Celebrating Audubon’s River Gates and a Career Dedicated to Shorebirds

For many who have labored alongside Shorebird Conservation Supervisor River Gates, it is tough to think about Audubon with out her unwavering dedication to conserving shorebirds. Since becoming a member of Audubon in 2017, River has helped form conservation efforts that span continents, connecting individuals, science, and communities throughout the Pacific Americas Flyway via her work with Audubon Alaska and Audubon Americas.

River delivered to Audubon greater than 20 years of expertise finding out and conserving migratory birds. Her profession has taken her from Alaska’s Arctic tundra and the Copper River Delta to Taiwan and all through Central and South America, at all times with the understanding that migratory birds depend upon wholesome habitats throughout the hemisphere.

At Audubon, River coordinated the Pacific Shorebird Conservation Initiative, serving to carry collectively scientists, Indigenous leaders, land managers, authorities companies, and nonprofit companions round a shared purpose: making certain shorebirds have the habitats they want all through their extraordinary annual migrations. She additionally helped co-create the Pacific Americas Shorebird Conservation Technique, strengthening worldwide collaboration at a time when migratory birds face mounting challenges from habitat loss and local weather change. She’s additionally served on the board of the Alaska Shorebird Group.

Her work has by no means been confined to assembly rooms or spreadsheets. River has spent numerous seasons within the area, finding out breeding shorebirds in a few of Alaska’s most distant landscapes, together with Cape Krusenstern, Utqiaġvik, and the Teshekpuk Lake Particular Space. Whether or not deploying GPS transmitters on American Golden-Plovers, conducting long-term inhabitants surveys, or serving to companions higher perceive migration routes, she has superior the science that informs conservation throughout the hemisphere.

Many Alaskans have additionally come to know River via her present for sharing science with the general public. She has impressed birders at festivals, led instructional hen walks, judged native elementary college science festivals, and reminded all of us that shorebirds are greater than exceptional migrants—they’re indicators of the well being of ecosystems stretching from Alaska to South America.

Maybe River’s best legacy, nonetheless, is the community of relationships she helped construct. Conservation succeeds as a result of individuals work collectively, and River has lengthy been recognized for bringing individuals to the desk with generosity, humility, and a collaborative spirit. Her management on the chief councils of the U.S. Shorebird Conservation Partnership, the Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network, and different worldwide partnerships has strengthened conservation efforts far past Alaska. That is confirmed within the fourth and closing episode of Audubon’s Birds on the Transfer, which focuses on the Andean Valleys and stars River! (Bonus: This is the photo essay that goes with it.)

Whereas we’ll miss seeing River in Audubon Alaska’s Anchorage workplace, on the tundra, and at shorebird festivals across the state, we all know her affect will proceed via the partnerships she nurtured, the science she superior, and the many individuals she mentored alongside the way in which.

River, thanks in your years of dedication to Alaska’s birds and the locations they want. On behalf of everybody at Audubon Alaska, we want you a joyful subsequent chapter stuffed with new adventures, time with household, and—after all—loads of alternatives to benefit from the shorebirds you might have spent years defending.