What are these worth to you personally?

   I imagine you would say, “A lot.”

   We think so, too.

   Every day, Audubon Missouri staff work to ensure that our mission—to connect people to nature in order to conserve and restore Missouri’s ecosystems——is accomplished.  Every day, we work in our communities to educate people, conserve and restore habitat, and advocate for birds and other wildlife.  And every one of these days is only possible because of support from friends like you.  

   We need you... This is why I am writing to you today—to ask you to consider making an end-of-the-year gift to Audubon Missouri.  Your gift has the power to connect children and their families to the great natural resources and wildlife of our state—to spectacular places like wetland prairies, bottomland forests and endangered glades.  Your gift allows us to develop even more opportunities for students and visitors to appreciate and understand our natural resources as systems that are not only beautiful to behold, but vitally important to protect.  And your gift ensures that our advocacy on behalf of birds and their critical habitats can continue.

 We have such a great--and such an important--story to tell.

 Audubon Missouri has made a deep commitment to our state by establishing two nature centers in some of Missouri’s most precious habitats—Mississippi River wetland prairie and bottomland forest in the St. Louis region, and precious glade habitat in Joplin Missouri.  Through our nature centers, we have introduced hundreds of thousands of visitors to the significance of these important Missouri habitats.  Audubon is unique among environmental organizations in making this incredible commitment to community and to education—we feel strongly that people’s hands-on experiences in nature are most effective in developing an environmental stewardship ethic.  So, as part of our service to our communities, we provide hands-on nature education programming to thousands of schoolchildren in our centers each school year. 

Our state’s scientific activities focus on avian habitat and species diversity in multiple sites throughout the state—primarily focused on our great rivers—and in neighboring states, such as Illinois and Iowa.  And our advocacy at both the state and national level has been successful in drawing attention to the critical conservation and restoration needs of our nation’s great river habitats.  Our conservation objectives are key to the preservation of avian species along the magnificent Mississippi Flyway—one of the most significant migratory flyways on earth.

You may wonder why we believe it is so important to focus on birds in our educational programming, our conservation advocacy, and our outreach to students, families, and visitors to our centers.

 Birds are excellent connection points to nature.  People naturally love to watch birds; in fact, wildlife watching engages over 70 million people in the U.S. annually!  In addition, wildlife recreation in the U.S. nets the American economy over $145 billion annually, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

 Birds are also excellent indicators of the health of the environment.  When the environment is unhealthy or habitat is degraded, birds are some of the first creatures to be negatively affected.  By paying attention to the health and populations of birds, we can gain important clues about the health of the environment in which we live.

Please help us continue our work of education, conservation, and advocacy.  Help us serve our communities and support the work that is so critical to the health of birds and people in Missouri, as well as in our neighbor states.  
 
I assure you that your gift will allow us to achieve our mission of connecting people to nature.   

I hope that you will respond generously to this request by completing and returning the enclosed form, or by contributing online at the link below.

 Thank you in advance for your support! 

  Patty Hagen

Patricia Hagen, PhD
Executive Director, Audubon Missouri
Vice President, National Audubon Society

Click here to make an on-line donation today.  Thank you!