Upper Allen Township officially becomes a bird town

The Spark

Upper Allen Township announced that it has officially been recognized as the 57th Bird Town in the State of Pennsylvania. According to the Bird Town Pennsylvania website, their mission is to work in partnership with local municipalities and like-minded organizations to promote community-based conservation actions to create a healthier, more sustainable environment for birds, wildlife, and people.

Heidi Shiver, President of Bird Town Pennsylvania said in 2010, she realized there was a need to protect birds in the state.

“I think we all realized that the bird populations have really been declining…We’ve really been seeing a huge drop on populations anywhere from 30 to 70 percent, “said Shiver.

Shiver says the birds can decline in population due to loss of habitat, pesticide use, bird window collision and cats. She said 2.4 billion birds die by cats. Through partnerships, Bird Town Pennsylvania is truly making a remarkable impact on conservation of birds and wildlife.

“we work at municipal levels, you know, on passing proclamations, resolutions and ordinances to address these issues. Also working with schools in and also doing youth actions as well. You know, looking at these different issues to how they can be addressed on school properties and also engaging with Scouts and so on, you know, possibly invasive removal, invasive plant removal, or you know, actually planting native plants or putting in demonstration gardens. And we also focus on organizations and collaborations and partnerships with other groups. And also, doing advocacy work, really promoting awareness about these issues and assuring that we have or a thread that goes through all these different strategy areas. It's habitat enhancement, really just focusing on, you know, planting native plants, creating demonstration gardens to inform the public, and then also addressing those threats to birds through all those different strategies, “said Shiver.

Tim Wendling is the Assistant Township Manager for Upper Allen township. Since becoming the assistant manager in February, he’s began touring their 17 different parks, and realized the need for preserving birds thriving in the township. Upper Allen Township is also looking for volunteers from the community to help design and then implement the bird walk.

“We wanted to really explain that and see how we can get the community involved and making sure that, we encourage bird care throughout the whole township by, you know, talking about how we can do little things and talk a little bit more about this later, but by adding birdhouses and being, you know, cognizant of of birds and windows and lighting and those types of things, and because the park system in nature is really important to the residents, I felt like this was something that, you know, we should bring to our township. And the Board of commissioners was very supportive about it, “said Wendling.

Click Here to learn more about Bird Town Pennsylvania.

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