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Shorebirds are among nature’s most ambitious long-distance migrants, but their numbers are declining rapidly with some species projected to go extinct within our lifetime. Protecting these birds is an important international conservation priority that requires proactive and coordinated efforts within each of the countries these birds fly through during their vast, pole to pole migrations.
The Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network (WHSRN) is a science-based, partnership-driven, conservation initiative for protecting the ecological integrity of critical habitats for shorebirds throughout the Americas.
Started in the mid-1980s with the designation of Delaware Bay as the very first WHSRN site, the Network today includes 119 sites in 20 countries, covering 38.9 million acres of shorebird habitat. WHSRN is coordinated by an Executive Office that provides core staff, strategies, and services to the Network’s sites and partners under the direction of the WHSRN Hemispheric Council. For most of its history, the WHSRN Executive Office has been housed within Manomet, where it continues to this day as part of Manomet’s Flyways Program.
