What Audubon’s Washington Coastal Conservation Strategy Means for Pacific Flyway Birds

Audubon’s Washington Coastal Conservation Strategy is a 2025–2028 framework that joins science, public engagement and policy to address bird declines along Washington’s coast and across the Pacific Flyway. In its February 17, 2026 announcement, Audubon Washington says the work will build a shared evidence base for coastal and marine birds, turn that evidence into public stories and local action, and use it to shape habitat and climate policy.

The announcement is a public summary rather than a complete operating plan. It does not, by itself, provide the strategy’s full budget, schedule, measurable targets or implementation scorecard. The explanation below separates what Audubon currently says from historical Puget Sound figures, advocacy targets and related state conservation programs.

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What the strategy is and why it matters

Audubon describes the Washington Coastal Conservation Strategy as an effort to help “halt and ultimately reverse bird declines across the Pacific Flyway.” Its geographic logic is larger than any single bay or county: birds that breed on Washington’s coast depend on offshore food webs; shorebirds moving through the state also rely on wetlands in the Arctic and South America; and waterfowl wintering in Washington may breed in boreal regions. Protecting feeding, nesting and resting conditions in Washington therefore supports a migration system that crosses national and continental boundaries.

The current public announcement, published February 17, 2026, identifies three connected priorities: science, community engagement and policy. Audubon says the strategy is being developed with conservation professionals from state and federal agencies, Tribes, research institutions and conservation organizations. The organization links the announcement from its Washington Coastal Conservation Strategy page.

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That framing matters because coastal bird conservation is not only a matter of counting birds. Decisions about estuaries, forage fish, shoreline development, climate adaptation, water quality and public funding can determine whether birds find food and safe habitat. Audubon’s stated approach is to connect the biological evidence to those decisions and to the people who make, fund or live with them.

The three priorities in Audubon’s summary

1. Science-driven conservation

The central scientific project is a Salish Sea State of the Birds report. Audubon says it is consulting state and federal agencies, Tribes, universities and other research institutions, and conservation groups while developing the assessment. The report is intended to create a common foundation for understanding coastal and marine bird populations, identify urgent conservation priorities, expose data gaps and guide coordinated management and policy work.

Audubon calls the assessment “the first regional assessment of its kind.” That is the organization’s description, not an independently verified comparison with every previous bird assessment. The announcement places the report in development; it does not establish a later publication date, a final indicator set or a completed trend analysis. A future release would be important because it could show which species and habitats are declining, where monitoring is weakest and which interventions deserve priority.

A shared assessment can also reduce a recurring problem in regional conservation: agencies and organizations may collect valuable information in different formats or at different geographic scales. A report that aligns population trends, habitat condition and management needs could help partners decide where their efforts complement one another. Until Audubon publishes the report’s methods and results, readers should treat those benefits as the project’s intended contribution rather than as demonstrated outcomes.

2. Public engagement through storytelling

Audubon says it will use the assessment’s findings to tell stories, build public support and give local chapters and partners usable content, tools and messages. The intended audience is not limited to specialists. The organization explicitly connects bird habitat with clean water, salmon runs and outdoor recreation—issues that can make coastal conservation tangible to residents who may not begin with an interest in bird monitoring.

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This priority gives the strategy a translation function. Scientific findings can identify a threatened estuary or a missing data set; stories and local materials can explain why that place matters, who is already working there and what decision is pending. Audubon’s summary does not promise a particular film series, curriculum or campaign, so those products should not be assumed. It does say that chapters and partners will receive material designed to inspire local action.

3. Policy and planning

The policy component is meant to carry the science into formal decisions. Audubon says it will identify policy opportunities, integrate bird information into planning, and work with chapters and partners to engage decision-makers on habitat protection and climate change. In practice, that can include questions about shoreline and estuary protection, restoration funding, climate-resilience plans, marine and nearshore management, and the protection of food sources such as forage fish. The announcement names the direction of this work but does not list enacted laws, secured appropriations or a complete policy agenda.

Audubon’s own wording presents the three priorities as interdependent rather than as separate departments. The assessment supplies evidence; public engagement builds understanding and support; policy work seeks to turn that support and evidence into management or investment decisions.

How the strategy’s pieces fit together

Audubon describes a connected chain of work rather than a single construction project. Based on the public summary, the intended logic is:

1. Assemble and assess evidence. Develop the Salish Sea State of the Birds report with governmental, Tribal, academic and conservation partners.
2. Define priorities and gaps. Use the assessment to identify urgent bird and habitat needs, as well as places where monitoring or knowledge is insufficient.
3. Translate findings for communities. Provide chapters and partners with stories, tools and messages that relate bird habitat to water quality, salmon and recreation.
4. Carry priorities into decisions. Work with partners and decision-makers on habitat protection, climate responses and other policy opportunities.

This is a description of the strategy’s stated logic, not a published timetable. The February announcement does not assign dates, budgets or numerical outcomes to each step.

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What the strategy covers beyond Puget Sound

The Salish Sea and Puget Sound are important regional settings, but the strategy’s ecological frame is the Pacific Flyway. Breeding seabirds can be affected by changes in offshore prey and ocean conditions far from their nesting colonies. Migratory shorebirds may depend on a chain of tidal flats and wetlands extending from Washington to Arctic breeding grounds and South American wintering sites. Waterfowl that spend winter in Washington may return to boreal forests and wetlands to reproduce.

That connectivity changes how success should be judged. A local shoreline project can be valuable without solving every threat along the flyway, while a Washington policy decision can have significance for birds that spend most of the year elsewhere. It also means that Audubon’s partnerships with Tribes, agencies and research groups are relevant at more than one geographic scale.

How Audubon describes its current Puget Sound work

Audubon Washington’s current Coastal Conservation in Puget Sound project page describes work with coastal communities, Audubon chapters, agencies and Tribes. It highlights nature-based solutions, science, resilience, restoration and policy support, with particular attention to projects that benefit birds and people in frontline communities.

The page says Audubon works with local chapters on projects and activates members to advocate for policies and funding supporting food, habitat and climate resilience. Audubon says it has nearly 50,000 members statewide. That is the organization’s current-page figure, not an independently audited membership count, and it should not be read as a measure of strategy outcomes.

The Puget Sound project page and the coastal strategy announcement overlap in their emphasis on partnerships, resilience and policy, but the public materials do not state that every Puget Sound activity is a formal deliverable of the 2025–2028 strategy. They show how the regional work can serve the broader coastal framework.

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What the 2021 Puget Sound strategy contributes as historical context

Audubon’s 2021 Puget Sound Conservation Strategy is a separate, older document. Its figures and targets should not be presented as current commitments or results of the 2025–2028 Washington Coastal Conservation Strategy.

The 2021 document described a Conservation Blueprint that combined priority bird and habitat information with nearshore habitat condition, coastal resilience, forage-fish spawning areas, Chinook salmon critical habitat, popular birding locations and information about socially vulnerable populations. Audubon presented the tool as a way to identify places where habitat protection could also support community resilience and health.

That older strategy named three areas of work:

• Policies for a healthy and resilient Puget Sound.
• Protection, restoration and enhancement of priority habitats.
• A science foundation for integrating birds into Puget Sound recovery.

Examples in the 2021 document included climate-resilience planning, forage-fish management, estuary restoration, bird monitoring and habitat-suitability models. These examples explain the evolution of Audubon’s regional approach, but the available current summary does not say that the 2021 Blueprint, targets or models are the exact methods now being used.

Current coastal strategy versus the older Puget Sound plan

How to read the strategy’s dated numbers

The following figures come from different documents and have different meanings. Keeping those labels attached prevents a historical statistic or an advocacy request from being mistaken for a present-day result.

A related state program that is not an Audubon target

Washington’s coastal conservation landscape also includes the Washington State Department of Natural Resources’ Statewide Kelp and Eelgrass Health and Conservation Plan. DNR’s current plan page sets a goal of at least 10,000 acres of kelp forest and eelgrass meadow habitat by 2040 and reports approximately 5,500 acres of priority kelp and eelgrass habitat identified with Tribal co-stewards and local partners.

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Those numbers belong to a state plan, not to Audubon’s Washington Coastal Conservation Strategy. They are relevant context because kelp and eelgrass support coastal food webs and resilience, but combining them with Audubon’s bird strategy would create a false single-program target.

What is established—and what remains to be specified

Established in the February 2026 announcement

• The strategy links science, policy and community engagement.
• Audubon is developing a Salish Sea State of the Birds report with a broad set of governmental, Tribal, academic and conservation participants.
• The report is intended to identify priorities and data gaps and to inform management and policy.
• Audubon plans to provide chapters and partners with stories, tools and messages for public engagement.
• The geographic rationale extends from Washington’s coast across the Pacific Flyway.

Not provided in that summary

• A complete list of species, habitats or indicators.
• The report’s final methods, publication date or subsequent edition.
• A strategy-wide budget, funding commitments or implementation schedule.
• Numerical restoration targets or a performance scorecard for 2025–2028.
• A claim that the 2021 Puget Sound targets carry forward into the current strategy.

Because the announcement places the State of the Birds report in development, its later status cannot be inferred from that February statement. Anyone seeking a current publication or progress update should consult Audubon’s latest notice rather than assume that the report remains unpublished or that it has been completed.

Questions to ask when future updates appear

Readers, community groups and policymakers can use a few concrete tests to distinguish a broad vision from measurable progress:

1. Evidence: Does an update publish the assessment’s methods, geographic coverage, species list and baseline years?
2. Data gaps: Does it identify which missing observations matter most and who will collect them?
3. Place-based action: Does it connect priorities to named estuaries, shorelines, islands or offshore areas without exposing sensitive nesting locations?
4. Partnership roles: Are Tribal, agency, chapter and community responsibilities described with consent and clarity?
5. Policy result: Does the update identify a planning decision, funding action, regulation or management change influenced by the science?
6. Measures: Are there dates, indicators and reporting intervals that allow readers to distinguish activity from ecological outcome?

These questions do not replace Audubon’s own measures. They help readers interpret future reports without confusing a proposed action, a completed activity and a measurable change in bird populations or habitat.

Why the strategy is relevant to documentary audiences

For viewers who follow conservation documentaries, the strategy offers a way to connect compelling local scenes with a larger migration story. A restored estuary can be shown as habitat for birds, nursery space for salmon and a buffer for a coastal community. A seabird colony can be linked to offshore prey and changing ocean conditions. A policy hearing can be understood as one decision in a chain that reaches from Washington to Arctic and South American wetlands.

Audubon’s planned storytelling work is intended to make those connections visible while retaining the scientific assessment behind them. The strongest future coverage will show both: the people and places affected now, and the evidence used to decide whether conservation is working over time.

Bottom line

Audubon’s Washington Coastal Conservation Strategy is best understood as a framework for connecting a Salish Sea bird assessment to public engagement and policy action across Washington’s coast and the Pacific Flyway. Its three priorities are clear, but the February 2026 public summary does not establish the full strategy’s budget, timetable, targets or results. The 2021 Puget Sound figures and the state’s kelp-and-eelgrass goals add context only when they are labeled as historical or separate programs.

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