National Audubon Society: Our conservation work focuses on five key strategies,
supported by science, advocacy, and education.
Conservation
By protecting birds, we’re also safeguarding the Western hemisphere’s great natural heritage for future generations, preserving our shared quality of life and fostering a healthier environment for us all.
Learn More About Our Strategies
AdvocacyAudubon is a respected and influential voice on public policy issues, from town halls to the U.S. Capitol. We have the power to convene diverse stakeholders to solve even the toughest problems.
Policy Issues & Action
The Audubon NetworkNo other conservation organization matches the size, reach, scale, influence, diversity, and creative energy of our chapters, nature centers, volunteer leaders, and partners.
Current Letters of Support, Recent Activities, and Updates
Action Items
Habitat Conservation Planning for State-Owned Forests into the Future
You have a chance to influence how the Oregon Department of Forestry will protect habitats for the next seventy years! ASC is asking everyone to support comprehensive management and conservation by signing a petition or writing your own comments. All comments are due by June 1, 2022. Please see attached guidance to help you decide which action to take!
Sign petitions from Wild Salmon Center or Cascadia Wildland.
Current Issues
Old Peak Road Logging – Corvallis Watershed
ASC signed a letter with other groups to urgently recommend that the City of Corvallis immediately suspend all logging and forestry-related activities in the city-owned portion of the Corvallis Municipal Watershed. Our members represent many hundreds of Corvallis citizens and area residents who, along with all their community, rely on the remarkably clean and dependable water supply from its Rock Creek watershed on the east slopes of Marys Peak. This community expects the City to act to minimize our contribution to the worsening climate. And it requires the City to engage its community in governance, rather than in direct contravention of applicable state rules.
Critically Important Saline Lakes
Lake Abert and other western saline lakes are critically important to Wilson’s Phalaropes, Eared Grebes, American Avocets, and Snowy Plovers. Both human resource demands and climate change are accelerating the loss of these habitats and bird populations. Will Oregon take a leadership role in protecting Lake Abert after decades of neglect? Audubon entities join others in requesting our Governor to take action.
Unfortunately, water levels in Lake Abert once again reached critically low levels in 2021 following a similar occurrence during the 2014-2016 timeframe. To protect and restore this vitally important ecosystem in Oregon’s high desert, we request the Governor and state agencies take actions suggested in the letter. Link
Coffin Butte Landfill Expansion
In 2021, the ASC Conservation Committee provided formal comment on the impacts on wildlife of the request by Republic Service of Arizona to expand the regional landfill at Coffin Butte. The expansion will allow an unlimited amount of waste annually at the site & will disturb nesting habitat for Great Blue Herons. ASC will continue to research the issues & provide comments to the Benton County Board throughout the application process.
Protecting Native Rainforests
Recently passed Oregon legislation will provide greater protections for the Elliott Forest (SB 1546) and for private lands through required revisions to Forest Practices rules (SB 1501). And while ASC refutes the need for continued post-fire logging in complex forests in the Santiam State Forest, or the need to maximize timber revenues for counties in their interpretation of Oregon’s Greatest Permanent Value rule, we will continue to participate in forest planning efforts for the Elliott, state and federal forest lands, and for better-informed management for OSU’s various research forests through direct advocacy, lobbying, and education.
Climate Change and Northwest Forests
Corvallis, Lincoln City, and Salem Audubon chapters join others in requesting State Forestry to do a deep dive into fully incorporating the Oregon Climate Change & Carbon Plan into Northwestern State Forest Management Planning. Link