Birding is young and birding is growing. As such, birders have a wonderful opportunity to define a role for themselves that will allow them to be strong partners with, contributors to, and advocates for the the National Wildlife Refuges, fully joining the ranks of traditional wildlife-based user groups like hunters and anglers, with whom we share many common interests and goals. In the end, all of us want healthy populations of wildlife to enjoy and that starts with habitat conservation.
Birds have always been an especially powerful magnet for drawing people into nature and birding is something that can be easily and instantly shared—a hundred people can look at the same bird and enjoy it equally. And because the enthusiasm and excitement of watching wild birds is quite contagious, birding provides a great means of getting more people into the tent and thus more supporters for conservation and for our refuges.
Birds also, because so many of them undertake spectacular, long distance migrations, offer a wonderful vehicle to spread the idea that conservation is a hemispheric and a global effort and that all species and habitats are connected.
The American Birding Association is working to help the members of our birding community become even better ambassadors and advocates for the conservation of birds and bird habitat, as well as for the simple joy to be found in the appreciation of nature. The National Wildlife Refuges, to birders, are as vital as stadiums are to sports fans, as libraries are to researchers, as houses of worship are to people of faith. The refuges protect the birds. As birders we must always do our part to protect the refuges.
Jeffrey Gordon, President, American Birding Association
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Mr Gordon
Thanks for weighing in on behalf of the ABA. I’m a member of the ABA and a Service employee and would like to see more interaction between the two groups. Birds have always been at the core of the mission of the Refuge System. (One of my personal birder heroes is Chandler Robbins, Service employee and founder of the Breeding Bird Survey.) The potential for partnerships between the two groups is nearly unlimited. Many refuges hold public events for International Migratory Bird Day, Refuges are included in CBC circles, they have BBS routes, and host numerous other counts and public bird-centric events. The connection between birders and Refuges is well established and must be sustained. We need to cultivate and nuture that relationship, and continue to find new ways to work together to achieve our common goals.
I hope to participate in that relationship form both directions.
paul charland
Many thanks, Paul!
I would love to see a partnership that would allow ABA members to help refuges by doing what ABA does best: inspiring people to enjoy and protect wild birds (that’s our mission). I have so often seen heavy visitation days at refuges, typically weekends, where there were few or no staff to interact with visitors where it matters most: in the field, along the wildlife drive or trail, and at the eyepiece. To me, that’s where converts are won and inspiration really occurs. Let’s find a way to let ABA members facilitate that process in a way that will benefit refuges and the habitats they protect.
Jeffrey Gordon
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