As we move into the holiday season, many of us look forward to relaxing and unwinding with our families and friends. We at Audubon Rockies are also reflecting on our progress. If this year is any indication, we are moving into a new one with greater hopes for our conservation efforts. Birds continue to tell us. Audubon Rockies is listening. With your help, we will continue to protect them and the places we all need.

This year, our members stepped up in large numbers to speak up for important legislation. Our Western Rivers Initiative rallied thousands of members to help pass several bills that will build resilience to climate change and drought in Colorado. On the federal level, our Sagebrush Ecosystem Initiative averted some major perils for Greater Sage-Grouse and the sagebrush steppe they depend on.

While defending bird habitat through legislation is a core part of our work, we’re also restoring habitat on the ground. This year, we made important advancements in this strategy. We secured hundreds of thousands of dollars for habitat restoration and put them to work on Gillmor Sanctuary in Utah and on ranches certified by Audubon's Conservation Ranching Initiative. As we delve deeper into this work, we’re starting to combine the expertise of our different programs to restore river, wetland, and sagebrush habitat as well.

While connecting people to birds through our Community Naturalist and Habitat Hero programs has been a focus of our work for more than a decade, we’re innovating these strategies and expanding their offerings. This year we established a new community science program, launched a volunteer event series at Gillmor Sanctuary, created a bird-friendly garden that provides a sanctuary for wildlife and people, and saw tremendous volunteer effort from Wyoming Naturalist Program graduates.

There are more than 50,000 active Audubon members in Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah. They have proven to be a powerful force for conservation. Because you’ve made birds a part of your life, we’ve made a difference for them. Thank you. Please take a moment to see some of those accomplishments in our year-end video at the top of this page. To help us continue this exciting progress in 2023, please donate to Audubon.

Thank you for being a part of our flock.