President's Corner
National Audubon's Flight Plan
by John Shenot
Late last year, I had the pleasure of attending National Audubon Society’s 2023 Leadership Conference in Estes Park while representing all of us as the “host” local chapter for this hemispheric event. It was fun and inspiring, and I thought members might enjoy watching this three minute “highlight reel:” https://vimeo.com/885999220/1f840cbab8.
The focal point for the conference was National Audubon’s 2023–2028 strategic plan, Flight Plan: https://www.audubon.org/about/welcome-flight-plan. Flight Plan “orients all of Audubon toward achieving a singular Guiding Star: halting, and ultimately re-versing, the precipitous decline of birds across the Americas.” Representatives of Audubon chapters across the United States and affiliated organizations in other countries gathered to discuss the contents of the plan and how we can collaborate on its implementation.
I want to encourage our members to take a few minutes to look at Flight Plan and think about how our chapter, and how you individually, might contrib-ute to its success. The challenge before us is of such a magnitude and urgency that success is only possible if we harness the collective energy and ideas of everyone who cares about birds. What more should FCAS be doing locally to promote habitat conservation, fight climate change, enact good public policies, and (especially) expand and diversify the number of people committed to our mission? Would you consider volunteering for our Conservation Committee? Might you ask a friend who is not currently an FCAS member to come with you to one of our great programs (or watch on Zoom)?
By all means, keep on enjoying birds and everything the great outdoors has to offer. But let’s also commit to giving something back. The natural world is in cri-sis. Now is the time for action!