Eliza Cava is the Nature Forward Director of Conservation, where she supervises our policy, advocacy, watershed community science, and conservation outreach work, and supports Woodend restoration as a demonstration landscape for the region.

TAKE ACTION By March 1: Ask the Fish and Wildlife Service to Restore Protections to Migratory Birds!

Audubon Naturalist Society was founded in 1897 by a group of Washington, DC-area women and men who were incensed by the fashion of the times that led to killing beautiful migratory birds. Many other Audubon societies, both independent groups like ANS and those that eventually joined together to become National… Continue reading

Conservation Policy & Advocacy News – Winter 2020-2021

Regional/National TAKE CHILLY ACTION on the Climate Crisis: It keeps getting hotter. And we keep seeing bigger storms. The urgency to act is now—not some time in the future. 2021 needs to the year of climate action in America, nationally, regionally, and locally. Your ANS Advocates are on the case,… Continue reading

Conservation Policy & Advocacy News: Fall 2020

This article was published in our Autumn 2020 Naturalist Quarterly special edition, “Healing Our Land – The Election Issue.” Please visit www.anshome.org/naturalist-quarterly to see the rest of the stories in the issue. Regional/National Courts Push Back on Bad Bird Rule: Victory! In August, a federal judge in New York overturned… Continue reading

Redlining: The Legacy of Wealth and Systemic Racial Discrimination in our Land

This article was published in our Autumn 2020 Naturalist Quarterly special edition, “Healing Our Land – The Election Issue.” Please visit www.anshome.org/naturalist-quarterly to see the rest of the stories in the issue. Map showing areas in the Washington, DC region graded by loan risk categories, Federal Housing Authority, 1937. In… Continue reading

Healing our Landscapes: Passage of the Great American Outdoors Act

This article was published in our Autumn 2020 Naturalist Quarterly special edition, “Healing Our Land – The Election Issue.” Please visit www.anshome.org/naturalist-quarterly to see the rest of the stories in the issue.   From the Dakota Badlands to the cathedral of Yosemite to Rock Creek Park and the Frederick Douglass… Continue reading

Francis Newlands, Racial Segregation, and the Land of Woodend

This article was published in our Autumn 2020 Naturalist Quarterly special edition, “Healing Our Land – The Election Issue.” Please visit www.anshome.org/naturalist-quarterly to see the rest of the stories in the issue.   What does a white supremacist, silver baron Senator from Nevada have to do with Woodend Nature Sanctuary?… Continue reading

Priority Campaign Area: Human Health & Access to Nature

This is one in a series introducing ANS’ new Conservation Advocacy Priority Campaign Areas. ANS was founded at a time far different than our own. Society in general in the early 20th century did not value the goals of Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility that we have today. We recognize… Continue reading

Priority Campaign Area: Sustainable Land Use

This is one in a series introducing ANS’ new Conservation Advocacy Priority Campaign Areas. Community decision-making on land use is one of the most important functions of local government. These types of decisions affect all our other campaign areas—for instance, we need accessible, equitable, sustainable, and affordable (to even those… Continue reading

Priority Campaign Area: Climate Crisis

This is one in a series introducing ANS’ new Conservation Advocacy Priority Campaign Areas. We will work to combat greenhouse gas emissions, mainly carbon dioxide, by advocating for solutions in our region’s biggest contributing sectors: transportation, electricity, and buildings. We will work to promote public transit and other lower-carbon transportation… Continue reading