Strength to Endure | Audubon

In a 1940 challenge of Audubon journal, Ira N. Gabrielson—the primary director of the newly fashioned U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service—marveled for 10 lengthy pages on the nice concentrations of birdlife in Alaska. Three years and several other journeys later, his byline appeared once more, this time pondering a query: What impact would new roads, airstrips, and encroaching growth have on Alaska’s wildlife, and on the individuals who rely on the land for his or her existence?

Gabrielson oversaw an enlargement of the Nationwide Wildlife Refuge System throughout america, however it might be many extra many years—and plenty of extra Audubon tales—earlier than Alaska noticed sturdy protections via a mix of nationwide refuges, forests, parks, and different designations. And but right here we’re in 2025, as soon as once more analyzing the query he posed—solely with extra urgency. As Alisa Opar and Andy McGlashen report in this issue, proposals to develop Alaska’s irreplaceable ecosystems are gaining momentum, together with roads that will open key migratory hen habitats to growth.

Early Audubon members pressed for the primary nationwide wildlife refuge, Florida’s Pelican Island, in 1903, and even paid the wage of the primary supervisor (it was $7 a month). Over its 120-year historical past, the nationwide group secured many extra conservation wins, but when historical past has proven us something, it’s that progress takes vigilance to take care of. The colourful seabird colonies making Johnston Atoll residence, as Tristan Spinski and Jenny McKee illustrate on this challenge’s opening photo essay, mirror dogged efforts to rid the island of invasive ants. And the Nice Lakes’ small however mighty Piping Plovers are rebounding because of tireless crews who band, monitor, and rear child birds.

The employees who present key companies for the nation’s public lands—biologists, park rangers, land managers, and others—play an integral position in these and different efforts. And so it’s with concern that we additionally share Maddie Burakoff’s story on how the deep cuts to the federal workforce at the moment are compromising companies’ capability to satisfy their missions. The cautious reader will see these cuts taking part in out throughout a number of tales on this challenge.

Gabrielson as soon as wrote that “persistency within the conservation motion is important,” and that preserving its successes would require schooling and public strain “forever to return.” Fortunately, the scientists, birders, native leaders, and others who care sufficient to talk out for our pure assets present no indicators of letting up. 

This piece initially ran within the Summer time 2025 challenge. To obtain our print journal, change into a member by making a donation today.