Conservation
The Augusta Bird Club’s Conservation Committee is dedicated to providing members, and non-members alike, the opportunity to get involved in a variety of hands-on projects and programs that focus on improving habitat and conserving our natural resources. By partnering with other community organizations, agencies and local businesses, we can make a difference for the conservation of birds right in own backyard! Through our Conservation Committee Chairperson, Lynne Parks, we’re also excited about her new native garden campaign to create more local habitat. To thrive, birds need native foods such as seeds, nuts, fruits, berries, nectar, and insects. Baby birds primarily eat caterpillars so host plants are essential. One such garden recently established is in Montgomery Hall Park, in Staunton, where we partnered with the Augusta and Beverley Garden Clubs. This garden is becoming a seedbank for other projects.
The Montgomery Hall Park native garden is looking good in its fourth year (2026)! Volunteers from the bird club, Beverley Garden Club, and the Augusta Garden Club came out today to clean and mulch the edges. So many blooms are on the way!
This native garden is an opportunity to educate youth through Parks and Recreation programs. If we can engage and enrich youth, we can create a brighter future for birds. That’s our hope! Our conservation efforts also include volunteering/partnering with our local schools, like the Nature Trail at Bessie Weller Elementary School in Staunton. Jim Hill is refurbishing bluebird boxes, and our seeds will help restore habitat. We’ll be leading bird walks, helping install a bird investigation station along the trail, and creating a feeding station so students can watch out of windows we’ll make bird-safe.
In addition, we’ve implemented projects that focus on removing invasive species, and we’ll be helping the DCR with point count surveys on lands undergoing restoration. There are many ways you can help birds too. Plant your own native gardens and avoid using pesticides, make problem windows safe, keep cats indoors, purchase bird-friendly coffee, use less plastic, and buy a Migratory Bird Stamp, which helps to protect critical nesting habitat and funds many habitat restoration projects! We hope you can join us in some, or all, of these projects, as we try to make a difference for the conservation of birds right in our own communities! If you’re interested in learning more about our upcoming projects, or would like to help out with our projects, please drop an email to our Conservation Committee Chairperson Lynne Parks (v.lynneparks_AT_gmail.com).
NEW LIBRARY POLINATOR GARDEN! In June 2025, Ann Cline, Co-Chair of the Conservation committee with Lynne Parks, took on a new project. Ann was able to establish a Pollinator Garden at the Fishersville branch of the Augusta County Library (see photos below). The library staff were super supportive and very excited to see this project develop. Ann worked alone for an hour or two here and there. The garden was declared finished on July 20 with the placement of a wooden bench built and donated by the Valley Votech carpentry shop! Below are a couple of photos of the new library pollinator garden. It is an ongoing process. All native plants were shared from either Lynne Parks’ project at Montgomery Hall Park (see above), from Ann’s home meadows or from her daughter’s extensive plant collection. Much thanks for the wonderful rains this summer that have allowed the garden flourish! The garden can be found on the west side of the library near the book drop. Stop by and visit!
