{"id":15940,"date":"2025-10-26T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-26T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/bird-conservancy-of-the-rockies-loses-federal-grants-over-mysterious-dei-accusations\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T19:35:34","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T19:35:34","slug":"bird-conservancy-of-the-rockies-loses-federal-grants-over-mysterious-dei-accusations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/bird-conservancy-of-the-rockies-loses-federal-grants-over-mysterious-dei-accusations\/","title":{"rendered":"Bird Conservancy of the Rockies loses federal grants over mysterious \u2018DEI\u2019 accusations"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"A
A hawk perches on top of a tree off of U.S. Highway 550 on May 25, 2024, north of Durango. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald file)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A revered Brighton-based wildlife conservation group more accustomed to thinking about diversity of species is suddenly in the crosshairs of the federal campaign against using resources for diversity in human interactions.<\/p>\n

Bird Conservancy of the Rockies, expert in bird banding, species and habitat research, and connecting people to open space, is appealing to donors for help after $1.37 million in federal agreements were \u201cabruptly canceled.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBlindsided,\u201d the Bird Conservancy said.<\/p>\n

The conservancy leaders only learned about the cut through an article in the conservative Daily Caller.<\/p>\n

The media outlet said the Interior Department had canceled the grant over language in Bird Conservancy\u2019s strategic plan on \u201crecruiting, hiring, training and investing in staff and the organization to increase engagement, diversity, accessibility and inclusivity across the communities we live and work.\u201d<\/p>\n

None of their federal money was used to promote the kinds of DEI programs the Trump administration officially loathes, said Bird Conservancy of the Rockies .<\/p>\n

The canceled grants account for about 10% of the group\u2019s annual budget, meant to support cooperative research agreements with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Park Service and the Bureau of Land Management. But the risk is even higher, the donor appeal says, because Bird Conservancy \u201cleverages\u201d the grants with state and private matches.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis looks like the logical result when they blindly cancel vital and worthwhile scientific work without warning or explanation,\u201d said one Bird Conservancy of the Rockies volunteer.<\/p>\n

One of the higher profile efforts of the conservancy is a bird-banding station in spring and fall at Barr Lake State Park, a popular birding, walking and biking sanctuary southeast of Brighton.<\/p>\n

Bird-banding, including both tagging new birds and recording the info from previously tagged birds, is a primary tool in helping biologists understand migration patterns, social behavior, lifespan and more. The U.S. Geological Survey\u2019s Bird Banding Laboratory brags that its volunteer bird banders, for example, helped them learn that hummingbirds considered flighty and ethereal can actually live as long as 12 years.<\/p>\n

The Bird Conservancy of the Rockies appears to be choosing a non-confrontational path for now, as have many nonprofits or universities still hopeful funding could be restored without a complete overthrow of their missions.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, we are not in a position to discuss the changes to our federal funding at this time. We are working to position our organization in the best possible way moving forward. We hope you\u2019ll understand,\u201d said one Bird Conservancy spokesperson.<\/p>\n

The group promised donors it would \u201cpush back against this decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

The federal agencies previously involved with the Bird Conservancy grants are part of the shutdown precipitated by the Congressional budget standoff, and did not respond to inquiries about the group or the canceled grants.<\/p>\n

The Colorado Sun is a reader-supported, nonpartisan news organization dedicated to covering Colorado issues. To learn more, go to coloradosun.com<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nonprofit based at Barr Lake lost $1.4M budgeted to support cooperative research with federal agencies, and to match state and private grants<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15941,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1894,120,233,1137,1030,28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-15940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-birding","tag-colorado","tag-coloradosun-com","tag-donald-trump","tag-environment","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15940"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15940\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19929,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15940\/revisions\/19929"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15940"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=15940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}