Today Secretary of interior Salazar announced he would delay the final decision on a proposed road through Izembek National Wildlife Refuge. This means the preferred alternative—no road—won’t be finalized before he leaves office. In some years, virtually all of the world’s Pacific Brant and Emperor Geese stop at Izembek to feed and rest. Both [...]

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The US Fish & Wildlife Service announced that it supports keeping Wilderness intact in Alaska’s Izembek National Wildlife Refuge. A proposed road plan involved a land swap to build a road through Wilderness between two remote Alaska villages. The refuge is part of a global Important Bird Area where hundreds of thousands of migratory birds [...]

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Guest blog post by Kerry Wilcox, Sanctuary Manager, Richardson Bay Audubon Center & Sanctuary The term waterbird gets used a lot by biologists and naturalists, but it can seem a bit vague and too general. Clearly all birds (let alone life on this planet) depend on water, but even if we just look at the variety [...]

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Check out this L.A. Times update on the ongoing trials and tribulations of Shell’s drill rig the Kulluk, which ran aground near Kodiak Island on New Year’s Eve. (Photo: Black Scoter by Beth Peluso. Black Scoters are one of the species that winters in the Important Bird Area where the Kulluk ran ashore.) Share on [...]

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When Shell’s drill rig the Kulluk ran aground on New Year’s Eve, it was in a globally significant Important Bird Area. Now that Shell and the Coast Guard have towed the Kulluk off the rocks and to a bay…it’s still in the Important Bird Area where more than 100,000 seabirds overwinter, including Black Scoters and [...]

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When a river dies, we lose a lot more than the water. We lose all the greenery, all the fish, all the birds and other wildlife. And we lose the community that grows up around a healthy waterway – the economy, the recreation. Everything turns to sand. The San Joaquin River is California’s second longest [...]

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Anyone interested in the future of one of California’s great rivers should attend the 2012 San Joaquin River Conference, being held Oct. 3 through 5 in Fresno. The theme this year is “A Living River and a Vibrant Valley.” The San Joaquin River Partnership, which hosts the annual conference, has assembled a series of engaging [...]

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  (Owens Lake is still a construction site.) Folks from Audubon California once again joined volunteers from Eastern Sierra Audubon and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) at the Owens Lake Important Bird Area this August to count birds. This is part of an annual one-day effort each spring and fall to count [...]

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Center for Biological Diversity, Oceana, and SharkStewards filed a petition this week to list the Great White Shark as threatened orendangered. From the petition: White sharks, Carcharodon carcharias, of the northeastern Pacific Ocean are in peril. New studies demonstrate that these sharks form a genetically distinct population. Such a population, covering a significant portion of the world’s oceans, urgently [...]

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From Dan Taylor, Audubon California’s director of public policy, on this morning’s news out of California State Parks: “We are extremely disappointed at the news this morning of alleged gross mismanagement at State Parks, and we support a full investigation in potential wrongdoing on behalf of officials charged with overseeing these great California treasures. Everyone [...]

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Audubon joined nine other conservation organizations yesterday to file suit in federal court in Alaska challenging the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement’s approval of Shell Oil Company’s inadequate oil spill response plans for the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas. Audubon simply feels that because there is no way to clean up a major oil spill [...]

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More than 165 California rice growers have signed up for an innovative program to enhance bird habitat on their land. The Sacramento Valley farmers recently enrolled in a new Natural Resources Conservation Service program, operated in conjunction with conservation groups, that offers almost $3 million in incentives to the growers to manage their properties in [...]

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Back in late April, we alerted all of you to a tragedy unfolding in the Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge. Because of a shortage of water in the Refuge, thousands of migratory waterfowl were perishing on their way north for spring migration. Our alarm prompted nearly 20,000 of you to send emails to the Secretary [...]

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Every winter at the Richardson Bay Audubon Center & Sanctuary, our staff keeps a steady record of the birds that we see on our sanctuary waters. Our situation is unique in San Francisco Bay in that our sanctuary extends out into the water itself, and so we feel a special need to watch over these [...]

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Audubon California joined folks from Eastern Sierra Audubon and lots of enthusiastic volunteers for the Owens Lake Big Day earlier this week. We were counting shorebirds at the lake, compiling invaluable data which will help us secure lasting protections for this Important Bird Area. Audubon California and Eastern Sierra Audubon are working with the Los [...]

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