The new 119th Congress has the opportunity to advance vital conservation efforts.
Investing in conservation provides economic benefits to local communities, creates recreation and other outdoor opportunities, and helps birds and other wildlife across the country.
Urge your members of Congress to support and advance conservation priorities that protect and improve the natural spaces that birds and people need.
Dear Senator/Representative [Names will automatically be added]:
According to the most recent U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service survey, 96 million people--more than one-third of American adults--participate in birdwatching in some form, collectively spending around $107 billion annually on birding supplies and trips while supporting 1.4 million jobs. Birding is both a pastime and an economic engine, one that reinforces why we need a strong commitment to conservation to protect the lands, waters, and coastlines that both people and birds need to survive.
I hope I can count on you to advance bipartisan conservation efforts across the entire United States, supporting communities and industries that depend on healthy ecosystems.
As your constituent and a supporter of the National Audubon Society, I ask you to be a champion for birds and local communities by lending your support and attention to four critically important areas:
- Investing in Conservation: Support continued funding and authorization for geographic restoration programs and watershed initiatives, including the Great Lakes, Delaware River, South Florida, and other major river basin and coastal restoration efforts, and invest in natural infrastructure that strengthens community resilience.
- Keep Working Lands Working: Support robust conservation funding in the Farm Bill and modernize conservation programs to better serve farmers and ranchers through conservation grazing, soil health, and working forest initiatives.
- Support America's Special Places: Fully fund the National Wildlife Refuge System, sustain core bird science programs like the Migratory Bird Program, Bird Banding Laboratory, and Breeding Bird Survey, reauthorize the Great American Outdoors Act legacy fund, and uphold core protections for birds.
- Advance Clean Energy and Bird-Friendly Transmission: Invest in U.S. manufacturing and clean energy development while ensuring permitting and transmission policies reduce risks to birds and expand conservation and community benefits from energy development on federal lands and rights-of-way.
Thank you for your work to help protect America's natural heritage and our local economies, delivering much-needed benefits to birds and people.
[Your comment here]
Sincerely,
[Your name here]
