Restoration and Resiliency

Audubon largely focuses on bird habitat, which means revitalizing ecosystems and making sure they can flourish. But work related to restoration and resiliency isn’t just about individual habitats—it also mitigates the impacts of climate change. Scientific research shows a significant overlap between bird habitats and landscapes with high carbon value. In other words, what’s good for birds is also good for climate mitigation.

The biggest driver of climate change is the use of fossil fuels. But even if the world collectively stopped using oil, gas, and coal tomorrow, we would still face many years cleaning up after all of the damage done so far. Restoration and resiliency work, along with renewable energy, is a complimentary strategy for climate mitigation.

To do our part, Audubon draws on the latest, most innovative scientific research to help strengthen the landscapes where birds live, from forests to prairies to coasts. We protect old-growth forests like the Tongass National Forest in Alaska and invest in planting and maintaining urban trees in cities and suburbs across the Western Hemisphere. We work with private landowners to help protect prairies and grasslands—more than half of which fall on their properties in the U.S. alone—to help protect a key carbon sink, as well as Lesser Prairie Chickens, Burrowing Owls, and countless songbirds. And our efforts along the U.S. coastal wetlands—which store the highest density of carbon of any landscape—aid vulnerable bird species including Saltmarsh Sparrow, Black Tern, and Louisiana Waterthrush.

In addition to our efforts on the ground, Audubon is actively working on policies that will help preserve these landscapes. We support doubling Farm Bill conservation programs, which would help farmers with land management; we’re pushing for a national strategy to save native grasslands and rangelands; and we support climate-friendly incentives for both forestry and agriculture.