosses and Pink-footed Shearwaters.

37. Protect birds and other native wildlife from predation by feral cats and persuading cat owners not to abandon their pet; and that cats live longer, healthier lives if kept inside.

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Advancing Bird Conservation Science

Least Tern . Photo © George Jett

38. Work with the Army Corps of Engineers to improve habitat for endangered Interior Least Terns across their range on the Mississippi, Red, Arkansas, Platte, and Missouri Rivers.

39. Establish coordinated bird monitoring partnerships to describe the factors affecting bird populations and fill important knowledge gaps to help ensure successful implementation of State Wildlife Action Plans and Endangered Species Recovery Plans.

40. Develop and improve upon science-based tools such as GIS maps of bird habitat to support conservation needs for bird species of conservation concern such as the Cerulean Warbler, Henslow’s Sparrow, and Long-billed Curlew.
 

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