A Special Message From 探花精选’s President and CEO Regarding COVID-19

Amid the coronavirus pandemic, David Yarnold shares thoughts of empathy, compassion, and community.

To our members, staff, and beyond: 

In these uncertain times, I wanted to reach out to share that you, your family, your friends, and your colleagues are in our thoughts. We鈥檙e all anxious and things are changing quickly鈥攅ach day feels like five news cycles. Our first priority is the health and safety of our staff, visitors, and volunteers.

We鈥檙e approaching this time with the experience of helping to build communities for 115 years. We do that with the humility we draw from the natural world, with the nimbleness the public expects from us, and through the grassroots network of families and individuals who connect through birds and nature. Even while we鈥檙e coming to grips with this new normal, Americans everywhere have demonstrated a deep appreciation for just being safely outside where they can keep appropriate social distance and hear the songs of spring migration.

We鈥檝e done the important basics: To help stop the spread of the virus, we鈥檝e closed all 探花精选 offices, we鈥檝e suspended all non-essential travel, and we鈥檙e postponing events and large gatherings. We鈥檝e also closed all of our nature centers while keeping the trails at many of them open for now. We鈥檙e regularly updating this page on our website, so you can see the status of our outdoor spaces.

We鈥檙e continuing to pay all staff, including our colleagues whose work is primarily interacting with the public at our nature centers. Some members of our conservation team are still able to perform important stewardship and monitoring work鈥攁nd are doing so safely. Additionally, we鈥檝e taken practical steps to ensure the health and continuity of the business side of our house as well.

We鈥檙e also looking at ways that 探花精选 can help the broader community鈥攁nd in times like these, birds can provide a source of hope, a sense of resilience, and maybe even a little inspiration. Given the need for digital education tools with families staying home, we鈥檙e using this moment to leverage our digital tools and transform our educational programming and provide folks with online solutions that can be informative and fun: 

  • We have an article on 探花精选.org that give tips for how you can get outside and enjoy birds while practicing social distancing. 
  • If you can鈥檛 connect with birds outside, or you simply need a dose of joy in your day, we鈥檝e created an online birdy 鈥渃are package,鈥 with 探花精选鈥檚 best bird photos, stories, and videos. We鈥檒l keep updating it in the weeks to come.
  • We are updating content from our 探花精选 Adventures school curriculum for a wider audience. 
  • We鈥檙e finding new ways of serving local communities, based on what they tell us they need.
  • We鈥檙e engaging our network to use at-home time productively. We can鈥檛 bring much political activism to a system that鈥檚 appropriately focused elsewhere, but we can keep our network connected through compelling training on everything from building great advocacy campaigns to the importance of equity, diversity, and inclusion in the conservation world.

To be sure, we鈥檙e all facing a long and challenging list of unknowns. We鈥檙e both gaining and losing visibility on what our new reality is each day鈥攁nd it seems likely that things may get worse before they get better. But I鈥檓 confident that 探花精选鈥檚 leadership team and its national and state and center boards have the conservation expertise and the business experience to make good decisions at a trying time.

Please don鈥檛 hesitate to reach out with any questions or if we can be helpful or supportive of you in any way. And a special request: If you know of creative changes that other NGOs are making during this period鈥攐r if you have suggestions鈥擨鈥檓 all ears. If you have ideas on how we can help serve you or your community, please send  them to me at: yarnold-d@audubon.org

Many of you have heard me say that 鈥榶ou are what hope looks like to a bird" . . . and right now, along with state and local leaders and patient funder partners, we are also what hope can look like for our communities.

Thank you for helping make 探花精选鈥檚 work possible.

Please stay safe,

David