News
Partnerships in Place: Oak and the Pacific Flyway
Oak restoration in Oregon is featured in BirdLife International's new Global Flyways video series!
This series highlights the extraordinary journeys of migratory birds and the global efforts to protect them. Each video focuses on a different conservation project to illustrate both what’s at risk and what’s possible. Global Flyways premiered in September at BirdLife International’s Global Flyways Summit in Kenya and has now launched online for World Migratory Bird Day.
Pacific Birds Habitat Joint Venture worked with BirdLife International to develop two videos about how collaborative partnerships conserve the interconnected habitats of the Pacific Flyway. One of these videos, “Partnerships in Place: Oak and the Pacific Flyway” spotlights the Klamath Siskiyou Oak Network (KSON). KSON restores oak-prairie landscapes in Southern Oregon and Northern California through sustainable forest management and fire-use practices that are informed by bird conservation plans. It is one of nine regional partnerships in the Oak Alliance.
This short-form documentary interviews KSON partner Marko Bey (Executive Director, Lomakatsi Restoration Project) and Pacific Birds Habitat Joint Venture board member Glenn Lamb (Philanthropic Project Manager, Coalition of Oregon Land Trusts), and features a Lomakatsi inter-tribal crew at work. Using KSON as a case study for the broader Oak Alliance, they discuss how oak restoration delivers “win-win” results that benefit both migratory birds and local communities. Restoration activities such as thinning encroaching conifers and reintroducing ecocultural fire enables oak trees and landbirds to thrive, while also reducing wildfire risk, providing green jobs, and increasing access to First Foods.
Partner organizations involved in KSON include the Klamath Bird Observatory, Lomakatsi Restoration Project, Understory Initiative, Southern Oregon Forest Restoration Collaborative, Nature Conservancy, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, Rogue River Watershed Council, and Pacific Birds Habitat Joint Venture.
The survival of migratory bird species depends on an interconnected network of habitats like oak woodlands, savannas, and prairies throughout the Pacific Flyway, from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego. Through the Oak Alliance, local partners are connecting their on-the-ground restoration projects with major national and international bird initiatives. By amplifying our collective energy to build capacity, secure resources, and inform policy, together we are accelerating habitat conservation across the northern portion of the Pacific Flyway.