Last month, a group of eight-year-old students got the experience of a lifetime. While visiting the Audubon Center for Birds of Prey, they got up-close and personal with Paige the Bald Eagle—a rare encounter with the large beak and talons of one of nature’s top predators.

Audubon Florida provides experiences to thousands of school-age students every year at the Audubon Center for Birds of Prey and Audubon’s Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary. Rescued eagles and owls serve as great teachers and so does a walk through ancient cypress forests.

Today’s children are tomorrow’s entrepreneurs and policymakers. Audubon Florida shares natural Florida’s beauty to excite a passion for birds, wildlife and their habitats. We need today’s students to believe in our mission to conserve birds and the special places they need to thrive.

While visitors to the Center for Birds of Prey in Maitland get to experience the toughest birds around, Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary student explorers step back in time to untouched habitats through the heart of a 13,000 acre wetland area. While hundreds of miles apart, both provide refuge to threatened and endangered birds while also serving as an important hub for research and community education.

Florida’s next generation will face the consequences of climate change and the urgent need to protect water resources. Now more than ever, the next generation—our children and grandchildren—should have even more opportunities to ignite a passion for conservation already felt by so many Audubon members.

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