March 3, 2008

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Seattle, WA – International Boreal Conservation Campaign (IBCC) Senior Scientist Dr. Jeffrey Wells has been honored with a national award from Partners in Flight, a coalition of government agencies and non-governmental organizations committed to raising awareness about declining bird species. Wells was given the prestigious award for his work to increase public awareness of bird conservation issues and activities. He received the award at a February 16 ceremony held as part of the 4th International Partners in Flight conference in McAllen, Texas. The conference, one of the world\'s largest such meetings focused solely on bird conservation, was attended by more than 700 participants from Canada, U.S., Mexico as well as from the Caribbean and South and Central America.

The award highlighted Wells\' decades of service to bird conservation efforts including his publication of the first Important Bird Areas inventory in the Western Hemisphere, early research highlighting concepts of stewardship and responsibility in bird conservation that are now fundamental to Partners In Flight and bird other conservation planning efforts, and his service as Chair of the Northeastern Partners In Flight Working Group.

More recently Dr. Wells has worked to champion the importance of protecting North America\'s Boreal Forest as one of the planet\'s last remaining intact wilderness forests. He developed information with colleague Peter Blancher, a Canadian Wildlife Service scientist, that showed the over-riding importance of the Boreal region for birds including nearly 400 species that make up nearly 5 billion individual birds, most of which migrate to the U.S. and farther south.

Wells’ new book, Birder’s Conservation Handbook, released last fall from Princeton University Press, highlights the conservation issues and actions for 100 North American birds of conservation concern. The ground-breaking publication is receiving high acclaim from reviewers and fellow conservationists.

"This is truly a bird guide for the new millennium," said noted author Kenn Kaufmann. "Jeff Wells has given us a resource that gives us a more realistic and three-dimensional view of bird life."

Already in its second printing, the book is another example of Wells’ commitment to an educated public that can make informed choices in the marketplace, the home, and in the legislature.

In addition to receiving the award, Dr. Wells convened a symposium at the same conference focused on the conservation of boreal birds which included much discussion of the world\'s largest bird conservation proposal – the vision to protect 650 million acres of Canada\'s Boreal forest for the billions of birds that rely on the Boreal for their survival. Without protection of the Boreal, many of the species known and loved by people all over the continent will experience serious population declines or eventually disappear.