Falls Township Soaring toward Becoming a Bird Town

Imagine traveling all night long, and by daybreak you’re looking for a safe place to rest and something readily available to eat.

Now, imagine that’s the exact experience many birds have, migrating through Pennsylvania each year.

“Your backyard could be that place,” Steven Saffier, director of the Audubon at Home program, said. 

The Falls Township Environmental Advisory Commission (EAC) invited Saffier to discuss the Audubon at Home program at the June 18 meeting of the Falls Township Board of Supervisors.

Saffier explained how the Audubon at Home program, through the Audubon Society, guides local municipalities to encourage residents in creating a healthy and sustainable environment for both birds and people at their homes.

According to www.pa.auduob.org, the program provides tools for a municipality to engage its residents, schools and business to make more ecologically-friendly decisions, which will help educate residents of all ages to become stewards of nature. 

“In so many ways we lost the connection to nature,” Saffier said. “Kids today are plugged in and don’t go out as much.”

Wes  Plaisted, EAC chair, said that the EAC will work with the Audubon Society in implementing the program. Saffier said that the only township staffing needed for the program would be fore installing special Bird Town signage and occasional special parks projects, such as creating a habitat garden.

Addressing Falls supervisor Jeffery Rocco’s question about the apparent Canadian geese problem in the township, Saffier responded that the program could also help educate and find an environmental solution.

According to Rocco, the township spends approximately $15,000 per year on geese removal.

After the presentation, the board voted to approve the $450 application fee for the program. Public educational events are expected to follow.

According to Saffier, there are at least 19 municipalities in Bucks County that are designated as Bird Towns, including Yardley, Lower Makefield and Newtown.