Louisville is the seventh Coloradan municipality to receive official designation as a Bird City, part of a national program run by nonprofits Environment for the Americas and American Bird Conservancy.
A Bird City designation means a city or town has demonstrated a commitment to bird conservation by completing a set of criteria aimed at making the community more bird-friendly. Thirteen U.S. states are part of the Bird City Network, according to the program's website, in addition to places in Mexico, Colombia and Brazil.
Louisville earned the designation "in part through its habitat restoration work, pollinator and wildlife initiatives, community science efforts, and partnerships that strengthen local biodiversity," an announcement from the city says.
At a Dec. 10 meeting of Louisville's Open Space Advisory Board, local environmentalist Dave Sutherland presented the award on behalf of Environment for the Americas to the board's chair, Susan McEachern.
The Bird City program uses a point-based application where communities earn credit across four areas: habitat protection and restoration, threat reduction (like window-collision and light-pollution mitigation), community education and engagement, and sustainability or climate actions that benefit birds, its website says.
Cities must meet minimum requirements in each category and reach a total point threshold to earn the designation, with higher point totals qualifying for the recognition level "High Flyer."
The six other Colorado communities that have received a Bird City designation are also on the Front Range, including Boulder (High Flyer), Broomfield (High Flyer), Fort Collins (High Flyer), Lafayette, Superior and Westminster.
Ember Brignull, the open space superintendent for Louisville's parks department, said the Bird City Colorado designation is a way to "recognize and celebrate the important work happening in our community to support birds and their habitats."
"I am grateful for the dedication of Louisville Open Space staff, Open Space Advisory Board members, and residents who have conserved and restored habitat over many years, making Louisville such an amazing place for birds to thrive," Brignull told the Daily Camera. "Birds are important indicators of ecosystem health, and this designation highlights Louisville's commitment to biodiversity and science-based conservation."
Louisville's Open Space Division has partnered with the Colorado Avian Research and Rehabilitation Institute to provide viewing opportunities of nesting activities for species including the American kestrel and great horned owl, according to the city's website. Some of those nests can be viewed via outdoor web camera footage.
The city's website also lists the bird species that can be seen at Hecla Lake.
Nathaniel Goeckner, an ecologist and natural resource supervisor for the city's Open Space Division, said Louisville staff "often" survey for birds during the migration and breeding seasons, and constantly updates its biodiversity database with species observed and where they were found on the city's open space properties. This year, staff conducted surveys across the city's open space properties as part of a program called BioBlitz.
Goeckner said the grassland birds of Colorado are "some of the most imperiled species in the state and the United States."
"Louisville's Open Space division has been addressing and managing nonnative species, reseeding native species to increase habitat quality, and using regenerative grazing to improve grassland bird habitat types and heterogeneity," he said in an email, adding parenthetically that "not all grassland birds require the same grass height, species, etc."
City staff continues its installation of pocket prairies in open spaces that support the growth of native forbs -- non-woody, flowering broadleaf plants -- to increase pollinator habitat, and create areas of "high native diversity" to collect seed from and encourage further native plant establishment across those properties, Goeckner said.
Across the Parks, Recreation & Open Space Department, Louisville also holds related environmental recognitions, including Bee City USA, Tree City USA, and the Coal Creek Golf Course's certification as an Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary, according to the city's announcement.