Pheasants Forever

Pheasants Forever is dedicated to the conservation of pheasants, quail and other wildlife through habitat improvements, public awareness, education and land management policies and programs.

A Unique Model
At the heart of Pheasants Forever is the unique grassroots system of fundraising and project development that allows members to see the direct result of their contributions. Pheasants Forever and its quail division, Quail Forever, empower county and local chapters with the responsibility to determine how 100 percent of their locally raised conservation funds will be spent - the only national conservation organization that operates through this truly grassroots structure. As a result, chapter volunteers are able to see the fruits of their efforts locally, while belonging to a larger national organization with a voice on federal and state conservation policy.

Today I made a $10 donation to Pheasants Forever. My next blog will be on December 2nd.

Quail Forever

Quail Forever is dedicated to the conservation of quail, pheasants and other wildlife through habitat improvements, public awareness, education and land management policies and programs.
A Unique Model
At the heart of Quail Forever is the unique grassroots system of fundraising and project development that allows members to see the direct result of their contributions. Quail Forever, Pheasants Forever's sister organization, empower county and local chapters with the responsibility to determine how 100 percent of their locally raised conservation funds will be spent - the only national conservation organization that operates through this truly grassroots structure. As a result, chapter volunteers are able to see the fruits of their efforts locally, while belonging to a larger national organization with a voice on federal and state conservation policy.

Quail Forever
Pheasants Forever launched Quail Forever in August of 2005 to address the continuing loss of habitat suitable for quail and the subsequent quail population decline. Bobwhite population losses over the last 25 years range from 60 to 90 percent across the country. The reason for the quail population plunge is simple - massive losses of habitat suitable for quail. There are five major factors leading to the losses of quail habitat; intensified farming and forestry practices, succession of grassland ecosystems to forests, overwhelming presence of exotic grasses like fescue that choke out wildlife, and urban sprawl.

The minimum online donation for Quail forever is $10. I won't be blogging on November 29th.

National Wild Turkey Federation

The NWTF — a national nonprofit organization — is the leader in upland wildlife habitat conservation in North America.

Our History
On March 28, 1973, the Commonwealth of Virginia issued incorporation papers to a fledgling organization in Fredericksburg called the National Wild Turkey Federation.

The NWTF has come a long way since its founding chief executive, Tom Rodgers, took $440 out of his own pocket to put this organization in motion.

And what it has turned into is nothing short of phenomenal.
 NWTF Rescues Wild Turkeys From Brink of Extinction
NWTF Helps Rescue Wild Turkeys From Brink of Extinction

Click the image to watch the video.

Founded in 1973, the NWTF is headquartered in Edgefield, S.C., and has local chapters in every state.

The NWTF is dedicated to the conservation of the wild turkey and the preservation of our hunting heritage.

Through vital partnerships with state, federal and provincial wildlife agencies, the NWTF and our members have helped restore wild turkey populations throughout North America — from a mere 30,000 in the entire United States to more than 7 million across the United States, Canada and Mexico.

WORLD LAND TRUST

World Land Trust (WLT) is an international conservation charity, which protects the world’s most biologically important and threatened habitats acre by acre. Since its foundation in 1989, WLT has funded partner organisations around the world to create reserves, and give permanent protection to habitats and wildlife.

Our mission
To protect and sustainably manage natural ecosystems of the world; to conserve their biodiversity, with emphasis on threatened habitats and endangered species

To develop partnerships with local individuals, communities and organisations; to engage support and commitment among the people who live in project areas

To raise awareness, in the UK and elsewhere, of the need for conservation; to improve understanding and generate support through education, information and fundraising

American Friends of Durrell

The great British writer and conservationist, Gerald Durrell, was a visionary, a pioneer and a man with a mission. He believed that good zoos could do great things in conservation, and more than 50 years ago he set out to prove it.

Gerald created a modest zoo on a small island situated between England and France in the English Channel – the original Jersey for which New Jersey is named. There he and his keepers began to breed the rarest of rare animals. He soon got scientists on board his ‘ark’ to study the species in the zoo and in the wild. Then teachers joined to train the people of the countries where the animals come from to breed and study them. Gerald’s team and the local people began to work together to protect these threatened species and their habitats and to help them recover.

Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust saves threatened species and their habitats by engaging with local communities in more than a dozen countries and training hundreds of people from around the world every year. Usually just called “Durrell”, its headquarters are at the wildlife park in Jersey, British Isles, set up by Gerald for the breeding of rare species so that they don’t disappear forever.

In the five years to 2014 Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust has received more than a million dollars in grants and donations from America, thanks to the generosity of Americans and their belief in the importance of its work. Supporters include the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, US Fish and Wildlife Service, Disney Wildlife Conservation Fund, The Turtle Conservancy, Liz Claiborne Art Ortenberg Foundation, The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust, several zoos and non-profit foundations and more than 200 individuals.

To facilitate contributions to Durrell we have started American Friends of Durrell. We are a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, the purpose of which, as stated in our Bylaws, is to promote and support the programs and activities of Durrell in its mission to save species from extinction.

The Wilderness Society

Since 1935, our ability to protect and preserve wilderness has come from caring friends like you. Your contribution will allow The Wilderness Society to do an even better job preventing reckless exploitation of public lands that belong to all of us, building scientific consensus on the most effective ways to save America’s remaining wilderness, mobilizing wilderness lovers nationwide, and so much more.

Today I made a $10 donation, so I won't be donating on November 24th.

Feline Conservation Federation

In response to the pressing environmental stresses that threaten the survival of all felines in nature, the Feline Conservation Federation is dedicated to responsible captive management of wild feline genetics. 

FCF serves its members in ways that provide husbandry education, rescue funding, and conservation and research support. FCF operates a respectable accreditation and certification process to objectively verify that animal facilities are providing their felines the standards of care that they deserve. 

FCF works internally and externally to achieve these goals:

1. FCF provides feline facility operators with husbandry training and written guidelines on the proper and humane care of various feline species and our membership offers opportunities for exchange of information between those of various levels of experience. Those new to feline husbandry benefit from the professional expertise of our more experienced members. 

2. FCF educates the public about the need to protect wildlife habitat and properly manage captive gene pools to insure that species will survive for future generations.

FCF benefits its member facilities though increased collaboration and opportunities for mentorship, with the goal of raising the level of care and building capacity whenever possible. FCF fosters the synergy of every type of feline owner working together to insure that the world's wild felines are given proper care and respect in captivity and in nature. 

FCF is the first accrediting organization offering this service for the non-commercial feline owner as well as for facilities that operate as public exhibitions, feline refuges, and conservation breeding centers. The FCF accreditation is the "seal of approval" that will reassure donors and foundations, the media, and members of the public that the facility is operating with the highest level of husbandry and management practices and is clearly distinguished from substandard facilities.  

FCF facility accreditation will open the doors to foundation grants that reward honorable facilities that strive to meet the challenge of providing safe and rewarding environments for feline residents and also manage their genetics responsibly so that feline species are sustained in captivity for future generations. 

Gaining recognition by state agencies and granting foundations for accredited facilities is a top priority for FCF because we understand the tremendous challenge private conservationists face in meeting operating costs in these difficult economic times. 

The FCF organization's goal in working with, and assisting our member facilities, is to ensure they receive the necessary community and financial support, public and peer recognition, and are properly honored for meeting high standards of care for their felines in residence.

Sea Turtle Conservancy

To achieve its mission, the Sea Turtle Conservancy uses research, habitat protection, public education, community outreach, networking and advocacy as its basic tools. These tools are applied in both international and domestic programs focusing on geographic areas that are globally important to sea turtle survival. The map below shows the locations of the Sea Turtle Conservancy's activities and initiatives.

Okapi Conservation Project

Okapis, the last major mammal discovered in Africa, live only in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a country known as much for its political strife as for its incredible biodiversity. The people of the DRC have chosen the okapi as the symbol of their country’s wildlife. Its image is used in the logo of the ICCN, the Congolese Wildlife Authority.

The Okapi Wildlife Reserve is a World Heritage site that is home to more than 3,000 okapi and hundreds of other species. Although it is a national treasure, the reserve and its okapis are threatened by the insecurity of the DRC. Slash and burn agriculture, illegal gold mining and elephant poaching abound in the forests. In 2012, a vicious rebel attack on the Okapi Wildlife Reserve killed rangers and ambassador okapis and left surrounding villages devastated.

Throughout the DRC’s turmoil the Okapi Conservation Project has remained the primary supporter of the Okapi Wildlife Reserve and protector of the okapi.

Small Cat Conservation Alliance

There are 36 recognized species of cats in the world. Most people are familiar with the big and medium-sized cats, but few people could name the 22 smaller cats. Like their larger cousins, small cats are threatened by the loss of valuable habitat and prey, indiscriminate killing, and conflict with humans, livestock and domestic animals.

Compared to other carnivores, very little is known about the small cats. With sparse information, it is difficult to obtain funding for conservation projects, provide protection for them, or establish conservation standards. Small Cat Conservation Alliance is leading the way in protecting small endangered cats around the world.

Michael J Fox Foundation

We are 100% patient-focused.

Our team works tirelessly every day with one urgent goal in mind: Accelerating breakthroughs patients can feel in their everyday lives. We strive to make progress in the following key areas by evaluating risk, opportunities, and challenges through a patient-focused lens:
Speed treatments that can slow, stop or reverse the progression of Parkinson’s disease
Speed better treatments for the currently unaddressed or under-addressed symptoms of Parkinson’s disease
Speed treatments to address or avoid the debilitating side effects of current Parkinson’s disease drugs
We are obsessed with efficiency.

We operate with a focused sense of optimistic urgency to find a cure for Parkinson's and to ensure the development of improved therapies for people living with Parkinson's today. We won't stop until a cure is found. We're on it.
We won’t stop until a cure is found.

We take pride in all our accomplishments so far. But ultimately we have only one definition of success: Scientific solutions that produce tangible improvements in patients’ lives.
We are risk-takers and problem-solvers.

From inception, MJFF has invested in high-risk, high-reward research targets; an approach that in 10 short years has transformed the broader approach in the PD research field.
Our model is different.

It is accepted practice among private disease research funders that the most important decisions — how to allocate donor-raised dollars — are made by external scientific advisors and boards. We bucked this model from day one in favor of building an in-house team of formally trained PhDs and business-trained project managers.

Asian Vulture Project

Once considered the most abundant large birds of prey in the world, populations of three species of Gyps vultures on the Indian subcontinent have been reduced to less than 1% of their population since about 1990 as a result of being poisoned by consuming livestock carcasses contaminated with a pharmaceutical contaminant.

The extinction of these populations on the Indian subcontinent would have far- reaching ecological, economic, cultural, and public health ramifications. In 2003, our diagnostic investigation confirmed that a pharmaceutical drug called diclofenac is the agent responsible for the decline. Vultures are highly sensitive to its toxic effects. Diclofenac is widely used in the veterinary treatment of domestic livestock, which are the vultures’ primary food source. In 2006, the governments of India and Pakistan banned the manufacture of veterinary diclofenac, while manufacturers in Nepal voluntarily withdrew the drug from the market.

Our discovery that diclofenac is responsible for the decline in Gyps vulture populations represents, for the first time, that a pharmaceutical can have such widespread and devastating consequences for wild species. This finding highlights a new global threat to ecosystems and biodiversity. Our ongoing studies will act as a model in developing scientifically sound conservation strategies to this new form of environmental contamination.

Tundra Conservation Network

Responding to climate change may be one of the world's most important and complex endeavors of the 21st century. Climate change models predict large changes in species’ distributions and the potential for extinctions over the next century, but biotic interactions such as predator-prey, inter- and intra-specific competition, and phenology add a level of complexity that is difficult to model. Gathering empirical evidence of these interactions and monitoring changes over time may be critical for improving predictions, and making wise choices for conservation of biodiversity in response to climate change.

Nowhere is the effect of climate change on biodiversity, biotic interactions, and ecosystem function and persistence likely to be more dramatic than in the Arctic. Top predators, such as birds of prey, are sensitive to environmental change, and serve as early indicators of threat and as models for conservation intervention. Gyrfalcons and their principal prey, ptarmigan, are widely distributed and far ranging species in the arctic ecosystem, and are therefore good candidates for measuring, understanding, and mitigating current and predicted changes in their world.

California Condor Restoration

California Condors are highly endangered. Only 22 individuals remained alive in 1982. The Peregrine Fund produces condors at the World Center for Birds of Prey in Idaho and releases them in Arizona as a “non-essential experimental population” under a Memoranda of Understanding and applicable special permits with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Park Service, Arizona Game and Fish Department, and others.

Non-invasive research into captive breeding and restoration increases the body of knowledge regarding condor conservation and natural science, and provides the basis for ongoing management decisions. Specific topics of field study include condor movements, behavior, foraging ecology, and toxicology, specifically, lead poisoning. Findings and publications arising from these investigations provide guidance to this and other endangered species restoration programs through scientific exchange and publication.

Aplomado Falcon Restoration

The Northern Aplomado Falcon was once a part of the dynamic and diverse wildlife community associated with our southwestern grasslands, but the species disappeared during the early 20th century. Restoring this species underscores the need to conserve important habitats. This effort is an ideal vehicle to promote creative solutions to problems associated with the Endangered Species Act, such as the innovative “Safe Harbor” permit, which has enrolled more than 2 million acres of potential Aplomado Falcon habitat in the interest of conservation.

Field studies are being conducted to document the current status of Aplomado Falcons and to understand their ecology. This effort provides a unique opportunity to study a new population as it begins to occupy both traditional and novel habitats. The Aplomado Falcon is an important “indicator species” for environmental quality due to its unique ecology and propensity to accumulate environmental contaminants. Addled eggs and tissue samples are being analyzed to gain knowledge of contaminant levels throughout the Aplomado Falcon’s range.

At the northern extent of the species’ range in Texas, the Aplomado Falcon is regaining its place as an integral part of the grassland ecosystem from which it has been absent for more than 50 years.

American Kestrel Partnership

In response to long-term population declines of kestrels in North America, The Peregrine Fund's American Kestrel Partnership is unifying the data-generating capacity of citizen scientists with the research expertise of professional scientists to advance conservation of the American Kestrel.

The American Kestrel Partnership consists of more than 600 partners. We are recording data from more than 1,400 kestrel nests, from Alaska to Argentina.

Proyecto Titi

Cotton-top tamarins are an endangered species of primate found only in the tropical forests of Colombia. Weighing about 1 pound, this tiny monkey needs our help in order to survive. Proyecto Tití is a conservation program that works to study cotton-top tamarins in their tropical forest habitat as well as educating local communities about the need to protect the biodiversity of Colombia. But, to make conservation economically feasible for many local communities, we have developed some innovative strategies to empower local people to get involved and benefit from conservation activities. You too, can help to support the conservation of cotton-top tamarins by learning more about this amazing animal and contributing to our program.

Andean Cat Alliance

The Andean cat is one of the rarest and least-known cats in the world. It lives high in the harsh climates of the Andes and Patagonia Mountains, where food is scarce and weather conditions are extreme. This small, sturdy cat is difficult to find – there have been only ten recorded sightings in 25 years – and even harder to study.

The Andean Cat Alliance, which operates across Argentina, Bolivia, Chile and Peru, the countries where the cat lives, has risen to this challenge. Members of the Alliance devote their time and energy to saving an animal that most of them may never be able to see. Habitat loss and habitat degradation due to mining, water extraction, unregulated tourism and agricultural practices threaten the cat, as does hunting.

The Alliance was the first to capture and radio collar an Andean cat and uses its increasing knowledge of the cat for conservation education and the growth of protected areas.

PAINTED DOG CONSERVATION

Painted Dogs, also known as African Wild Dogs, are unique to Africa and they are among this continent's most endangered species. It is estimated that less than 7,000 remain in the wild. The Painted Dog population in Zimbabwe is one of the last strongholds of the species and we are committed to their conservation. Our conservation methods and our work with the local communities are beginning to have a positive effect on the outlook of the Painted Dog species.

Ethiopian Wolf Conservation Programme

This elegant, long-legged wolf is only found in the mountains of Ethiopia, where no more than 500 survive in scattered populations threatened by habitat loss and disease.

Ethiopian wolves are the guardians of the roof of Africa. By protecting them we safeguard many fascinating Afroalpine endemics from extinction.

programme - goals
In the historic city of Lalibela a strategic plan was agreed in 2011, setting the priorities for Ethiopian wolf conservation in the next 10 years. These goals are our guide and motivation.



All existing Ethiopian wolf populations secured, not at risk of immediate extinction, with genetic diversity maintained, and the number of wolf packs increased


Ethiopian wolves actively managed as a metapopulation, including wherever possible the restoration of wolves to available habitat within their historical range


Afroalpine habitats protected from further degradation, conserved, and restored


Coexistence of wolves, people and their livestock fostered throughout the species’ range


All stakeholders, especially decision makers at the national, regional, and local levels, involved in, and committed to conserving wolves and their habitat


Mechanisms developed to fairly share, across generations, the costs and benefits of wolf and Afroalpine conservation.

Sirenian International

The mission of Sirenian International is to ensure the long-term conservation of manatee and dugong populations and our shared aquatic habitats around the world through research, educational outreach, and capacity building. Please remember us when budgeting for your charitable donations.

Sirenian International, Inc., is a organization of grassroots people who share a dedication to manatee & dugong research, education, and conservation through inter-cultural collaboration. We are a partnership of scientists, students, educators, conservationists, and the public. We believe in the process of integrating science, education, and culture to catalyze positive change in our shared environment, Mother Earth.

Douc Langur Foundation

Douc Langurs are among the most beautiful and endangered primates in the world.  They are only found in three countries in the world:  Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. Like so many primates worldwide, poaching, trapping and illegal trade are threatening their survival in all three countries.  This situation exists for many reasons but most significant are a lack of effective law enforcement and the prevailing climate of corruption at all levels of government whose job it is to protect them.
The Douc Langur Foundation is a 501(c3) nonprofit conservation, research and education organization dedicate to protecting the Douc Langur monkey and their wild habitat to ensure that they will survive in their home ranges for future generations.

Treasure Coast Manatee Foundation

The Treasure Coast Manatee Foundation, a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization was established in 1998 by a small group of community leaders. The Foundation’s mission is to support and enhance environmental awareness, education, conservation, and stewardship of endangered species and natural resources, fulfilling its mission through the Manatee Observation and Education Center. To further its commitment to environmental awareness and education, the Foundation has contributed funding for Manatee Center programs, has awarded scholarships to local graduating seniors interested in pursuing a degree in the field of environmental science, and has given classroom mini-grants to local teachers for classroom projects designed to enhance conservation efforts. Through volunteer initiatives, citizen involvement, community, business and governmental partnerships, both the Manatee Center and the Foundation are committed to continuing their missions.

Mega Fishes Project

The MegaFishes Project represents the first worldwide attempt to document and protect the planet’s freshwater giants. The unprecedented use of freshwaters has led to declining populations of many aquatic species, particularly “megafishes” which are disappearing at an alarming rate. It is now a race against the clock to protect and document the aquatic life in these water systems. If we continue to do nothing, vulnerable species will become scarce, the opportunity for study may soon be lost, and the fish and people that depend on the water will face increased adversity. Your support can make a critical difference.

Saiga Conservation Alliance

Saigas are one of the most threatened species on the planet. Their numbers declined by 95% in just 15 years.

The Saiga Conservation Alliance (SCA) is committed to saving the critically endangered saiga antelope from imminent extinction. We are a long-standing network of scientists and conservationists who work across saiga range states on grassroots projects informed by sound science. At the SCA we believe in bringing stakeholders together to emphasize human needs and to act as a catalyst for sustainable conservation solutions.