Landscape Spotlight: The Pacific Flyway

In 2019, researchers and conservationists sounded the alarm when a scientific study revealed that North American bird populations have plummeted by three billion since 1970—that is one-in-four birds gone. Without action, these declines will likely accelerate, and Columbia Land Trust is dedicated to conserving our region’s critical habitat, for birds and other wildlife.

The Pacific Flyway is an essential pathway for neo-tropical migratory birds, including songbirds like warblers, tanagers, vireos, hummingbirds, and even some hawks and owls, as they seasonally travel thousands of miles between the rainforests of South and Central America and the temperate and boreal forests of the U.S. and Canada. But the Flyway is only as strong as each stop along the birds’ journey.

Critical connecting habitats are being lost at an unprecedented rate due to land use conversion as well as impacts from climate change including drought, disease, and wildfire. Lands that Columbia Land Trust already cares for, as well as priority areas we are actively working to conserve, are located right in the heart of the Flyway. These are critical places for migrating birds to rest, forage, and nest.

Permanent conservation of critical habitat is essential to ensuring our region’s diverse and abundant wildlife populations continue to thrive.

Read more conservation stories.