Project Description California Institute of Environmental Studies was awarded $15,000 to conduct Scripps’s Murrelet nest monitoring and spotlight surveys during the 2018 breeding season at Anacapa Island in Channel Islands National Park. The Scripps’s Murrelet is a rare alcid that only breeds on 12 islands off the coast of California and northern Mexico, and one of

Project Description Prescott College Kino Bay Center for Cultural and Ecological Studies was awarded $15,000 to continue its multiyear Waterbird Monitoring Program in the Eastern Midriff region. The overarching goal of the program is to protect nesting, wintering and migratory waterbird species through long-term data collection, education, and collaborative management with government agencies and the

Project Description Grupo de Ecología y Conservación de Islas was awarded $15,000 to develop an Island Biosecurity Protocol for Natividad Island, Mexico. Invasive Alien Species (IAS) is the major threat for island conservation worldwide. Natividad Island hosts 90% of the breeding population of endemic and near threatened Black-vented Shearwaters. In the past, cats decimated the

Project Description Terra Peninsular and Intermountain Bird Observatory were awarded $14,960 to coordinate wintering Long-billed Curlew monitoring in Mexicali Valley and Northern Gulf of California, Mexico. Long-billed Curlew populations have declined and distributions have shrunk, likely due to a variety of factors including transformation and degradation of grassland and wetland habitat. The project will build

Project Description The California Important Bird Area (IBA) program provides an important framework for conservation efforts statewide. Because the IBAs guide focused regional conservation action by both Audubon California and the Sonoran Joint Venture, it is vital that they accurately represent those regions most important to sensitive (Threatened, Endangered, or Special Concern) species and/or exceptionally

Project Description Audubon Arizona was awarded $15,000 to conduct science-informed conservation planning for the declining population of endangered Yuma Ridgway’s Rail (Rallus obsoletus yumanensis) located in an increasingly urbanized environment along the Gila River in southwest Maricopa County, AZ. This section of the Gila River is part of a globally Important Bird Area (IBA), so

Project Description The colonial Tricolored Blackbird is of extreme conservation concern throughout its range. In California, where >99% of the population resides, it is designated as a State threatened species. In Mexico, the species no longer nests in most of its historical range and annual population estimates since 2007 have averaged ~400 birds. Since 2016,