"Pennies for the Planet" Audubon Campaign Takes Wing

Kids are agian joining an environmental education and action campaign to protect wildlife and habitat organized by the National Audubon Society.

This year's "Pennies for the Planet" program focuses on three unique and vital wildlife habitats—spanning special places from the Atlantic to the Arctic Oceans—that are in critical need of protection.

Kids not only learn more about conservation, but also directly help protect it by raising funds and conducting environmental projects in their own communities. By teaching young people about threatened ecosystems and wildlife, Pennies for the Planet strives to connect young people and families with the environment and provide ideas about how they can make a conservation difference.

Pennies for the Planet donations collected from September 1, 2011 through August 31, 2012 will be divided equally among the following three conservation projects:

• Protect the Alaskan Arctic Ocean by supporting scientists working to learn more about the Beaufort and Chukchi seas and the unique species that call this remote area home, including whales, ivory gulls, eiders, and polar bears.

• Restore Texas’ one-of-a-kind Sabal Palm Forest by replacing invasive plants with native species, providing necessary habitat for local wildlife such as ocelots, buff-bellied hummingbirds, and green jays. The forest is home to many species of plants and animals that do not occur elsewhere in the U.S.

• Preserve North Carolina’s Lea-Hutaff Barrier Island by protecting habitat for the island’s threatened and endangered species. These islands provide a natural protection from extreme weather and play host to a variety of species, including beach nesting birds such as piping plovers and least terns, as well as the endangered loggerhead sea turtle.

The group that raises the most funds (postmarked by the May 5, 2012 deadline) will be awarded an Audubon BioBash, a fun environmental educational assembly led by Audubon educators. Last year, the largest donation came from the Hermitage School District in Hermitage, Pennsylvania, which raised over 163,470 pennies. 

Donations made during 2010-2011 helped restore crane habitat along the Platte River in Nebraska, created monarch butterfly habitat in Arizona, and helped protect beach nesting birds along Mississippi’s Gulf Coast, which is still recovering from last year’s oil spill.