Sandhill Crane
Latin: Antigone canadensis
Type in your search and hit Enter on desktop or hit Go on mobile device
A new model for conservation.
Sandhill Cranes Photo: Choktai Leangsuksun
California’s public lands play a vital role in the success and survival of millions of migratory birds. As birds make their perilous journeys across the Pacific Flyway, they need safe and reliable places to rest and eat. These protected lands provide access to food, water, and nesting habitat needed to sustain them along the way.
There are 34 National Wildlife Refuges in California that play a key role in supporting migratory birds. The Sonny Bono Salton Sea National Wildlife Refuge is one of the most important places for birds in North America, offering a rare spot for shorebirds to stop as they travel over large stretches of dry land.
Mono Lake and its surrounding ecosystem provide a diverse landscape, from marsh and meadow to sagebrush steppe and forest. It is ideal habitat for migrating birds, mule deer, and other big game species. In southern California, the Mojave Trails National Preserve and Joshua Tree National Park provide critical habitat for species such as the Burrowing Owl, Red-tailed Hawk, and Prairie Falcon.
So what do these regions have in common? They are all part of a network of large public lands corridors providing essential habitat along migratory flyways. When public lands are well-managed and kept healthy for migratory birds and other wildlife, they provide many benefits for people, such as clean air and water, economic opportunity, recreation, hunting, mental and physical health benefits. Plus, these intact lands buffer against the effects of climate change.
Right now, California is poised to be a national leader in public lands conservation, working at the intersection of climate change, energy production, land management, and wildlife conservation. Visit the StoryMap to see how.
Black-necked Stilt Photo: Logan Southall
Explore our new StoryMap, which identifies key migratory pathways and highlights the most important public lands in California for birds.
California is first in nation to commit to protecting 30% of our lands and waters by 2030.
By partnering with landowners, we can create lasting protections for birds.
Conservation ranching techniques create habitat and sequester carbon. Under a new bill, the state would pay ranchers to implement them.
Vital protections are needed for wetlands that depend on groundwater under the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act
Coalition of conservation and community groups says groundbreaking is positive step towards ending years of inaction at California’s largest lake.
Audubon science finds that two-thirds of North American birds are at risk of extinction from climate change.
Audubon California's Brigid McCormack was among the group that visited the Salton Sea this week to look at birds and take a look at new efforts to create habitat. Among the 82 species the group saw in two days was a Little Blue Heron, Verdin, and Phenopepla.
Opinion piece in Sunday's Los Angeles Times seeks to put some pressure on the state of Californi to take sufficient action to protect habitat and public health at the Salton Sea:
There have been glimmers of progress. Last fall, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife restoration project got under way at Red Hill Bay in the federal Sonny Bono Wildlife Refuge at the lake. It will transform 420 acres of dried-out landscape into shorebird habitat again, and it is already fully funded, leaving the $30 million promised by Washington in September for other projects.
At about the same time the feds went to work at Red Hill Bay, Brown signed a law that mandates the restoration of up to 12,000 acres of exposed lake bed by 2020 (the $80.5 million he set aside in the summer is a down payment on the mandate).
However, even if all pending restoration projects go forward (most haven’t broken ground) only 3,000 acres of dry lake bed would be reclaimed by 2020. A greater sense of urgency is needed if even the most modest of goals is to be met.
Southern California ecology researchers have a strong opinion piece in Sunday's Sacramento Bee about how the imminent diversions of water from the Salton Sea in 2018 could be disastrous for the hundreds of thousands who live around it:
"In January 2018, water that had been flowing into the Salton Sea will be diverted from the Imperial Valley and sent to urban water districts. As a result, the Salton Sea will shrink rapidly, leaving behind vast areas of dry lake bed. These exposed beaches will be a source of highly toxic, wind-blown dust affecting the health of hundreds of thousands of Californians living in the Coachella and Imperial valleys."
In the latest news in the ongoing battle of a federal government plan to kill thousands of Double-crested Cormorants in Oregon, a judge last week ruled that the Army Corps of Engineers violated the law when it refused to consider other ways to help endangered salmon. The judge, however, allowed the killing to continue. The Audubon Society of Portland has been leading the legal battle. This issue has been particularly compelling for us at Audubon California given the collapse of a major breeding colony at the Salton Sea.
California is a global biodiversity hotspots, with one of the greatest concentrations of living species on Earth.
Our newsletter is fun way to get our latest stories and important conservation updates from across the state.
Help secure the future for birds at risk from climate change, habitat loss and other threats. Your support will power our science, education, advocacy and on-the-ground conservation efforts.
Join the thousands of Californians that support the proposed Chuckwalla National Monument.
