Founding and Keystone Member of TOGETHER Bay Area

Urban Bird Foundation continues its longtime partnership of the former Bay Area Open Space Council as a Founding and Keystone Member of the newly minted TOGETHER Bay Area. Having our roots in the San Francisco Bay Area, Urban Bird Foundation was created and still continues to advocate for and actively protect declining Western burrowing owl populations in the region. In an effort to protect critical habitat for burrowing owls and other native birds residing on suburban lands, Urban Bird Foundation originally joined the Council to create a shared conservation network across the 10 Bay Area counties.

In March 2020, the Bay Area Open Space Council, which was formed in 1990, helped form the Bay Area Program of the California Coastal Conservancy in 1997, launched the Conservation Lands Network in 2011 and CLN 2.0 in 2019, convened the annual Open Space Conference and dozens of Gatherings, and helped form relationships across the region, re-envisioned its work and launched TOGETHER Bay Area.

TOGETHER Bay Area is a regional coalition of nonprofits, public agencies, and Indigenous Tribes working together for climate resilient lands – including lands that are natural, working, rural, and urban. The health of these lands is integral to a thriving Bay Area and the health of all of the people and communities in our 10-county region. The coalition connects, convenes, and catalyzes action for protecting land that sustains us now and will sustain future generations.

From the organizational plan, the coalition will use “resilient lands and people” to express our goals of

a) preventing the loss and/or degradation of land,

b) supporting ecological functioning, and

c) connecting people to the land.

This work includes public parks, public lands, private lands, working lands like ranches and forests, rural, urban, trails, open space, preserves, and other similar natural spaces. It also focuses its conservation toolbox on acquisition, stewardship, maintenance, restoration, preservation, conservation, cultural resources, outdoor recreation, public access to nature, active living as part of public health, and programs that connect people to nature.

Urban Bird Foundation is excited to continue our work and partnership with this coalition, and looking forward as a founding member of TOGETHER Bay Area to spearheading new, innovative conservation opportunities for burrowing owls and our unique approach that utilizes a system of unintentional reserves.