The North American Bird Conservation Initiative (NABCI) presented the 2022 David Pashley Award to Todd Fearer during the Appalachian Mountains Joint Venture management board meeting in Blacksburg, Virginia on 28 November 2023. The David Pashley Award was created by the U.S. NABCI Committee to memorialize and honor one of its founding members, Dr. David Pashley, who served as the first NABCI Coordinator, and to recognize excellence and significant contributions by current U.S. NABCI Committee and Subcommittee participants. Dr. Pashley was instrumental in creating NABCI in 1999 as a forum to facilitate collaborative partnerships to advance biological, social, and scientific priorities for North American bird conservation. Dr. Fearer serves as the Coordinator for the Appalachian Mountains Joint Venture partnership, and highlights of his contributions to NABCI include serving as the longtime representative of Migratory Bird Habitat Joint Ventures on the U.S. NABCI Steering Committee, leadership on the Private and Working Lands Subcommittee, and envisioning and seeing through to completion the NABCI Strategic Plan (2022 – 2027) with the goal of defining U.S. NABCI’s role in guiding a coordinated response to the loss of 3 billion birds within the NABCI partnership and broader conservation community.
Todd Fearer receives the 2022 David Pashley Award from Emily Jo Williams (American Bird Conservancy) on behalf of the U.S. NABCI Steering Committee. The award features artwork by Appalachian artist John Furches.