Meeting the Moment | Audubon

Birds adapt. They should. Every season brings shifting situations—droughts, floods, wildfires, disappearing habitat. Nonetheless, they discover methods to regulate. Some alter the timing of their migrations. Others search for new meals sources, select new nesting websites, or cease and relaxation at totally different areas throughout their journeys. Their resilience evokes mine. 

As we shut out the Nationwide Audubon Society’s a hundred and twentieth 12 months, I’ve been reflecting on what it takes to endure. It’s not energy alone. It is usually the flexibility to vary—gracefully, urgently, and with objective. That is true for birds. It’s true for conservation. And it’s true for organizations like ours. 

Audubon has by no means stood nonetheless. From our earliest campaigns to finish the plume commerce to our work immediately to safeguard habitat and tackle the local weather disaster, we’ve advanced to satisfy the size and complexity of the threats that birds face. This legacy of adaptation continues to information us. 

Among the tales on this situation present how rapidly the bottom beneath us can shift. Wild Turkeys, lengthy thought of a conservation success, are actually declining once more in a number of key habitats. Snow Geese, as soon as uncommon, have rebounded so dramatically that their presence is reshaping ecosystems throughout the continent. These modifications remind us that conservation isn’t static. What labored prior to now might not be sufficient. That’s the reason we should maintain adapting and designing new methods for fulfillment. 

This 12 months marks a significant step ahead in how we meet that problem. In Chile, the Rocuant-Andalién wetland grew to become the primary venture of the Americas Flyways Initiative, a partnership amongst Audubon, BirdLife Worldwide, and the Improvement Financial institution of Latin America and the Caribbean. Collectively, we’re defending a crucial website for migratory birds in a means that additionally helps native livelihoods and local weather resilience. 

This venture is a transparent instance of how efforts to guard pure areas may assist fight local weather impacts. Wetlands retailer carbon, buffer communities from flooding, and safeguard clear water—all whereas sustaining biodiversity. Audubon will deliver this angle to COP30, the place international leaders will meet to advance new options to the local weather disaster. Audubon’s position will probably be to focus on the important half that birds, their habitats, and linked communities can play in shaping significant progress. 

As a scientist, I spent years learning how species reply to environmental stress. As Audubon’s CEO, I see how organizations should do the identical—reexamining how we work, the place we work, and who we work with. Our Flight Plan helps us do this. It’s a framework designed to focus our efforts, speed up options, and ship measurable impression for birds and other people throughout the Americas. 

That is what adaptation seems to be like. And that is how we are going to “bend the chook curve”—by matching their resilience with ours. 

This piece initially ran within the Fall 2025 situation because the Audubon View. To obtain our print journal, grow to be a member by making a donation today.