Birds are a good reflection of environmental trends, and the latest “State of the Birds” report continues to show that, one conservation advocate said.
“The key findings in the report are fairly sobering,” said Daniel Suarez, conservation director for Audubon Great Lakes. “The findings within Indiana are ultimately reflective of the trends overall.”
Suarez joined other conservation advocates at the Indiana Statehouse on Feb. 17 to discuss findings in the 2025 “State of the Birds” report with Gov. Mike Braun and state legislators. Advocates raised awareness on the importance of conserving Indiana’s wetlands and grasslands and its correlation with the bird population.
“Birds are not partisan,” Braun said in a news release. “In the (U.S.) Senate, I was passionate about being a steward of the land. And as governor, I will continue to lead on conservation, preservation and recreation.”
Audubon Great Lakes monitors marsh birds at 29 sites across the state and works to restore 420 of “high-priority wetlands” in Northwest Indiana, including the Little Calumet River’s west branch in Gary, according to its website.
According to the report, birds across most habitats have suffered major losses since 1970, with grassland and aridland species hit hardest, losing more than 40% of their total population. Suarez said Indiana has lost about 90% of its grasslands and prairies, and grassland birds have been lost most in the state.
Waterfowl have also seen “alarming decline,” according to the report. About one-third of U.S. birds are of high or moderate conservation concern, with low population levels, declining trends or other threats.
Although there’s been a decline of waterfowl, dabbling and diving ducks and waterbirds have both seen a population increase, according to the “State of the Birds” report. Sea ducks and shorebirds both saw a decrease.
The greatest change was grassland birds, which had a 43% population decrease, according to the report.
In Northwest Indiana, Audubon Great Lakes mostly works with coastal wetland systems, which Suarez said have been “severely degraded over time.”
Development in the area, specifically neighborhoods, roads and infrastructure, have degraded Northwest Indiana’s wetlands and prevented their connection, which harms bird species, Suarez said. Water levels have also rapidly fluctuated in the last five years, Suarez said, which can also effect the loss of bird populations in the region.
In Northwest Indiana and Southeast Chicago, Audubon Great Lakes has installed water control structures, which allow them to drain water when needed and pools for birds that need it. Those sites have seen some positive results so far, Suarez said.
“We’re actually seeing stabilization of those trends,” Suarez said. “They might still be kicking downward a little bit, or they might be kicking upwards or considered stable. In some cases, a few species are actually increasing in Northwest Indiana, and it’s no mistake that they’re increasing at the places where we’re actually doing intensive management.”
In addition to Audubon Great Lakes, the Wetlands Initiative has done work to restore the region’s wetlands. Paul Botts, the organization’s president and executive director, said that he believes the report reinforces the need for wetland restoration.
“We’ve learned a lot more about wetland restoration,” Botts said. “In the last 20 to 30 years, we’ve learned a lot more about how to do wetland restoration effectively and efficiently because it can be quite expensive.”
Botts is optimistic about wetland birds’ population in the future, he said, especially after seeing that dabbling ducks and waterbirds have increased. That finding is proof that wetland restoration works, he said, because much of their lifecycle is in wetlands.
Trevor Edmonson, Northern Indiana stewardship lead for the Nature Conservancy’s Indiana chapter, said the “State of the Birds” report continues to show the “unfortunate trend” of many bird species’ population decline.
“We still have a lot of work to do,” Edmonson said. “Not just thinking about local conservation but global conservation, and birds are a great proxy for thinking about that.”
In Northwest Indiana, Edmonson said the Nature Conservancy is focused on birds that have lost more than half of their populations in the past 50 years. He said there’s an urgent need to focus on those species, and their findings could help bring back some natural habitat or help other species.
Part of Edmonson’s job is to help create new wetlands, he said, and he has to create different types of wetlands to help different birds. He said it’s important to remember there’s not a “cookie cutter” fix to the issue.
“You need to understand their life history and craft a structure of wetland with the vegetation structure that they might prefer,” Edmonson said. “(Birds) have specific things they’re looking for, and it’s for us as stewards, land managers, naturalists and researchers to try to get in their headspace, let go of what we think, observe and learn.”
