Environmental Threats in Hernando Audubon Vicinity

The Hernando Audubon area includes a rich assemblage of habitats that support a great diversity of birds, fish, and plant species. Many essential wildlife habitats are being degraded, altered and fragmented, and the rural landscape within Hernando Audubon’s territory is experiencing increased urbanization. The effects of climate change, sea level rise, and fluctuating precipitation patterns threaten offshore, coastal, and inland ecosystems, and the birds and other wildlife that depend upon them throughout the region. Populations of many species of coastal waterbirds, migratory shorebirds, and songbirds have declined in their historic ranges and require significant intervention and management efforts to prevent further population declines and local extirpation. Seasonal freshwater flows from springs, streams, and rivers in adjacent uplands and wetlands are vital to the area’s diverse and productive estuaries. Estuarine ecosystems throughout Hernando County’s coastline suffer from degradations or alterations of upstream habitats due to pollution, flood control, rock mining, development, and consumptive water use projects. 

Itemized in this Conservation section are conservation initiatives of Hernando Audubon to assist in the preservation of ecological habitats and prevention of wildlife decline. 

Weeki Wachee River