Effective Bird Conservation and Smart Agriculture Go Hand-in-Hand

WASHINGTON—Today, former Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue, President Trump’s nominee to lead the US Department of Agriculture, testified before the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee. In response to Governor Perdue’s nomination and his testimony, the National Audubon Society issued the following response:

“Our farmers, foresters and ranchers feed and furnish the world, and they’re also some of the best conservationists in America,” said David Yarnold (@david_yarnold), Audubon’s president and CEO. “They understand better than anyone the need for common-sense solutions to keep our air clean, our water protected and our climate stable, all of which birds and people need to survive.

“As Georgia governor, Sonny Perdue had a strong record on water conservation and infrastructure, which we look forward to him expanding to all 50 states if confirmed. His responsible approach to these issues is especially needed out West, where smart water management is more important now than ever.

"Governor Perdue would also inherit the awesome responsibility to steward more than 200 million acres of national forests and grasslands that house birds and sustain rural communities in both red states and blue states.

“From Tricolored Blackbirds in California to Greater Sage-Grouse in Wyoming to Cerulean Warblers in Connecticut, birds and land stewards all across the country benefit from science-based conservation, smart public land management and partnerships like the one between the USDA and Audubon.

“This partnership is key to our success protecting birds and the places they need, and it’s one we hope Perdue reaffirms if he is confirmed by the Senate to be 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.