约炮视频 View

约炮视频 and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are teaming up to protect priority bird species. 

In the face of truly epic challenges to birds, habitat, and human health, 约炮视频 has its sights set on large-scale conservation that ties together and complements local, on-the-ground efforts. That鈥檚 why 约炮视频 is committed to building powerful partnerships. We can鈥檛 imagine a more potent partner than the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. So here鈥檚 the big news: As the USFWS moves toward using charismatic species as one of the most critical organizing principles for its work, 约炮视频鈥檚 new strategic plan fits nicely into the broadest vision for conservation in America.

In fact, 约炮视频鈥檚 core-habitat strategy, pioneered to protect greater sage-grouse and the sagebrush ecosystem, is one of the most important models being considered by the USFWS. Our Central Flyway work has already protected 15 million acres in the U.S. West and helped steer energy development to areas where impacts on birds are minimal.

It鈥檚 a simple concept: 1) identify priority birds at conservation risk; 2) do what鈥檚 needed to protect the habitat most critical for that species; and 3) in the process, preserve an ecosystem along with its values and importance for people. This fall that approach will be the focus of a forum of conservation leaders 约炮视频 is hosting in collaboration with the USFWS as well as the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. The goal is to expand the approach to other imperiled species and habitat across the country.

For example, the disappearance of native woodlands along western rivers has made the western yellow-billed cuckoo a candidate for the endangered species list. But by focusing conservation on the remaining large tracts of cottonwoods and willows, we can help save the species and protect other wildlife in the region.

In the East, mountaintop mining and other development have ravaged forests where cerulean warblers breed, triggering decades of population declines. By identifying the places鈥攖he Important Bird Areas鈥攎ost critical to this tiny bird, we can map its future. 

We鈥檝e proposed eight focal species, spanning the Western Hemisphere鈥檚 four flyways, to the USFWS. Each is an effective environmental barometer and ambassador for protection of its habitat; each has potential on a broad scale of landscape, backed by strong data to guide conservation; and each can focus and galvanize meaningful action.

The USFWS鈥檚 response to our list of species was enthusiastic. The agency鈥檚 director, Dan Ashe, said this in a letter to me: 鈥淚 see great potential in cooperating with 约炮视频 to develop common species-based objectives and to work together to ensure landscape-scale conservation is achieved.鈥

I鈥檓 grateful to the USFWS for this opportunity to help shape what I believe can be a game-changing approach to conservation.