Wednesday, February 19, 2020

The Next Generation of Bird Conservation Leaders

Students from Rust College visit Strawberry Plains Audubon Center in Mississippi (photo by Mike Fernandez).

Last week, the National Audubon Society announced a $250,000 investment from the Walton Family Foundation to build on the success of the Audubon on Campus Chapter Program by expanding programs with historically black colleges and universities and other minority-serving institutions. Since September 2018, the Audubon on Campus Chapter Program has grown from 10 pilot programs to active programs on more than 100 college campuses across the country, showing a strong and rapid growth of interest in bird conservation nationwide.

“We’ve heard from students and faculty at historically black colleges and universities and other minority-serving institutions that they want to partner with organizations like Audubon to tackle climate change and environmental issues in their communities and to enjoy birds and other wildlife,” said Heather Starck, vice president of chapter and grassroots capacity building for the National Audubon Society.

“This investment will help us partner with these institutions to co-create programs, summer fellowships, grants, and other opportunities. All of this will promote conservation and climate solutions, create career pathways for students, and continue building a diverse coalition of grassroots environmental leaders for decades to come, while advancing scientific objectives, and strengthening academic institutions,” added Starck.

“Growing the environmental movement means we need to meet future leaders where they are, and support them as they learn and grow,” said Moira Mcdonald, interim director of the Walton Family Foundation’s Environment Program. “The leadership of the environmental movement does not currently reflect the diversity of our country. We are proud to support leaders who are doing something about that, and we are thrilled to support the young people at colleges and universities who will be the future of this movement.”

“We are finding that students want to learn how to photograph birds, recognize their songs, and simply watching them soar. They want sanctuary, just like what Audubon offers birds,” said Dr. Anna B. Scott, faculty adviser for the Birds of a Feather Audubon Campus Chapter at Rust College in Holly Springs, Mississippi.

“As a chapter initiative, we are training students which birds they should expect to see in the Mississippi Flyway,” Scott added. “Our hope is that once people recognize the birds, they’ll become ‘indispensable neighbors.’ Without biodiversity, there is no cultural diversity and vice versa. Our work with Audubon and Mitch Robinson, from our local Strawberry Plains Audubon Center, has been invaluable in jump-starting this endeavor. Mitch has created the opportunity and support to investigate what birds mean to our students and campus culture.”

Diana Braithwaite, program manager of the Audubon on Campus Chapter Program, added, “We want to ensure that we are fulfilling students’ requests for the tools needed to become effective leaders and change-makers on campus and in environmental spaces.”

To learn more about the Audubon on Campus Chapter Program, see https://www.audubon.org/conservation/campus-chapters

Learn more about the Walton Family Foundation at https://www.waltonfamilyfoundation.org/

For more information about this article, you can refer to https://www.audubon.org/news/audubon-and-walton-family-foundation-invest-next-generation-conservation-leaders