2008 Power of Flight Grants

The Power of Flight program is the largest public/private funding effort for bird conservation in the South. Grants in the Power of Flight program were awarded to:

• Milliken Forestry Company - to accelerate translocation efforts for the red-cockaded woodpecker over the next five years. Funds will support a biologist on the Apalachicola National Forest in Florida who will monitor potential donor families, with the goal of increasing from 20 to 40 the number of woodpeckers available for translocation each year. This is a continuation of a grant formerly made to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over several years.
• Operation Migration USA - to increase the number of whooping cranes led South each year by ultra-light aircraft from Necedah National Wildlife Refuge in Wisconsin to the Chassahowitzka National Wildlife Refuge in Florida. This three-year grant will help increase the number of birds released annually to 24, with the goal of helping the flock reach a self-sustaining population level in four to five years.
• Atlanta Audubon Society - to develop a Georgia Important Bird Area conservation program to benefit American oystercatchers, red knots, and loggerhead shrikes. The program will help implement management techniques and involve local volunteers to improve habitat and increase species numbers at Joe Kurz Wildlife Management Area and along the Georgia coast.
• Tall Timbers Research Station - to help develop a spatially explicit conservation plan for northern bobwhite quail and other early successional species for Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and Florida. Workshops involving key agencies and organizations will be held to identify and prioritize landscapes that can serve as core recovery areas. Outcomes of the workshops will form the basis for revising the Northern Bobwhite Conservation Initiative, a 22-state recovery plan.