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Supporting Grassroots Conservation |
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The mission of the Audubon Wetlands Campaign is to preserve and restore the nation’s wetland ecosystems, through a partnership of Audubon volunteers and staff, to protect birds, other wildlife, and their habitats, as well as to protect human health and safety and to help sustain a healthy economy. To carry out this mission, the campaign has set a goal to protect and restore to health one million acres of wetlands.
The campaign sprang form Audubon’s grassroots, and participation by volunteers and field staff all around the country is the key to our success. Audubon chapters, state field offices, sanctuaries and other programs have saved 600,000 acres of wetlands since 1990. Our strategy to achieve the million acre goal and carry out our overall mission is to support grassroots Audubon conservation and to bring Audubon wetland advocates into a focused campaign that influences national policy. The campaign’s grassroots strategy consists of 4 elements:
Empowering community-based wetlands conservation
To reach our goal of protecting and restoring a million acres of wetlands, the campaign has set out to help Audubon state field offices, chapters and volunteer leaders, sanctuaries and other Audubon programs, do even more for wetlands in their communities. This is a nationwide program that provides resources and support to Audubon’s grassroots, including our new Citizen Action for Wetlands notebook, quarterly newsletter, listserve, technical and policy advice upon request, tracking our progress toward the million acre goal and providing information on our world wide web site, and outreach to recruit new activists.
We have just kicked off a new initiative to empower community-based conservation in wetlands of special importance to birds. The Wetlands for Wildlife program focuses campaign resources on special wetland places of vital importance to birds. We work with local Auduboners and other partners to help build consensus on conservation solutions, identify funding sources to make it happen, and publicize the results to leverage other successes. The Atchafalaya Basin in Louisiana is our first Wetland for Wildlife.
Building and strengthening our wetlands network
Hundreds of Audubon chapters and programs and thousands of Audubon volunteers and staff –this network is the key to achieving our goal to protect and restore a million acres of wetlands. The network now numbers 2,000 supporters, with wetlands leaders in every state, and we mail our quarterly newsletter to over 4,000. Our Wetlands Mentor Team of grassroots wetlands experts within Audubon who help others in the Audubon family design a wetland project. From the science of restoration ecology, to the arts of fundraising, communication, and policy advocacy, the Wetlands Mentors are available to help Audubon activists across the country. The campaign’s Grassroots Organizer is leader of the Mentor Team, recruits new activists, and keeps information flowing within the larger network. The campaign also has a dedicated "circuit rider" who travels the country meeting with chapter leaders to bring them into the campaign and learn how we can support their community wetlands conservation work. Email the Grassroots Organizer if you would like to get more information on this activity.
Policy advocacy
Defending and strengthening wetland protection programs at the national, state, and local levels is vitally important to wetlands conservation. As we work together on community-based conservation, we build a national constituency to defend the Clean Water Act, implement Farm Bill programs, and encourage Congress to fund President Clinton’s Clean Water Action Plan, among many other federal policy priorities. This constituency has been mobilized over and over again in the last few years, meeting with resounding success as it helped defeat the "Dirty Water" bill in the 104th Congress, repeal the Corps’ Nationwide Permit 26, and preserve EPA’s wetland authority. We are currently working on mitigation banking and new federal wetlands permits.
Public communication and education
Understanding wetlands and the urgent need to protect them is essential and creates the context for Audubon’s advocacy and conservation work. The wetlands campaign has developed new tools that chapters and other Audubon programs may use to educate their communities through schools or civic groups, elected officials and members of the media. In early 1998, for example, the campaign commissioned a public opinion survey on wetlands that found that 82 percent of registered voters feel it is important to protect wetlands. The campaign Organizer assists chapters and state offices organize wetlands tours for public officials and the media during Fall Fly Way and Wings over Spring.
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email us: wetlands@audubon.org |
Last Update: 4.3.00 |