WASHINGTON—Last night, Saline Lake Ecosystems in the Great Basin States Program Act passed the Senate after passing the House last week. This Audubon-backed legislation will establish a scientific monitoring and assessment program to help save the Great Salt Lake and other saline lakes in the West. Rep. Blake Moore (R-UT), Rep. Jared Huffman (D-CA) and […]
Tag: audubon
‘Like Finding a Unicorn’: Researchers Rediscover the Black-Naped Pheasant-Pigeon, a Bird Lost to Science for 140 Years
A successful expedition in Papua New Guinea captured photos and video of the chicken-size pigeon, highlighting the value of local ecological knowledge as scientists seek out other long-missing species. For a month the researchers had traversed slender mountain ridges, crossed and re-crossed rivers that roared through canyons cloaked in tropical forest, and endured bloodthirsty mosquitoes […]
More Than Half of U.S. Birds Are in Decline, Warns New Report
The Rufous Hummingbird, Greater Sage-Grouse, Pinyon Jay, and 67 other birds in the United States are teetering on the edge of disaster, having lost at least half of their populations in the past 50 years. A report released today by North American Bird Conservation Initiative (NABCI) calls these birds “Tipping Point” species, on track to […]
Why is the Colorado River in crisis, and what is being done about it?
Q: Why are we in this situation, with the Colorado River and its reservoirs shrinking so quickly? A: Truth is, we saw this coming. We use more water than the river provides. The only reason we got away with it for so long was because the reservoirs were full when the climate’s shift to hotter […]
After a Climate Disaster Last Year, Maine’s Seabirds Get a Reprieve
This year, twice as many seabird chicks survived the summer and fledged from their nests along the coast of Maine compared to last year. This exciting success rate is much closer to what’s considered normal for Maine’s seabird colonies, following a steep decline last year as climate change dealt a blow to nesting birds like […]
Fall Migration Reminds Us It is Time to Take Action on Biodiversity Loss
As the hot North American summer fades into the cooler days of autumn/fall, tens of millions of migratory birds are traveling south every day across Canada, the U.S., and Mexico into Central and South America and the Caribbean. Over the period from late July through November, from the Boreal Forest region of Canada and Alaska […]
It’s the Moment of Truth for Saving the Northern Spotted Owl
Night hangs over the Hoopa Valley Reservation. Stars spill toward the evergreen horizon as Mark Higley, a wildlife biologist for the Hoopa Valley Tribe, places a speaker on an unpaved road. Soon a recorded bird call—Who cooks for you? Who cooks for you all?—tumbles down the Northern California valley. A few minutes later, the faintest […]
Bird City not so bird friendly- the assault on birds in San Antonio
The resolution to recognize Migratory Bird Day based on local efforts to achieve “Bird City Texas” designation was approved by San Antonio City Council and passed in December 2020. The resolution states that “Migratory birds face great perils in their annual hemispheric journeys, and the chiming in of local communities to promote awareness can go […]