Congrats to the California Chapter Recipients of 2026 Audubon in Action and Collaborative Grants

2026 Audubon in Motion tasks:

San Diego Metropolis Faculty Hen Alliance
(Audubon on Campus chapter, San Diego Metropolis Faculty)
San Diego Metropolis Faculty birders are gearing up for the San Diego Metropolis Faculty Hen Alliance’s annual Environmental Justice Summit that prompts college students to get entangled with inexperienced initiatives. Every year, college students select to deal with one difficulty that impacts birds and one difficulty that impacts their neighborhoods. This yr’s grant funds will help occasions and native native plant gardens at their Vaux Swift Chimney, an Previous City State Park collaboration, and a WorldBeat Cultural Middle collaboration. These tasks spotlight the chapter’s intersection of student-led advocacy, habitat restoration, hen conservation, and environmental justice. Stay up to date with San Diego City College Bird Alliance on Instagram here.

Golden Gate Hen Alliance
Golden Gate Bird Alliance’s Birding for Everybody Fellowship goals to develop and empower the subsequent technology of BIPOC conservation leaders by a full yr of free birding and ecology lessons in addition to conservation and advocacy alternatives supplied in collaboration with the California Academy of Sciences and California Audubon. The funds from this grant award will help the 2026 cohort of Fellows and develop this system, which is now in its fourth yr. Read more about the Birding for Everyone Fellowship here.

Audubon Nature Conservation Membership 
(Audubon on Campus chapter, Faculty of Marin)
College students with the Faculty of Marin’s Audubon Nature Conservation Membership shall be utilizing their awarded grant funds to help birds and different native fauna by a everlasting seasonal wetland pond on campus. This undertaking will convey collectively college and college students from a number of departments on campus, Conservation Corps North Bay, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Coast Miwok Tribal Council, and different student-run golf equipment to take part all through the restoration and public programming phases. Audubon Nature Conservation Membership’s Lead, Sonya, shared, “The chance to use for Audubon in Motion grants is fantastic! It permits college students to do significant conservation work on campus and provides us hands-on expertise that can form our future concentrate on conservation.” The Audubon Nature Conservation Membership web site is in progress and coming quickly!

Jap Sierra Hen Alliance
Jap Sierra Hen Alliance’s grant award will help hen monitoring on the jap shore of Mono Lake earlier than and after important habitat restoration and federal removing of a non-native horse herd. This monitoring will present perception into the herd’s impact on vegetation regrowth and breeding birds just like the Snowy Plover, Wilson’s Phalarope, Yellow Warbler, and Brewer’s Sparrow, in addition to doc the resilience of those hen species with habitat restoration. Paired with scientific monitoring shall be aware activism and outreach amongst stakeholders and the general public to seek out an equitable steadiness prioritizing the well-being of individuals, horses, and birds. Learn more about Eastern Sierra Bird Alliance’s work on Facebook and on Instagram— and keep tuned for his or her new web site coming quickly!

Hen Membership at UC San Diego
(Audubon on Campus chapter, UC San Diego)
The grant funding awarded to Bird Club at UC San Diego this yr will go in direction of accessible birding alternatives and area analysis expertise for college kids on and off-campus by overcoming monetary boundaries associated to journey and provide prices. The three monitoring tasks that shall be supported are: 

• Hen Protected: College students monitor migratory birds and their threats along with advocating for insurance policies that defend birds
• La Jolla Cove: College students monitor giant nesting colonies of birds like Brant’s Cormorants, Heerman’s Gulls, Elegant Terns, and Brown Pelicans
• UC Pure Reserves: College students conduct biodiversity surveys in under-monitored reserves. 

Brandi Sanchez, Co-Founding father of Hen Membership at UC San Diego, shared: “The Audubon in Motion grant means a lot to our small however rising membership! It offers us the flexibility to maintain Hen Membership at UC San Diego thriving whereas making tutorial alternatives extra accessible to college students. With this help, extra members can develop their naturalist abilities, expertise area analysis, and actively contribute to conservation in our group.” 

Stay up to date with Bird Club at UC San Diego on Instagram here.

Plumas Audubon Society
Plumas Audubon Society’s grant funding will help the Aechmophorus Grebe Monitoring & Advocacy undertaking in 2026, constructing upon work that they’ve been main since 2010. Lake Almanor and Eagle Lake are two of the 4 largest colonies of breeding Western Grebes (Aechmophorus occidentalis) and Clark’s Grebes (Aechmophorus clarkii) in California, making them important breeding areas for these declining species. Along with monitoring work at these lakes and others, the funding may even help Plumas Audubon Society’s annual Grebe Pageant to lift consciousness of the birds and convey communities collectively for collaborative science. Read more about the Aechmophorus Grebe Monitoring & Conservation Project here. 

Bruin Birding Membership
(Audubon on Campus chapter, UCLA)
This yr, Bruin Birding Club is aiming to extend the accessibility of their membership’s personal programming in addition to the Ok-12 education schemes run by their accomplice, the on-campus Mildred Mathias Botanical Backyard. One a part of the funding will take away price boundaries for UCLA college students collaborating in membership area journeys by offering free transportation for his or her programming, which incorporates birding journeys, volunteer days, and in a single day area journeys, making it extra accessible for the UCLA group to recreate in and assist steward inexperienced areas in Southern California. The opposite piece of funding will go in direction of offering an estimated 20 pairs of binoculars for the botanical backyard’s Ok-12 applications, which serve 1000’s of scholars per yr. As college students discover the backyard with binoculars, they achieve precious expertise with scientific instruments, introducing a lot of them to birding for the primary time. Read more about Bruin Birding Club’s events here.

San Diego Hen Alliance
In San Diego’s Mission Bay, San Diego Bird Alliance is integrating habitat restoration with third and 4th grade conservation by the chapter’s Sharing our Shores program. The grant funds awarded for this program will help class area journeys to snowy plover nesting websites, the place college students take part in field-based tidal wetland stewardship and find out about local weather resiliency whereas integrating Kumeyaay information and views to spotlight the continued indigenous connection to what’s now Mission Bay. Utilizing what they’ve discovered, college students then create conservation-themed indicators to coach the general public about native species, habitats, and greatest practices when recreating within the bay. Learn more about the Sharing our Shores program here.

2026 Collaborative tasks:

Ventura Audubon Society
Ventura Audubon Society is partnering with the Natural Backyard Membership of Ventura County to create a community-supported native plant and meals backyard: the Dr. Christopher Dean Smith Memorial Backyard. This collaborative effort weaves hen conservation into group resiliency and can present an area for native occasions and academic actions. The native plant palette was chosen utilizing Audubon’s Native Plant Database and can help species just like the California Thrasher, Bewick’s Wren, and Allen’s Hummingbird. Funds from this grant award will help the preliminary set up part of a workspace for the backyard. Learn how to get involved with Ventura Audubon Society here.

Pasadena Audubon Society
Pasadena Audubon Society’s Birding at Recess program is all about children having enjoyable, creating constructive experiences, and interesting with birding throughout college hours as recreation moderately than schoolwork for the scholars in Pasadena Unified College District. With such a heavy emphasis on enjoyable and energetic birding, common put on and tear takes its toll on the supplied binoculars, so this awarded funding will go in direction of changing the younger birders’ obligatory tools. Read more about the Birding at Recess program in their November-December 2025 edition of their newsletter, the Wrentit.

Tulare Kings Audubon
After experiencing constant progress in membership, Tulare Kings Audubon’s grant award funds will help an analysis and improve of the chapter’s programming, outreach supplies, and social media presence. The chapter’s refreshed engagement technique will result in programming that’s extra related and attention-grabbing for all members and higher serves the fluctuating group. Read more about Tulare Kings Audubon’s upcoming events here.