Tucson Audubon's Conservation Program aims to conserve birds and their habitats throughout southeast Arizona.
Our major goals are:
- Restore degraded habitats, especially those in riparian areas.
- Identify the most important habitats for birds and other wildlife, and work to maintain their viability.
- Advocate for change in the formal government sector legislation at all levels, and policies and regulations affecting the implementation of laws at all levels, enabling more effective conservation of our natural resources, and focusing on water use policies and land use planning.
- Provide ways for people to contribute to bird conservation (including, though not limited to, habitat restoration, bird surveys and advocacy) thus integrating our work in recreation, education and conservation.
We achieve our conservation goals through
- Our education program (teaching about priority threats)
- Engaging volunteers as we implement work in habitat restoration, identifying priority habitats, and survey work
- Formal training programs
- Advocacy work, with cities, counties, state, and national legislators and administrations
- Partnerships, especially on lower priority goals
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Arizona Important Bird Areas Program
The Arizona Important Bird Areas (IBA) Program at Tucson Audubon is an exciting, active, field-oriented, community-engaged, science-based and conservation-focused program to benefit Arizona’s bird populations of greatest conservation concern, and other native biodiversity, and their most critical habitats and sites!!
We provide key bird and habitat information to our partners to ensure the conservation of key sites for bird populations of concern in Arizona.
Tucson Audubon's Habitat Restoration Program
Tucson Audubon takes birds seriously. That's why along with watching them, teaching about them, and conserving them, we restore their habitat too!
Our restoration efforts are concentrated in riparian areas; along some of our region's rivers, streams and washes. Improving habitat along riparian areas is one of the most efficient ways we can help wildlife species, since so many of them use riparian areas. A large number of bird species that are on the Audubon Watchlist (of vulnerable bird species) are ones that depend on riparian areas.
Tucson Audubon's Urban Sustainability Program
Tucson Audubon’s Urban Sustainability Program works toward sustainable resource management in Tucson and southern Arizona. In the face of climate change, increasing population and dwindling supplies of fossil fuels and water, southern Arizona has the opportunity to be a model for conversion to reliance on renewable resources.
Economics of Birding and other Watchable Wildlife
Birders Mean Business!
People who watch birds in our state generate a total economic impact of $1.2 billion each year. Tucson Audubon is raising the awareness within government and the business community of this fact and the issues around it, particularly that conserving wildlife habitat makes economic sense for our state as we focus more on attractive, rather than extractive, industry to create a cleaner and more sustainable future for southern Arizona.
