The Important Bird Areas (IBA) program identifies areas that are most important for maintaining bird populations and focuses conservation efforts on protecting these sites. BirdLife International, a coalition of more than 100 country partners, has designated IBAs in more than 8,000 sites in 178 countries. BirdLife International’s United States Partner is the National Audubon Society, which oversees more than 2,500 IBAs nationwide.

National Audubon’s Virginia IBA coordinator works with the Virginia Audubon Council (consisting of representatives from all of the state’s Audubon chapters), the Virginia Society of Ornithology, the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, and other state agencies to guide the activities of the Virginia IBA program. Virginia has 20 IBAs that span the state’s broad diversity of habitats from the sandy coastal beaches to the rugged mountains of the Appalachians and everything in between. Among them is the Lower Potomac River IBA, which the Audubon Society of Northern Virginia (ASNV) “adopted” in 2010.

The Lower Potomac River IBA includes the tidal fresh/brackish reach of the Potomac River in Fairfax, Prince William, Stafford, and King George counties. It stretches from Fort Belvoir in Fairfax south to Mathias Point in King George. By adopting this IBA, ASNV has agreed to further the goals of the VA IBA program, which are to:

• Identify, document, and publicly recognize Virginia’s most important areas for birds.

• Engage people in citizen science and avian conservation cooperative projects with land managers to benefit birds and their habitats at IBAs.

• Partner with others to bring conservation tools and resources to IBAs in need of conservation.

• Base all action on the best available scientific criteria.

For ASNV, this largely means continuing the citizen science, conservation and advocacy activities the chapter has been conducting for many years. It also means working with the Virginia IBA and state agencies on special projects, such as mapping the occurrences of phragmites (common reed)—a highly invasive plant that threatens wildlife—in our IBA and adjacent areas.

The Important Bird Areas Program recognizes that coupled with global warming, habitat loss and fragmentation are the most serious threats facing populations of birds across America and around the world. By working to identify and implement conservation strategies at Important Bird Areas, we hope to minimize the effects that habitat loss and degradation have on birds and other wildlife. These IBAs support diverse communities of birds of conservation interest and provide unique habitats for these species.

Read IBA Coordinator Mary Elfner's update on recent IBA activities.

Learn more about Virginia's IBA and about the Lower Potomac IBA on the National Audubon site.  Download a brochure about birding in Virginia's IBAs.

To participate, please contact ASNV at 703.438.6008 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .