Florida Bay, the vast lagoon between the Florida Keys and the mainland, is home to some of the most unique wildlife and habitat in the world. But this special place is telling us something is wrong.

After six months of intense planning, the South Florida Water Management District approved the Tentatively Selected Plan for the Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA) Storage Reservoir project in March. The project remains on schedule.

Audubon staff and board directors joined Everglades Foundation colleagues and Everglades advocates in our nation’s capital to advocate for America’s Everglades.

There is no sugar-coating it. Baby season is a tough and hectic time at the Audubon Center for Birds of Prey in Maitland, Florida. In February, you can hear staff say, “look how cute, a baby Great Horned Owl just arrived.” However, by June you hear, “do we still have a kennel free for another Red-shouldered Hawk?”

While many people associate Audubon’s Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary in Naples, Florida with its cypress swamp boardwalk and extraordinary wildlife viewing, fewer realize that it is an active laboratory. Behind the scenes, Audubon researchers, land managers, educators, and policy advocates work to unravel the threats facing Corkscrew’s watershed and prescribe a course of restoration that will benefit the entire Western Everglades.

The equivalent of Piping Plover royalty were spotted wintering in Florida this year! In 2017, for the first time in 60 years, two pairs of Piping Plovers nested in Pennsylvania on the shores of Lake Erie.

April 20, 2018 marked the eighth anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon Disaster that endangered the economies of coastal communities, saturated marshes and wetlands with sludge, and smothered thousands of birds in oil. Despite millions of gallons of oil flooding into the Gulf of Mexico, two surviving pelicans from the disaster recently gave Audubon biologists new hope for the fate of rescued and treated bird victims.

Just like Floridians, Florida’s coastal birds demonstrated perseverance and persistence last year. Audubon support and stewardship gave the birds a fighting chance despite extreme weather, disappearing habitat, and crowded beaches.

Birds Baffle Experts Trying to Stem Decline of Species

Lawmakers gathered early this year in Tallahassee for their annual 60-day lawmaking session, and Audubon focused on conservation funding as our top priority. With 2018 being an important election year for many lawmakers, Florida’s environment faced eager lawmakers ready to make an impact on the state.