Audubon Welcomes America’s Next Top Working Lands Manager
With half of the land in the lower 48 states covered by working farms, forests and ranches, cooperation between conservationists, private landowners and the USDA is critical for birds.
WASHINGTON—Today, the Senate voted to confirm former Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue as the next Secretary of Agriculture. In response, the National Audubon Society issued the following statement:
“Working with America’s farmers, foresters and ranchers is one of the best hopes for protecting birds and the places they need,” said David Yarnold (@david_yarnold), Audubon’s president and CEO.
“These folks understand better than anyone the potential and the need for smart land and water conservation that benefit both birds and people. As climate change exacerbates threats like droughts, floods and wildfires, working with land managers—private and public—and government agencies to find commonsense, science-based solutions is more important than ever.
“This partnership is one we hope Sonny Perdue reaffirms as our next Secretary of Agriculture.”
Important USDA programs that support Audubon’s efforts to protect birds and the places they need include the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, Regional Conservation Partnership Program, Conservation Stewardship Program, Conservation Reserve Program, and the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program. For example, roughly 55,000 vulnerable Tricolored Blackbirds, more than one-third of the estimated population, were saved by cooperation between California’s farmers, Audubon, the dairy industry and the US Department of Agriculture, as part of the Regional Conservation Partnership Program.
For more than 100 years, Audubon has worked with local, state and federal officials from both parties. With nearly one million members from across the entire political spectrum spread out in red states, blue states and purple states, Audubon will continue fighting to protect birds and the places they need.
Audubon is asking members and supporters to contact their members of Congress and ask them to support conservation programs in the USDA and other federal departments. For Audubon's response to the White House budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2018, please click here.
The National Audubon Society protects birds and the places they need, today and tomorrow, throughout the Americas using science, advocacy, education and on-the-ground conservation. Audubon’s state programs, nature centers, chapters and partners have an unparalleled wingspan that reaches millions of people each year to inform, inspire and unite diverse communities in conservation action. Since 1905, Audubon’s vision has been a world in which people and wildlife thrive. Audubon is a nonprofit conservation organization. Learn more at www.audubon.org and @audubonsociety.
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Contact: Nicolas Gonzalez, ngonzalez@audubon.org, (212) 979-3068.