From the Executive Director

Eastern Bluebirds. Photo: Danny Brown/Audubon Photography Awards

Amanda Robinson, NVBA Executive Director

As we put together this month's newsletter, I'm struck by both the range of articles and the slate of events coming up. At-risk birds like the Ospreys of the Chesapeake, the butterflies and insects that share our wild places, Latino Conservation Week, and a full calendar of events we hope to see you at — there's a lot happening at NVBA every month. And even so, there's much more we could be doing with your support.

For most of our history, being a member of NVBA meant being a member of National Audubon. You joined nationally, we were listed as your chapter, and that was that. It made sense when it was set up. The problem is that almost none of that money reaches us. If you're a first-time National member and you sign up through us, we get that first gift, but renewals go to National. So your local chapter, doing the work in these counties, had no dependable way to be funded by the people who live in them. We've been running restoration sites, training trip leaders, and keeping an eye on land use decisions off grants, events, and the generosity of individuals who have gotten to know us.

That's a hard way to do work that only counts if you keep doing it. A restoration site you walk away from goes back to what it was in about three seasons. If nobody's watching the legislature, issues move without us speaking up for the birds. And if we're not out there giving people ways to see birds, the birds stay invisible to far more of our neighbors than they need to be. This work asks us to be dependable, and we need your help to be.

So I hope you'll consider becoming a local member. It's $35 a year for an individual, $50 for a household, and every dollar of it stays right here in northern Virginia. It gives us a way to plan for the work we want to do, rather than hoping the funding shows up.

Fall migration is picking up. Join us in protecting both the birds that are here year-round and the ones just stopping through.

Thanks for reading, and for caring about the birds here.