Aububon North Carolina Awarded $40,000 Grant to Expand a Bird-Friendly Communities Program Across N.C.

Nov. 7, 2013. Toyota TogetherGreen, a conservation program of the National Audubon Society, has announced its 2013 recipients of the Innovation Grant. Audubon North Carolina (ANC) has been awarded $40,000 to expand a Bird-Friendly Communities (BFC) program across North Carolina. With the Toyota TogetherGreen Innovation Grant from Audubon, ANC is expanding its conservation efforts for birds and people. educating North Carolina residents on how they can make an impact in their own backyards and neighborhoods and giving them the tools to do so.

imgres-1In 2011, Curtis Smalling, Director of Land Bird Conservation, was named a 2011 Audubon Toyota TogetherGreen Fellow, coordinating an initiative engaging private landowners to improve young forest habitat for Golden-winged Warblers. 

“With population and urbanization in North Carolina rapidly increasing, this project will address an array of conservation issues on a statewide scale, with a specific focus on threatened migratory birds, the declining Brown-headed Nuthatch and other priority species,” said Director of Land Bird Conservation Curtis Smalling. 

“By restoring sustainable habitats and food sources, and reducing urban obstacles, the Bird-Friendly Communities program will help citizens and decision-makers reduce the challenges that will in turn allow birds to thrive.” 

In order to help increase bird populations, the BFC team will approach the project with three goals in mind:

  • Encouraging building owners and architects to create a more bird-friendly built environment through training, and implementing a Lights Out North Carolina program targeting commercial buildings
  • Educating landscape architects and homeowners to plant native foliage that provide important food sources for birds
  • Engaging citizens to install 10,000 Brown-headed Nuthatch nest boxes by 2015