Who We Are
The Atlantic Coast Joint Venture (ACJV) is a regional partnership that collaborates to restore and sustain native bird populations and habitats throughout the ACJV region. The ACJV is comprised of 16 state wildlife agencies from Maine to Florida and the territory of Puerto Rico; federal and regional habitat conservation agencies; and other organizations that share our vision. The partnership is currently focused on one of the most imperiled habitats in the ACJV region – coastal marshes and the suite of vulnerable birds that depend on them. The ACJV is leading a coordinated marsh restoration and protection effort across the flyway to ensure that the partnership can achieve its vision.
Our Vision
Maintaining thriving populations of native birds, valued by people, throughout the Atlantic Flyway.
Where We Work
Coastal Marsh Habitat
Coastal marshes are among the most important habitats for birds along the Atlantic Coast. At the same time, these habitats and the birds they support are highly threatened by sea level rise and urbanization. The ACJV encompasses the full extent of US Atlantic coastal marshes, and is well-positioned to coordinate strategic marsh restoration and protection efforts throughout the flyway.
Other Habitats
Although our main focus lies is on coastal marshes, we continue to engage and support our partners on high priority projects that advance conservation for the hundreds of other native waterfowl, shorebird, waterbird, and landbird species that rely on inland wetlands, forests, shrublands, etc.
How We Work
We are pursuing our coastal marsh conservation goals by focusing on three flagship species that represent this habitat: American Black Duck, Black Rail and Saltmarsh Sparrow. Our partnership is working to develop species-specific population and habitat objectives, prioritize potential threats facing each species, and craft actions to remove or reduce those threats. We work to protect, restore and enhance critical habitats that sustain populations of these and other marsh-dependent fish and wildlife species. Our habitat work provides many strong and direct benefits to people by reducing flooding, improving water quality, and supporting tourism, recreation, hunting, and fishing.
We achieve our goals through three primary strategies:
Work Through Partners
The power of our Joint Venture lies in our diverse partners. We inspire coordinated conservation across the flyway by telling the story of our collective work; providing tools and resources to help us work more efficiently; and adding capacity and value to the efforts in place to save our focal species and coastal marshes.
Develop Science
Our science-based tools help direct the most appropriate conservation actions to strategic places on the ground. These include:
- Population and habitat objectives for our focal species and habitats;
- Decision-support tools and priority area maps to target conservation action;
- Conservation planning documents for focal species and coastal marsh habitat to guide work on the ground.
Restore and Protect Habitat
We work through federal and other grant programs like the North American Wetland Conservation Act (NAWCA), National Coastal Wetlands Grants Program, National Fish & Wildlife Foundation, State Wildlife Grants, and Great Lakes Restoration Initiative grants to help partners obtain approximately $20 Million per year (five-year average), which conserve more than 46,500 acres per year, and leverage an additional $47 Million in funding each year for land protection and habitat restoration projects.