Roseville, Minn. (July 28, 2026) — Earlier this month, Audubon Higher Mississippi River was awarded $840,000 from the Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund to launch the Undertake-a-Flyway pilot program to incentivize habitat restoration and bird-friendly administration throughout personal, public, and Tribal lands in Minnesota. By offering monetary and technical help, Audubon hopes to empower landowners to acknowledge the worth of their land inside the Mississippi Flyway and encourage voluntary motion to enhance 700 acres of vital migratory hen habitat by 2030.
Since 1970, North American hen populations have declined by practically one-third as a result of habitat loss, air pollution, local weather change, and different pressures. Migratory species characterize a number of the steepest losses, partly as a result of they depend on a related community of high-quality habitat to full their journeys. The Mississippi Flyway is the biggest hen migration hall on the continent, utilized by nearly half of North America’s hen species, and subsequently an necessary focus space for habitat conservation.
“The Mississippi Flyway helps greater than 325 hen species throughout their migratory flights every spring, with the mighty Mississippi River serving to them keep their routes,” mentioned Sarah Hewitt, Senior Conservation Supervisor for Audubon Mississippi River. “Nevertheless, the habitats these species depend on for gasoline and relaxation are declining as a result of a wide range of components, making it harder every year for migratory birds to meet their wants throughout their epic journeys—which results in inhabitants loss and decreased reproductive success if they make it to their breeding grounds.”
Since most hen habitat in North America is privately owned, voluntary recognition applications are important to addressing the decline of migratory hen populations and reaching conservation outcomes at scale. Audubon created the Undertake-a-Flyway pilot program in Minnesota to incentivize bird-friendly land administration and scale back fragmentation in areas recognized as vital stopover and breeding habitat for migratory birds.
Members who voluntarily enroll in this system will acquire public recognition in addition to monetary and technical help to implement bird-friendly administration practices really useful by Audubon vary and forest ecologists. These practices could embrace prescribed fireplace, native prairie and tree plantings, brush administration, and rotational grazing. Audubon ecologists may also use autonomous recording items to evaluate this system’s affect on course hen species in Minnesota, resembling the Bobolink and Wooden Thrush.
“We need to see this program uplift the significance of conserving our piece of the Mississippi Flyway to the general public and empower landowners to boost and create habitat that migratory and breeding birds can thrive in,” Hewitt mentioned. “Related and wholesome habitats are key to supporting the hen species that use the Mississippi Flyway.”
Audubon may also help in-person workshops to teach the general public on bird-friendly land administration alongside companions from MN Grazing Lands Conservation Affiliation, American Chook Conservancy, and City Chook Collective.
The official rollout of the Undertake-a-Flyway pilot program in Minnesota will occur this fall, however land managers can begin reaching out now about enrollment.
For extra details about the Undertake-a-Flyway program in Minnesota, please contact Dale Gentry, Director of Conservation for Audubon Higher Mississippi River, at Dale.Gentry@Audubon.org.
The Nationwide Audubon Society is a number one nonprofit conservation group with 120 years of science-based, community-driven affect, devoted to defending birds and the locations they want, at the moment and tomorrow. Birds are highly effective indicators of our planet’s well being, performing as sentinels that warn us of environmental change and encourage motion. Audubon works throughout the Western Hemisphere, pushed by the understanding that what is sweet for birds is sweet for the planet. By way of a collaborative, nonpartisan strategy throughout habitats, borders, and the political spectrum, Audubon drives significant and lasting conservation outcomes. With over 1,000 workers and greater than 2.6 million supporters, Audubon is a dynamic and ever-growing drive dedicated to making sure a greater planet for each birds and other people for generations to come back. Study extra at audubon.org and on Fb and Instagram @audubonsociety.
