Bird Town - New Britain Borough, Pennsylvania

New Britain Borough is a Bird Town

The Bird Town program was first established as an Audubon PA initiative in 2010 to work in partnership with local municipalities and like-minded organizations to promote community-based conservation actions to create a healthier, more sustainable environment for birds, wildlife, and people.

Today, the Bird Town program is administered by Bird Town Pennsylvania. This revitalized and expanding grassroots program provides tools for municipalities to engage, educate and empower their residents, schools, and businesses to make more positive social, economic, and ecologically friendly decisions and promotes a culture of conservation where everyone is a potential steward of nature in their own backyard and beyond.

Restoration of natural systems and native plant communities for birds, butterflies, and other wildlife, on both private and public lands, has positive impacts on our communities including creating a healthier environment, reducing stormwater runoff, greenhouse gases and maintenance time, increasing property values and building community pride.

Please visit the Bird Town Pennsylvania website at https://birdtownpa.org/ to learn much more about the Bird Town program.

New Britain Borough takes pride in being a Bird Town since 2013. A volunteer Bird Town Committee was established and given responsibility for the Bird Town program in the Borough. The Committee’s responsibilities included the following:

To promote conservation and community-based actions that create a healthier, more sustainable environment for both birds and people.
To educate Borough residents about the importance of native ecosystems to birds, pollinators, and other wildlife.
To encourage the restoration and creation of native plant communities on both public and private properties throughout the Borough.
To encourage Borough residents and property owners to create healthy habitat for birds, insects, and other wildlife in their landscapes by removing invasive exotic species, planting native species, reducing pesticide use, conserving water, protecting water quality, and adopting other healthy-yard practices.

Over the years, the Bird Town Committee held multiple educational workshops and table events to promote the goals of the Bird Town program and to encourage Borough residents to register their properties with Audubon’s “Bird-Friendly Habitat Network.” All of the Borough’s public spaces have been registered in that network, as well. The Bird Town Committee also promoted citizen-science initiatives such as the Audubon Christmas Bird Count, Project FeederWatch, and the Great Backyard Bird Count. It promoted the use of bird and pollinator-friendly native plants on both privately and publicly owned properties in the Borough, held numerous native plant sales, sponsored an annual native plant pop-up park at the Town Center, and landscaped the Borough office and Burkart Hall properties with native plants.

In 2023, the Borough’s Bird Town Committee was re-constituted as an Environmental Advisory Council. The EAC is now responsible for implementing and overseeing the Bird Town program in the Borough.

Links to Resources:

Bird Town Pennsylvania Website

https://birdtownpa.org/

Bird Town Pennsylvania Facebook Page (Bird Town Forum)

https://www.facebook.com/groups/birdtownforum

Bird Town Pennsylvania eNewsletter (“Bird Beat”)

https://birdtownpa.org/bird-beat-newsletters/

Other Publications

Habitat for Birds and Wildlife