Visitors to Oregon’s small coastal city of Yachats will soon be greeted by signs on U.S. 101 announcing they are entering a Bird City, an officially recognized bird conservation area.
Yachats is the first community on the Pacific Coast to be named a Bird City by the Bird City Network, which has about 300 participating communities in North and South America, according to founders with the nonprofit American Bird Conservancy and Environment for the Americas.
Education is part of the Bird City program.
“Nature is so important to wellbeing and birds are the most available animals to connect us to our environment,“ said Jim Welch, a member of the Yachats Lions Club that sponsored the program.
“Unfortunately, bird populations have dropped 30% to 40% since 1970,
