Evening’s Moderator: Melissa Kim, Maine Audubon’s director of communications and marketing

As populations fall and once-great migration multitudes wither away, the future of birds may seem grim. But surprisingly, from gnatcatchers and waterfowl to select groups of forest songbirds, some bird populations are soaring. Habitats and species that once neared extinction are now multiplying around the world because bird conservation is making things better.

The Return of the Oystercatcher explores the recovery efforts that are not only preventing declines in bird population but also helping birds to thrive. From the spectacular recovery of North American raptors, whose numbers have tripled in the last fifty years, to the mind-bending resurgence of the Canada goose in Maine—which increased its population by 146,000% during the same period—Scott Weidensaul shares amazing stories of hope and progress in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds. 

Weidensaul also depicts the initiatives at the heart of this recovery, from the hyperlocal to the hemispherically immense: wetlands restoration, raptor protection, and bans on harmful pesticides, as well as the US Farm Bill and the preservation of sovereign lands by Indigenous communities. The result is a roadmap of breathtaking environmental resilience in some of the most unlikely places, including a tiny island in the middle of the Pacific, the vast boreal forest that stretches across Canada, a hereditary estate in England, and a watery wilderness at the edge of a Ukrainian war zone.

Scott Weidensaul is the author of nearly thirty books, including the Pulitzer Prize finalist Living on the Wind and The New York Times bestseller A World on the Wing. A writer and researcher specializing in birds and bird migration, he is a native of Pennsylvania now living in New Hampshire.

Melissa Kim is a writer and editor who specializes in stories about wildlife and the outdoors. The author of nine children’s books about wildlife, she is the director of communications and marketing at Maine Audubon, a statewide environmental nonprofit that works to conserve wildlife and wildlife habitat by engaging people in conservation, education, and action.