Hundreds of conservation leaders, Audubon members, and Audubon staff participate in Audubon Assembly to set Audubon Florida’s Conservation Action Agenda. Conservation resolutions and priorities are set at each level by the National Audubon, Florida Audubon, Regional Conservation Committees, and local Chapters. Priorities are established through educational, scientific, investigative, literary, historical, philanthropic, and social equity pursuits. 

     The Conservation Action Agenda is the only statewide conservation agenda in Florida that uses an open process to set its policy agenda with all stakeholders invited to participate. State priority issues integrate with the National Audubon Society’s strategic plan. Regional priorities unite Florida Audubon's forty-five local chapters into seven regional committees (RCCs).

      Each year at the annual Assembly meeting, the seven RCCs set priorities for the upcoming year. The state priorities are compiled with the regional priorities and published in a pamphlet. 

     The Southwest RCC includes five chapters:  Peace River Audubon Society, Audubon of the Western Everglades, Audubon of the Southwest (Ft. Myers), Sanibel-Captiva Audubon and Hendry-Glades Audubon. Bren Curtis has been on the SW Regional Conservation Committee (SW RCC) since 2018 representing PRAS.  In January 2023, she was chosen as the SW RCC delegate to the Florida Audubon Board which holds quarterly meetings. Bren keeps PRAS active in local and regional conservation issues through Audubon Florida's monthly chapter president's meetings, RCC quarterly meetings and Audubon Florida quarterly meetings. Peace River Audubon expands its local and regional outreach by engaging in state, national and international conservation issues.  

    PRAS has an impromptu Conservation Committee. Locally, PRAS member Edie Driest and Bren active in her Harbour Heights community with Florida Scrub Jay populations and regionally with Friends of Pelicans at Skywalk Pier.  A Burrowing Owl collision of PRAS members Bren Curtis,  Susy D'Hont and Wildflower Preserve Leader Eva Furner are active with a community stake holders group protecting the Burrowing Owls of Meadows Villas. PRAS members Cathy Olson, Mike Weisensee and Bren Curtis are actively providing shorebird surveys in Charlotte County. PRAS member Bill Kimber and Bren Curtis are active in providing nesting gourd arrays for Purple Martins. PRAS member, Sue Galvin alerts PRAS to the dangerous activities of phosphate mining along the Peace River Spillway. Rob Mills leads the invasive plant removal and Plants for Birds volunteers at Audubon Pennington Park and CHEC.  PRAS member Phyllis Wojcik and Dr. Richard Whitman of the Heal our Harbor Board alert PRAS to water quality issues in Charlotte Harbor. PRAS CLI FGCU student Edwin Wilkes (mentored by Bren Curtis) and Audubon of the Southwest President, Gerri Reaves are active in a FGCU campus coalition to prevent bird window collisions. Bren Curtis is a member of the Wildlife Team of the Everglades Coalition (64 conservation and environmental organizations). Internationally, climate resiliency and avian migration engage PRAS local issues led by CHNEP to entanglements on a broader scale.

     

Audubon Florida's Conservation Action Agenda centers on these themes

within National Audubon's Flight Plan https://www.audubon.org/about/welcome-flight-plan:

Coastal Conservation

Water

Climate

Working Lands

Bird-friendly Communities

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Our Peace River Audubon Chapter's conservation efforts are concentrated on four bird groups in Charlotte County who currently needing assistance.  They are imperiled Florida Scrub Jays, Breeding Shorebirds, Purple Martins and Burrowing Owls.  Go to the Birding Tab to learn about impact stories for each group.

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REGIONAL CONSERVATION PRIORITY: SOUTHWEST FLORIDA 2026

Audubon has a long history in the Western Everglades region, beginning with hiring

wardens to protect wading bird colonies from plume hunters, later creating the

Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary (now a vital partner for these chapters), and helping to

secure federal and state public lands. Now, Audubon has created a visionary strategic Flight Plan, which includes the importance of Florida as a unique part of a vital migratory path for hundreds of bird species.  In that framework, Audubon Florida and its five affiliated Southwest Florida organizations are committed to working together to protect and restore the Southwest Florida watersheds and downstream coastal ecosystems in the face of rapid human population growth and increasing anthropogenic climate change impacts.

Among the climate impacts, increasing temperatures and poor water quality that feeds

harmful algal blooms remain a major threat in this region. This climate issue also

intersects regional wetland protection, habitat restoration, stormwater, and pollution

prevention policies.

Coinciding with and quite related to climate impacts is the crisis of species declines and

extinctions. Audubon organizations see these amongst avian species, but their food

base of insects and plants are just as concerning. Birds are telling the story of not only

needed preservation and restoration of wildlands, but there is a rising understanding that we all must learn to share our urban communities with wildlife. It seems individuals and our local communities are powerless to address these declines, but this is not so.

Regarding the vitally important issue of equity, diversity, inclusion and belonging,

Audubon and its chapters recognize the underrepresentation of diverse communities in

our leadership, membership, programs, and staff. This lack of diversity, including not only in race, but also age and socioeconomic status, is a challenge to be addressed for

everyone’s collective benefit. Our regional work could benefit immensely from

collaboratively working with underrepresented neighborhoods and communities.

Therefore be it resolved:

The Audubon chapters in the Southwest Florida Region, in alignment with

Audubon Florida and the Flight Plan/Atlantic Flyway, using information derived from sound

science, and motivated by community compassion, will mobilize volunteer

leadership, members, conservation allies, community leaders, public officials,

and governmental agencies to:

Habitat: Lands

• Support the acquisition, protection, restoration, management, and

compatible public access to vital habitats in the Southwest Florida region, including linkages to habitats well beyond the region, supporting road crossings and planning, and attending key agency meetings.

• Pursue all viable means to these ends, including especially Conservation

Charlotte, Conservation Collier, Lee Conservation 20/20, Florida Forever, federal

Land and Water Conservation Fund, and other programs active in this region.

• Protection and recovery of Florida Scrub Jay populations through participation in

Jay Watch with Audubon Florida, land acquisition support in strategic habitats, and

permit monitoring and comments at local state and federal levels.

• Protection and recovery of Wood Storks primarily through shallow, seasonal

wetland protection and restoration support, including land acquisition, permit

engagement, and regulatory reforms to better achieve “no net loss” goal.

Habitat: Coastal and Marine Resilience

• Implementation of coastal bird stewardship programs, including nesting and non-nesting stewardship staffed by Audubon biologists and trained volunteers, in

cooperation with Audubon Florida, FWC, Rookery Bay, DEP/State Parks,

landowners, and local governments.

Habitat: Urban Conservation Initiative

• Work to reduce bird strike deaths targeting building glass and design and

communication tower placement and design. Actions involve education of public

and promotion of residential and commercial window mitigation, revision of

building codes, and participation in permitting and planning meetings on towers. Actions also include collaboration with allies such as the Bird Collision Mitigation Coalition.

• Protection and recovery of Florida’s Burrowing Owl populations through

monitoring, research, public education, rodenticide elimination campaigns, and

collaboration with FWC and local governments. This is complemented by land

acquisition efforts.

• Cultivation of Urban Habitat for Birds through conversion of grass to native plants

and other urban habitat sharing with wildlife. These efforts include Audubon Plants

for Birds, water conservation efforts, Dark Skies urban lighting, and Doug Tallamy’s Homegrown National Park movement.

Community Building

• Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging work will continue to be part of all bird

conservation and habitat restoration and protection through targeted engagement

of children, families, schools, groups and neighborhoods that suffer most from

habitat loss, climate destabilization and declining biodiversity and are

underrepresented in conservation efforts. This engagement will be pursued for all

our regional conservation initiatives, as well as individual chapter work.