Audubon Onward!
AUDUBON’S
Audubon Onward!
DEAR FRIENDS,
From the sandy shores of the Gulf of Mexico to the swaying grasses of the Everglades, from the deep pine forests of north Florida to the sparkling waters of the Keys, Audubon Florida has been busy this year protecting birds and the places they need. Audubon Onward! beautifully illustrates our conservation wins gained through our practical, science-based Flight Plan to address the mounting threats of climate change and biodiversity loss— threats that not only impact birds, but people and the planet, too. The following pages underscore both the urgency of problems faced and Audubon’s bold response.
Over the past half-century, we have lost 3 billion birds in North America—an alarming trend skewed heavily toward migratory species. This precipitous loss is a powerful statement about the condition of our planet and a harbinger of things to come if we don’t act strategically and decisively.
Here in Florida, birds like Least Terns and Black Skimmers face a dire future if the current pace of climate change continues. These are just two species likely to disappear from the Sunshine State in our lifetimes if we do not scale our work to meet the size and severity of these threats.
It is this urgency that led us to launch our Flight Plan, Audubon’s bold five-year strategic plan, which codifies our evolution into a truly hemispheric organization. BIRDS
TELL US. THIS IS HOW WE LISTEN.
Thanks to game-changing science and new digital technologies, we are narrowing knowledge gaps that have long plagued the world of bird conservation. The Lesser Yellowlegs, for example, makes an annual migratory journey from the Boreal Forest in Canada to Chile—a round trip of nearly 20,000 miles.
Flight Plan is about protecting birds, and at the same time, protecting people and our planet by advancing a generation-shaping agenda to the forefront of conservation.
It’s only normal for us to think of the birds of our everyday lives—the birds of our neighborhoods and communities—as our birds, belonging to that place. But in reality, many of them are only on loan to us, and in fact spend their lives in motion, washing like tides back and forth across the hemisphere.
It is your investment and our shared impact in Florida that will allow us to achieve hemispheric outcomes—this is how we will bend the bird curve.
Thank you for your support,
Julie Wraithmell VICE PRESIDENT AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR AUDUBON FLORIDA
Last year, four Lesser Yellowlegs originally tagged by Audubon scientists in Colombia’s Cauca Valley with transmitters—four single birds spread against the mammoth skies of the Western Hemisphere—flew past Auduboninstalled Motus towers located in Michigan and Pennsylvania,
and found sanctuary in Florida at Corkscrew Swamp after pinging our own tower. These towers captured critical data revealing secrets of the birds’ migratory adventures, giving new revelations and insight into where, when, and how long they sought habitats needed to provide safe rest and food.
Audubon’s Flight Plan:
A Powerful and Dynamic Story of Migratory Science, Climate Action, and Community Building
THE SCIENCE IS CLEAR We have a unique opportunity to make a positive impact for birds, people, and the planet. While challenges like climate change and biodiversity loss are significant, we can bend the bird curve together. The window of opportunity remains open—if we seize this moment and act now.
The most ambitious strategic effort in our history, Audubon’s Flight Plan establishes our vision for shaping a world where birds and people thrive, elevating Audubon as a global conservation leader. Flight Plan sets five-year milestones in key areas to track progress towards our long-term vision to ‘bend the bird curve,’ in other words, to halt and reverse the alarming decline of birds. Our recognition of the interconnectedness of people, place, and climate led to the development of four milestones we intend to reach over the next five years: Habitat Conservation, Climate, Policy, and Community Building.
MILESTONES:
Flight Plan harnesses the full power of Audubon— including on-the-ground staff across the Western Hemisphere, centers and sanctuaries, and local chapter partners—by focusing on a set of shared outcomes for greater collective impact towards our vision.
HABITAT CONSERVATION
Using science to identify, protect, and conserve 300 million acres of bird habitat across the Americas
CLIMATE ACTION
Deploying 100 gigawatts of renewable energy and storing 30 billion tons of carbon through natural climate solutions
POLICY LEADERSHIP
Pairing diplomacy with advocacy to develop and implement bird-friendly solutions
COMMUNITY BUILDING
Creating a diverse network of bird lovers working together to advance our shared vision
Roseate Spoonbills.
Photo: Kelley Luikey/Audubon Photography Awards
AUDUBON’S HEMISPHERIC APPROACH
TO CONSERVATION directs our efforts to the places where birds need us most and to all the places they call home; their seasonal migration across the Western Hemisphere means Audubon also works from boreal Canada to Florida to Chile and beyond.
The benefit of being part of an organization of hemispheric scale is that conservation gains in Florida benefit the rest of the flyway—and gains elsewhere benefit us. All of which benefit birds.
In the past year, we have made progress towards our milestones— much of which has touched down in our state—and developed operational plans to continue driving this work forward.
Guided by Flight Plan, Audubon is collectively engaging in conservation on 116,650,000 acres and influencing 50 renewable energy generation and transmission projects totaling 34 gigawatts—enough energy to power roughly 25 million homes.
HIGHLIGHTS OF AUDUBON SUCCESSES BEYOND FLORIDA THIS YEAR INCLUDED EFFORTS
• Launch Audubon’s Conservation Ranching Program in Wisconsin, building on our success in fourteen other states where more than 100 ranches covering nearly 3 million acres have earned status as Audubon Certified birdfriendly land.
• Fund seven new projects for protected areas in Perú and six in Bolivia through Conserva Aves, totaling over 1.9 million acres.
Audubon’s Bird Migration Explorer provides a clearerthan-ever look at bird migration and the incredible journey of individual species. Here we see how Florida’s iconic Swallowtailed Kite requires us to work beyond our borders to ensure it remains safe and healthy throughout its annual cycle.
ILLUSTRATON: DAVID ALLEN SIBLEY
• Break ground on the Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion, the singlelargest ecosystem restoration project in U.S. history; this project will restore and strengthen up to 28,000 acres of wetlands in Louisiana, providing climate resiliency benefits to local communities.
TO:
• Begin new engagement on a $10 billion transmission project spanning seven Midwestern states representing up to 20 gigawatts.
• Deliver 10,000 acrefeet of water to benefit Great Salt Lake and Jordan River through local partnerships and co-management of the Great Salt Lake Watershed Enhancement Trust.
• Convene 11 Indigenous Guardians and leaders from five First Nations, key partners on our work in Canada, at Hog Island Audubon Camp in Maine for knowledge exchange and training opportunities.
Through innovative strategies to protect the state’s wildlife and wild places, Florida is ahead of the game and leading Audubon’s Flight Plan by amplifying our voice and implementing conservation efforts aligned with our hemispheric vision to identify connected, climate-resilient places where birds need us the most.
Audubon’s Work in Florida. Unified by the Power of Birds.
Conserving quality, connected, and climate-resilient bird habitat
➜ Audubon stewarded Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary’s 13,000 acres in the heart of the Western Everglades—applying prescribed fire on 500 acres, implementing invasive and exotic plant treatment on 3,000 acres, and advancing a large-scale wetlands restoration project.
➜ Research completed by Audubon’s Everglades Science Center informed the design and operation of several Everglades restoration projects, including the 50,000acre Cape Sable Restoration Project. Our team collected hydrological and/or wading bird food web parameters from 20 Florida Bay field stations
Through our Flight Plan, we are committed to achieving significant milestones that will demonstrate measurable impact on the climate and biodiversity crises. We are pleased to report the following impact you helped champion this past year:
Left: Audubon Everglades Science Center Research Associate, Jaime Gilrein, measures submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) in Florida Bay near Tavernier, Florida. Photo: Sydney Walsh/ Audubon
and monitored the nesting success of Roseate Spoonbills, Tricolored Herons, and Reddish Egrets throughout the Bay to inform the development and implementation of additional projects, including the Biscayne Bay and Southern Everglades Ecosystem Restoration Project, the Central Everglades Planning Project, Western Everglades Restoration Project, and others.
➜ Our coastal team and more than 400 volunteers stewarded more than 300 beach, island, and rooftop nesting sites for coastal wading, sea, and shorebirds. Coastal law enforcement officers provided further support on busy holidays resulting in wins for birds in many locations during nesting season.
Right: American Oystercatcher and chick. Photo: Jesse Gordon/ Audubon Photography Awards
CLIMATE
Accelerating renewable energy and strengthening natural climate solutions
➜ Audubon collaborated with investor-owned utilities on the installation of 11 industrial solar projects totaling 819 megawatts in 2024, with another 12 projects representing 894 megawatts in progress for 2025, to create site plans that protect important habitat on the properties.
➜ More than fifty local governments and environmental professionals joined a summit on accelerating the clean energy transition convened by Audubon at the Florida Resilience Conference. The session highlighted case studies and best practices from
local governments and utilities across the state, to help scale successful models and build this community of practice. The workshop showcased Florida innovation and ingenuity in everything from rooftop and community solar, to green hydrogen and small modular reactor pilots, demonstrating how Florida’s clean energy economy presents opportunity for Floridians and savings for taxpayers.
Advancing our Healthy Birds, Healthy Planet policy agenda
➜ Audubon rallied more than 30,000 members to protect Florida State Parks from development proposals that would have built golf courses, hotels, and pickleball courts in nine of our busiest state parks. Our team enlisted bipartisan support from grassroots to grasstops, evaluated the impacts of the proposals, and equipped our robust network of conservation leaders to coordinate public meeting attendance and media engagement. The result? The proposals were shelved ten days after they were announced.
➜ As a result of Audubon research documenting radical changes in Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary’s water levels caused by modifications to the
watershed, the South Florida Water Management District launched the Corkscrew Watershed Initiative—a three-year public restoration planning project with Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary at its heart. The restoration plan resulting from this effort will be a roadmap to drive as much as $2-$3 billion into restoration projects for the 1,000+ square mile modelling and project area.
➜ Audubon secured a $5 million state appropriation to help make foundational improvements to Corkscrew Swamp’s campus. This work is part of our capital campaign to expand Audubon’s capacity as a hub for Western Everglades conservation and education.
➜ Audubon advocacy supported the successful appropriation of $740 million in state funding and $447 million in federal funding for comprehensive Everglades Restoration, in addition to $600 million by the Florida Legislature for land acquisition and easements in the coming year.
➜ The Audubon Center for Birds of Prey contributed vital data on rodent poisoning, blood parasites, and continued its auxiliary eagle banding resight project. This data importantly contributes to Audubon’s defense of bird protections like the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act.
Sanderling. Photo: Kyle Tansley/ Audubon Photography Awards
Working together across the hemisphere to advance our shared vision
➜ Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary and the Center for Birds of Prey collectively welcomed 80,000 visitors and provided educational programming for nearly 12,000 learners of all ages—from onsite and offsite programs to summer camps. Our engagement efforts were supported by 175 dedicated center volunteers.
➜ Thanks to more than 100 volunteers, Audubon’s Jay Watch program surveyed 46 sites of approximately 78,000 acres for Florida Scrub-Jay abundance—data used by federal, state, and local land managers to assess and prescribe habitat management. Similarly, our EagleWatch program welcomed 700 volunteers who collectively monitored 1,278 nests statewide.
➜ The Audubon Center for Birds of Prey admitted more than 650 raptors, including protected species like the American Kestrel, Peregrine Falcon, Snail Kite, Crested Caracara, and Bald Eagle. More than 25 rehabilitated Bald Eagles were released as well as other species.
➜ Through our Conservation Leadership Initiative (CLI), Audubon engaged 25 collegeaged students and 25 chapter leaders in a year-long series of co-mentorship opportunities, including a spring break intensive and CLI track at the Audubon Assembly.
From top: Visitors at Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary in Naples, Florida. Photo: Sydney Walsh/ Audubon
Snail Kite
Photo: Scott Suriano/Audubon Photography Awards
We are deeply grateful for your continued commitment to Audubon and our mission to protect birds and the places they need—in Florida and beyond. In the first year of Flight Plan, we have made significant progress towards our habitat and climate milestones. We could not have gained such momentum without you. The challenge before us is clear. Act now or risk a future with skies silenced with loss. With your help, we will bend the bird curve and make a sustainable impact for birds across the hemisphere. This is our moment.
CONTACT
Julie Wraithmell VICE PRESIDENT AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR julie.wraithmell@audubon.org
Anny Shepard DIRECTOR, LEADERSHIP GIVING anny.shepard@audubon.org
OUR OFFICE
Audubon Florida 4500 Biscayne Blvd., Ste 350 Miami, FL 33137 fl.audubon.org
Florida Scrub-Jay.
Photo: Dawn Currie/Audubon Photography Awards
Cover: Swallow-tailed Kite. Photo: Peter Brannon/ Audubon Photography Awards