Putting Working Lands to Work for Birds and People

Mary Smalling

Working lands along New River in North Carolina

Because Audubon is determined to protect birds every wing beat of the way, we have aligned our conservation work with the major routes that migratory birds travel in North and South America, called flyways. Every year millions of individual birds travel along the Atlantic Flyway, which runs along the eastern seaboard and includes North Carolina. Human development and other activities constantly alter the landscapes throughout the flyway, impacting birds and other wildlife.

Through an initiative called Putting Working Lands to Work for Birds and People, Audubon is partnering with landowners to make working lands benefit birds, people and communities, focusing on forests, agricultural lands, and grasslands and ranchlands. Ranches and farms comprise more than one billion acres in the United States, and forests, many of which are managed for timber, make up an additional 747 million acres. These working lands provide our food, shelter, and even homegrown energy.

Within the Atlantic Flyway, this initiative is focused on a network of forested landscapes that supports viable populations of priority birds throughout their life cycles. Audubon has mapped the blocks of forest that are most critical to birds in the flyway, using a new mapping technique where data about the density of birds is laid over data about the intactness of the forest and other measures of forest health. These blocks include large forested areas where birds breed and key stopover sites both inside and outside the United States. To protect this mosaic of public and privately owned land, Audubon is using a variety of tools, including permanent protection, improved stewardship, and bird-friendly management.

Audubon has an ambitious goal for working lands within the Atlantic Flyway.  By 2016, we intend to reach out to the landowners or public land managers of 5 million acres within the most important forested areas in the eastern United States. We will inform them of the management options that will provide the best habitats for our most vulnerable forest birds and we will write or provide technical assistance for management plans for at least 500,000 of these acres.

Learn more about this initiative and how you can help:

Donate to a special fundraising campaign to save forest birds

Audubon's vision for Working Lands in North Carolina

Stories from the Forest: Audubon Partners

Priority Species: Wood Thrush
Golden-winged Warbler

How can I help put NC's Working Lands to work for birds and people?

Volunteer opportunities for helping forest birds

Watch a video about the Amphibolite Mountains, part of the Working Lands Initiative